Blank DVDs and flashing light on the DVD drive

[timmus]

Picture this: You put a blank DVD-R in your DVD drive. The LED on the front of it flashes as it detects the DVD, but it never stops flashing. All processes that depend on the drive hang, so DeepBurner, etc, doesn't work.

How do you tell whether this is a hardware problem or a software problem, e.g. some vague service running in the background that's fouling up access to the drive? I did reboot my computer but the problem persists. The discs I'm putting in are TY 8x DVD-Rs.

I'm having this problem with a Samsung SH-223B DVD drive (showing as some cryptic "TSSTcorpCDDVDW" in my device list rather than Samsung) that I bought on Newegg a few weeks ago, and I'm about to send the thing back and get a different brand. I'm kind of disappointed this drive is broken already, but I'm willing to consider that it might be a Windows issue. I may try disconnecting the SATA cable and see if it does the same thing when I put a disc in.

Tim

[redwudz]

My Samsung DVDRW shows up as a TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223F, so that's normal. You're just missing the end of the ID. I'm assuming it does this on all blank discs? If so, maybe that is a drive problem. If you listen closely, you may hear the read head seeking. That would be trying to read the disc and thinking it's not blank. That causes the light to flicker. If there are no seeking sounds and the light is flashing at a regular, steady rate, that does sound like a drive problem. But check your cable, just in case and substitute it with a known good one.

What does it do when you put in a burned or commercial disc?

[budz]

What is your motherboard brand and model number?

If you've got a VIA chipset mobo it will cause SATA DVD burners not to work correctly like you've described. Only way would be to use a SATA PCI CONTROLLER card with the SILICON IMAGE 3114 CHIPSET for the SATA DVD burner to work correctly.

If it's a NVIDIA chipset mobo then you'll have to download the latest ide/sata controller chipset drivers from their website. Don't go to the mobo website to download the ide/sata controller chipset drivers.

Also you need to make sure RAID is disabled & SATA is set to IDE in the mobo bios. If this isn't done the SATA DVD burner will not work correctly.

DVDRW manufacturers don't mention compatibility issues/solutions on their websites or on the boxes if it's a retail drive.

[lordsmurf]

TSST = Toshiba/Samsung

[geno55]

I'm having the same issue as the OP. My motherboard is an Asus M2A-VM HDMI, and I recently bought an SH-S223L. I read budz' advice, but my mobo has an AMD chipset, so I don't know what to do or if this drive will even work with it.

I get the flashing light when I put in ANY disc, DVD-R or commercial. An attempt to access the drive at that time results in "Not Responding". I'm running Windows 7 x64, if that helps.

I really appreciate any help.

[lordsmurf]

I'd guess "not"