NEC ND2500A Blank DVD insterted changes to a CD Drive

[Abe468]

Hi, I've had an NEC ND2500A for a few months now, and for some reason it's been giving me problems lately. I can't get the drive to read DVD's anymore..Here's what i've tried so far:
Blank Memorex DVD+R 4x - Drive Icon changes to CD Drive
Blank Ridata DVD+R 4x - Drive Icon changes to CD Drive
Previously burnt Ridata DVD+R 4x with avi files on it - Reads fine somtimes
Store-Bought DVD (Hajime no Ippo Vol 1) - Plays fine

I have a +RW, but I didn't want to take the time to format it with InCD to test. I use only two programs for burning, Nero 6.0, which when I hit Disc Info detects the media in the drive as a DVD+R w/ 4483 MB Free Space. However, the other program I use for burning is Alcohol 120%. Usually, I don't need it, and I probably wouldn't have noticed this problem if it weren't for the fact that some of the files I have are .mds and I don't think Nero supports these image files. So when I try to burn the mds file in Alcohol 120 it says Waiting for Disc and detect my DVD+R as an "Empty Disc (CD)"

I have 2 Optical Drives, the NEC w/ normal firmware (1.06 i think) and a Lite-On JLMS XJ-HD166S. Both are supposed to play DVD's and CD's. Just for some comparison, the Lite-On:
Blank Media - Drive Icon stays the same, keeps normal label of DVD Drive, doesn't detect anything in the drive
Previously burnt Ridata DVD+R 4x with avi files on it - I usually use this drive to play these files, and works fine
Store-Bought DVD - Plays Fine (asked me for a region or something though (playing DVD in Cyberlink powerdvd 5.0) I think I installed something w/ RPC1..I hope when I selected Region 1 it didn't reset the rpc1 patch or whatever. I don't really remember what the whole rpc1 thing was or why i installed it, lol..It seemed important at the time

I had browsed around on another forums archives and some people said it might be something about the laser needing cleaning. Funny how my lite-on is older and yet it has no problems. In addition to the icon changing and alcohol 120 not being able to burn the file, I also notice that sometimes I can't open DVD's with files burnt on them. It worked when I tested it tonight, but last night it wasn't working. So any ideas on what I can do? I had heard something about a CD/DVD lens cleaner. Is this is a hardware issue or software misconfiguration? I don't know if I've always had this problem, as I've only recently been using Alcohol 120 and haven't tried burning a DVD w/ it until tonight.


On a side note, I thought I'd offer the reason for using Alcohol w/ DVD. I have this family video on a DVD-R and no matter what I do, I can't seem to copy it. I tried used DVD Decryptor and I tried using Nero's DVD Copy, but apparently there is a .BUP file that isn't valid. I tell Nero to ignore it, but I can't play my burnt DVD. I can however play the original DVD-R. I decided to make an image of the file using Alcohol, then mount the image to see if it plays correctly in PowerDVD, and then if it did, I would burn it onto a DVD. This is where I'm stuck currently. Even if I wasn't doing this however, I would like to make sure that my setup is fully functioning. Sorry if this is getting a little long, so any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Abe

[Abe468]

I've gotten like 40 views and no comments...maybe it was too long and people didn't want to bother reading. Anyway, I read up a little on the RPC1 stuff and figured it out, I don't really have a need for it, but my lite-on is now setup w/ dvd region killer. Anyway, before I go off topic and make this post just as long, I'm going to go to Best Buy today and grab a CD/DVD lens cleaner I think. Before I do though, I wanted to know are there any dangers in using one? Can it do more bad than good? Is it suggested to use these on my drives anyway? Just get a general opinion on these before I use it, since I don't want to get one and then find it killed my drives. Thanks for any comments

[noki]

Hi, I've had an NEC ND2500A for a few months now, and for some reason it's been giving me problems lately. I can't get the drive to read DVD's anymore..

between the time it was working and now what did you install (hard and soft) and/or modify on your PC?

have a +RW, but I didn't want to take the time to format it with InCD to test.

you don't format anything; just burn and erase afterwards.

Alcohol 120%. Usually, I don't need it, and I probably wouldn't have noticed this problem if it weren't for the fact that some of the files I have are .mds and I don't think Nero supports these image files

delete Alcohol and convert MDS to ISO or BIN with freeware

it might be something about the laser needing cleaning

don't think so.

[Abe468]

Thank you for replying, first off.
Modifications to PC (Hard) - None that I can think of. We added some networking things, but nothing was modified on my computer. I believe the last hardware installed was the NEC ND2500A. Or actually, I think I upgraded my video card to an MSI 5900XT after I got the DVD Burner, so that would be the only hardware change.

Modifications to PC (Soft) - I'm assuming you mean drivers/firmware, right? For applications, I have installed and uninstalled many, and since I don't know exactly when this problem started (I just noticed it now, since Nero was and still is working.) I've never needed to burn a DVD with another application up until now. However, even if it is functioning, I'd like to get it to show up as a DVD Drive or DVD+/-RW instead of a CD Drive.
Firmwares - Haven't touched anything for a long while, still using old 1.06 firmware.
Drivers - drivers for my video card are all I can think of. I do remember having some nforce2 driver problems with the IDE. I think to get it working I had used winrar to take out the IDE section of the 3.13 drivers and then used the 2.45 IDE drivers for my Asus A7N8X Del Rev 2.0 mobo. That's one software change that may seem revelant. I remember having issues and having to uninstall 3.13's and stuff. I'm not sure if that was before I got the NEC or not. Anyway, I do know that I made the change to 3.13 w/ 2.45 IDE driver after I got the NEC. Hope that wasn't confusing.

