Suggestions Wanted For Troubleshooting DVD Burner

[clevo]

Can someone help me sort out troubleshooting a DVD burner that no longer reads or writes?

The burner is a Sony DRU 700A. I've had it installed on my PC and working fine for about 10 months. The PC is a 2.4 GHZ PC with 1 GB of RAM running Win XP Home Service Pack 2. The burner has the lastest firmware, VY08.

The burner was working fine up until last week. Then is started burning coasters and can no longer read disks. Nothing was changed on the PC between the time the burner last worked and when it went bad.

Sony Support has told me to do the following:

1. Remove either Nero Burning ROM 6 or Roxio 6. They say these two programs cannot coexist on the same PC. I asked them why they were suggesting removing one of them, since I have had both programs on the computer for 10 months with no problems at all. The answer was it just took a while for the issue to catch up with me.

2. Reconfigure the DVD burner so it is set as as a master. The DVD burner is on the second IDE channel with a third hard drive. Per the Sony manual, I set the DVD burner as a slave. Tech support says to switch it so that the DVD burner is the master.

3. Use different media. I have been using Fuji +R 8X disks for the past two months with no problems. Sony Support has a utility that you use to check your Sony drive http://sony.storagesupport.com/cdrw/diagnostics.htm This utility reported bad media. The tech couldn't explain why the media was now "bad" after working fine for the past two months.

My instinct tells me the burner is dead. I'm going to humor Tech Support and test the driver further this weekend by pulling it out of my PC, and putting it into a PC with a clean XP install (no Nero or Roxio installed), and where it will be the only drive on the second IDE channel.

What do you guys think of the tech support recommendations? Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated on how to solve the problem or what else I can try.

[HARRYSPADGE]

Have you tried cleaning it ?
It may be that the lens is dirty !
Try giving the inside a clean with a gentle blast from a can of compressed air, it may just be some dust on the lens.

If that doesn't work then it sounds like you may be buying a new burner !

[koolaidwa]

hey, that will do more damage then good for the guy


DONT USE COMPRESSED AIR

if ur going clean it, take it aprt (yes voids warranty) so u might wanna just rma it if ur worried, taking it apart and cleaning the lens with a qtip and cleaning solution, i hope someone else tells u this, cause i am not sure what cleaning solution or alcohol u use

but never use a lens cleaner cd disc or shoot coimpressed air in the drive, thats just common sense not too

[HARRYSPADGE]

If you read properly I did say 'a GENTLE blast' !!

Compressed air is used for cleaning camera internals which are far more delicate than a DVD writer so I dont believe it will do any damage if your sensible and use some COMMON SENSE !

And it was only a suggestion, he doesn't have to do it, but I know I would be happy to !

And yes your suggestion is viable too, and may be a better way of cleaning the lens.

You have to realise that some people are not always happy or competent enough to take things apart to clean them !

[Nelson37]

Sony's tech support suggestions are bullshit.

1. Unless you downloaded a major update to one of them, software conflicts do not take 10months to "catch up to you"

2. Unless there has been some change to the hard drive on the same channel, which though possible is highly unlikely if it is still working, this is silly

3. This one has some merit, as disk quality can definitely change as you go thru the spindle.

Have you checked some commercial DVD? R and R date and power cables? Test in different PC an excellent idea, removes virtually all PC-related variables and gives new power and data connections by default.

Gentle cleaning with air something I have done repeatedly for over 10 years on optical drives, has fixed several.

[HARRYSPADGE]

Gentle cleaning with air something I have done repeatedly for over 10 years on optical drives, has fixed several.

Thank you !!!!!

[handyguy]

If youre gutsy you can open it & clean it directly, but try air first.

[clevo]

Thanks for the help. I did try the gentle blast of compressed air, didn't help.

I moved the burner to another PC that has a clean install of Win XP home. This PC does not have either Roxio or Nero installed, so that will eliminate the guess by Sony tech support that the two programs were fighting each other and causing the drive to fail to burn and read disks.

I ran the Sony drive check utility with the drive in the new PC, and it again failed the write test.

Sony tech support had also suggested that I try a different media other than the Fuji DVD+R 8X disks that I have been using with zero problems for the past two months. I'll get some disks tomorrow and run the test again, but I think this burner is dead after only 10 months!

Thanks again for all the help.

Kenn

[budz]

Your SONY dvd burner is a REBADGED LITEON DRIVE.

After uninstalling NERO BURN you should use the NERO CLEAN TOOL or use REGEDIT to delete the AHEAD NERO keys in the windows registry. You can download the NERO CLEAN TOOL from their website. After using the NERO CLEAN TOOL then try reinstalling NERO BURN.

[clevo]

I believe the Sony tech support's contention that having Nero and Roxio installed n the same PC causes conflicts that result in errors on the DVD burner is just plain wrong. By putting the burner in a PC with neither Roxio or Nero, running the test utiliity and having the drive fail, I think I've pretty much proved the drive itself is bad.

If I can't get a replacement or a repair under warranty, I'll open it up and clean the lens as someone else suggested, and if that doesn't help, well then, time for a new drive.

If I was going to get rid of one of the burning softwares, it would probably be Roxio. They have a tool like the Nero tool you mentioned called Roxizap that removes Roxio from the registry. http://www.roxio.com/en/support/kb/ecddvdc/ee6000061.jhtml

Anyway, thanks for the advice.

[Nelson37]

New PC had clean install of XP home? Are you certain master/slave setting correct for cable?

If this drive is under warranty, Sony should replace. Tell them you placed drive in brand new OS install, checked for proper connection, drive test utility failed. Bad drive, no question. Request an RMA number for immediate return, see if cross-ship is available.

Cross-ship highly recommended. They take credit card number, ship replacement drive. You use THEIR PACKAGING (this is the important part) to return drive. They receive drive within time period (usually 15-30 days), no charge on card. You may have to pay shipping, check if replacement is refurbished, may be not worth it.