Is my DVD burner going bad?

[jxsam1@yahoo.com]

Hi all,

I think my burner is going bad but before I buy a new one, I wanted to run this by couple of experts here.

I have a Pioneer DVR-105 which I bought about 2.5 years ago. It has the latest firmware and actually Pioneer has not released a firmware for this drive for the longest time (1.33).

The burner burns DVD-R fine and also I can read DVD's and CD's without issue.

The problem is with DVD-RW media. I have tried multiple type of DVD-RW blanks and no luck. It just does not recognizes that. I put a blank DVD-RW disc and the drive does not detect that. DVDINFOPro reports it as drive not being ready. Windows usually automatically asks me what to do when I put a disc in the drive but in the case of DVD-RW it does nothing. Also, I remember this happened once before and I bought a laser cleaner and that seemed to fix the issue several months ago but now the laser cleaner does work.

I have tried the following DVD-RW media:

Fuji 2X
Ritek 4X
GQ (Fry's brand) 2X
TDK 2X

Any ideas? Do you think I should call Pioneer to get it replaced (if still under warranty :P)? Or should I just buy a new one... I'm thinking of the Pioneer 109 that was just released.

[macleod]

well, I believe the firmware is what allows it to "recognize" certain media.

Have you tried DVDdecrypter and Nero to see what they do when you insert the media.

It really sounds like the firmware isnt allowing it to recognize the dvdrw. I wouldnt say the drive is going bad, just that it doesnt recognize rw media.

I had the A05 and loved it. It died a few months back on me. You could try to clean the lens, but I really think it is a Firmware issue.

[jxsam1@yahoo.com]

thanks mcleod...

I guess you are partially right, probably the firmware does not allow the newer type of media! And I guess I partially have the answer, I am using 4X DVD-RW and I think the 105 drive can only burn on 2X DVD-RW. My guess is that it's not recognizing that type of media. I went back and found a Fuji and TDK DVD-RW and those works fine or so it seems for now.

Can anyone confirm of this issue? That older drives can't use these newer media? In my case Pioneer 105 using the new 4X DVD-RW by Ritek?

[Quantum]

The standard changed for 4X DVD-RW and isn't compatible on the old 2X burners. This applies to DVD-RW only. The 4X DVD+RW will be backwards compatible on old 2.4X DVD+RW burners.

[jxsam1@yahoo.com]

thanks quantum...

I also checked Ritek's compatibility chart and indeed the 4X DVD-RW does not work with my old burner. Oh well.. time to get another one fairly soon.

[Riccardom]

I have the same problem: can write every 2x -RW media but it doesn't accept a new TDK 4x -RW.
Also some minor problems with certains 8x -R media.
I still have an old firmware (1.21 if i'm not wrong) but from what you said it doesn't seem that a firmware upgrade can solve the problem.
Or it worth a test ?

Riccardom