I like Alcohol 120%, so I'd prefer to keep using it. I like having my games on my HDD so I don't have to worry about switching CD's on my optical drives, and Alcohol's interface. I figure there was a reason why it only had .mds available w/ the settings I was using, maybe not though. It might only allow the MDS image when your burning a DVD to an image file.

About the laser needing cleaning. I had seen the same problem, or close to the same problem, i was having in the Windriver's Archive forums. In one thread it suggested lens cleaning, in another it was never solved it seems. Here are the links:
http://forums.windrivers.com/archive/index.php/t-62524
http://forums.windrivers.com/archive/index.php/t-61047

I have one other question. Can those CD/DVD lens cleaning discs do any harm to the drive? If not, it would be worth a try to use it. Though that might not be the issue since I can play store-bought DVDs, burn DVDs with Nero, and sometimes view burnt DVDs. Just under My Computer it's detected as a CD drive when blank dvd's are inserted.

I figure the problem is due to 1 of 3 things:
- Drive lens is dirty
- nforce2 mobo's driver configuration is messed up
- maybe I should update the NEC firmware w/ Herrie's or w/ the 1.07 version found on NEC's German site.

lol, this became a long post again. I probably shouldn't have replied to my own thread so soon. sorry. Thanks for the reply,
Abe

[noki]

Hi Abe,
by "soft" I meant software. from the sound of it a lot of it went on. what you might have installed or uninstalled might be contributing to your situation. don't know cuz I don't know what you installed /uninstalled.

I do remember having some nforce2 driver problems with the IDE. I think to get it working I had used winrar to take out the IDE section of the 3.13 drivers and then used the 2.45 IDE drivers for my Asus A7N8X Del Rev 2.0 mobo.

very, very confusing. Your video (nforce2) has little if anything to do with your IDE channels. SO I really don't know what you are refering to when you say you had video driver problems with the IDE . WinRAR is a compression prog which again has nothing to do with your IDE .
Sounds like you did quite a bit hardware and software-wise, and unfortunately I am at a lost for might have happened to your PC cuz nothing you have related to me makes (hardware) sense.

Can those CD/DVD lens cleaning discs do any harm to the drive

not usually. friends of mine use them on their CD writers. should be the same for DVD.

[Abe468]

Lol, sorry about that. My Video card is an MSI 5900XT w/ it's own Nvidia Detonator drivers (nothing to do w/ my IDE) My motherboard is an Asus A7N8X Del Rev 2.0 mobo, using the nforce2 chipset and drivers from Nvidia. Here's how the whole driver thing was. I originally had Asus Nforce2 Drivers (for the motherboard, not the video card) which were considered to be outdated. People reccommended that I update to 3.13 from Nvidia. However, after I updated I had problems with the IDE driver, therefore I went back to the old Asus driver. Later, after I got my NEC I ran into some trouble with other things (don't remember) and someone again reccommended I udpate my driver. I told them of the issue I had last time so they told me to unzip the driver w/ Winrar, and leave out the Audio and IDE folders. In doing so, the setup program for the nforce2 3.13 Driver installation would not install any IDE or Audio drivers. Then I was to extract only the IDE folder from the nvidia 2.45 drivers and manually update the IDE controller through device manager. After doing this, everything seemed to be working correctly. However, I do not know whether my problem may have originated here or not, and I just never noticed it. I hope you understand this better. Basically, the nforce drivers are a chipset driver for the motherboard, which do affect the IDE connections.
Thanks again,
Abe

[Edit] Some software that I can think of that may have messed w/ CD drivers - I installed Blindwrite a while back, I forget my reason for doing so, but it ended up that it wouldn't do what I wanted so I promptly removed it. I do remember that it had installed some kind of driver thing however. I also remember The Core Media Player installed some kind of extra driver/feature or something. I installed Alcohol 120% too. I think I have some things to go with that, like ClonyXXL and Alcoholer when I want to put backup images of games onto my HDD. At one time or another I had CloneCD, I just can't find any traces of it anywhere. I have installed codecs (DivX 5.2, Xvid 1.01, latest ffdshow, an mkv/ogm playback pack). I've had DVD Genie from a long time ago, but I don't remember ever using it, and it's probably an outdated version, I just haven't gotten around to uninstalling it.. I have DVD Decryptor and DVD2One. umm, those seem like the most important that might affect my system in some adverse way. Oh, I have Dameware NT Utilities..I can explain the reason why I have this, but it might take a while. I think that installs something. (i'm just going to Start>All Programs and looking at program groups towards the the third column)
Here's a list: QuickPar, AviSynth 2.5, Cheating-Death, Zoom Player, TVTool, Networx, Trillian, Gspot, Vobsub, and the rest is kinda old. Now that I think about it, I was using TVTool and Zoom Player to configure TV-Out just the other day, I don't see how this would affect my DVD burner though. That's the most recent changing of software and settings that I can think of.