DVD Writer plays audio CD, but not DVD / CD-Rom / DVD-Ram.

[gudguy]

May I preface this with the fact that I am new to this. I’ve previously muddled through other computer woes I have met along the way, but I am stumped on this one and hope that you can help me with this frustrating issue. Being new to DVD (and for that matter CD-Drives) I haven’t even tried burning until I can get past this problem.

Drive Installation History:

In the beginning there was:
CD-ROM: Drive E: AOpen (Master) (Sec. IDE)
CD-Writer: Drive F: LG GCE 8481B (Slave) (Sec. IDE)
No problems with either drive (that I knew of…)

Then I was quickly intrigued by home movie authoring so I removed the CD-ROM drive and installed:
DVD-Writer: Drive E: LG GCS 4040B (Master) (Sec. IDE)
CD-Writer: Drive F: LG GCE 8481B (Slave) (Sec. IDE)

Next, since the CD Writer still recognizes CD-Rom’s (and plays audio CD’s), I loaded PowerDVDXP 4.0 (and, I assume, the DVD Decoder)

I have checked the firmware on the LG GCS 4040B DVD-Writer.
It is already the latest (A300).
This is actually the second 4040B DVD-Writer that I have tried.
(I returned the first thinking it was the Writer)

Windows XP correctly identifies the hardware and the drives are indicated in the “My Computer” screen. I have also tried uninstalling and reinstalling by the device manager and have also set both Drive controllers to DMA mode. I have even played with the BIOS settings: Auto detect drives, etc. Nothing seemed to have an effect on the following;

PROBLEM: (or opportunity for those optimists in the crowd):

DVD Writer will play audio CD’s, but it locks up when trying to read a DVD / CD-Rom or the supplied DVD-Ram disc.

I tried:
1. Memorex 48X CD-R that I burned on my LG GCE 8481B CD-Writer,
2. The DVD-Ram disc that came with the DVD-Writer (Maxell),
3. and various OEM software discs (including the PowerDVDXP 4.0 disc that was bundled with the unit)

I get the exact same problem for each type of disc.

Symptoms: Drive light blinks, hard-drive light blinks, “disc detected icon” on end of mouse pointer indicates, approximately ten to twenty seconds later the drive light speeds up and stays in a “locked” mode with the CPU seemingly consumed by this task.

I have searched many forums and and none have provided a link to a similar problem. It may be something simple that I have missed, but I am overwhelmed at the possible failure modes. Decoder, XP Registry, BIOS…

Please help, I really would like to give this medium a try…

[budz]

Try putting your cd writer on PRIMARY SLAVE. Leave your dvd burner on SECONDARY MASTER. I tried putting my cd burner and dvd rom on the SECONDARY IDE. Then my burner wouldn't do disc to disc copying. So I put back my dvd-rom/cd to PRIMARY SLAVE. Cd burner is SECONDARY MASTER. No problems now. I know some say putting a cdrom/dvdrom on the same ide will cause a slow down. This set up works for me. Hope this was helpful to you. I don't have a dvd burner yet. I'm still debating what brand to purchase and doing more research before I buy one.

[RabidDog]

on ide cables the term slave and master are misleading it should be A + B drive. There is no inequality except the master (A) will be read for boot device b4 the slave. I would check your cables and swap them out (IDE). You may have older cable 33/66 ide which has issues with newer drives. If nothing else this means the cables will be securely inserted at each end. I presonally would not do a dvd-2-cD without going via hard disk. most systems have two ide channels, it is considered better to put "slow" cdrom/dvd drives on one channel away from "fast" hard disk on the other channel. Or if possible put things on their own seperate channels. Not hard disc and cd/dvd on same channel, as that will slow the hard disc to udma/33 or less!

[gudguy]

I did not change cables or master/ slave settings (I now do not think it is hardware…)
I downloaded dvdshrink (nice, simple looking, program) that I found suggested for a problem in another forum.

Next, with the drive empty (so it isn’t blinking madly away and crushing my CPU)
I tried looking into my drive, loaded a DVD when prompted, and after a time got the following message .

“The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.
Please insert disk into the selected drive.”

Ok, so it seems like it is a software issue that is holding me up.

What are the system drivers that the message speaks of ?
Where would I find them on my system ?
How do I load the required file system drivers ?
How did I get into this mess ?

PS: I loaded the bundled BHA burning and authoring softwares (Bgold 5, B’sClip, NeoDVD), perhaps that is where my fault lies ? I assume Win XP does not have the required file system drivers resident in it’s software !?