LiteOn 411s drive doesn't work?

[pixiemom]

Hi guys, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I tried to do a search on LiteOn 411s and it came up with over 250 results but it wouldn't let me look at more than the first page of them (honest! it kept coming up with a blank page after page 1)..... so if this has been addressed before, I'm sorry and I really tried to search before posting.

Here's the situation.

My Liteon 411s worked fine, played all DVD disks smoothly, played most CDs without any problems.

Right after NewYear's, my hard drive crashed. I got a new hard drive and reinstalled everything.

Ever since, the LiteOn drive is not working properly.

Half the CDs inserted into it, stutter and splutter and won't read. Some of them won't even start up at all, and even give an error message that indicates the drive has failed. Yet if I'm patient enough it sometimes will eventually spin up, although it keeps freezing or stuttering throughout.

When I try a DVD, it stutters and splutters and makes watching a DVD impossible.

I have updated the firmware to the latest version. It didn't help.

I'm running winXP Pro, SP1, same as before the crash.

Is there some setting buried deep in the windows settings that needs to be adjusted? I seem to remember having to check something, or uncheck something, long ago when I first had the drive. I didn't do whatever that was when I reinstalled since I don't remember what it was. Can anyone think of what that might have been?

The drive was not in use at the time of the crash, by the way. (I was in the process of rebooting and something went wrong and messed up windows, but was not using the DVD at the time.)

Do I need to get a new drive?

[Baldrick]

Hi guys, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I tried to do a search on LiteOn 411s and it came up with over 250 results but it wouldn't let me look at more than the first page of them (honest! it kept coming up with a blank page after page 1)..... so if this has been addressed before, I'm sorry and I really tried to search before posting.

works fine here to view more pages if I search for liteon 411s. could you test one more time. if it doesn't work which browser are you using?

[pixiemom]

I'm using Firefox.

***
Added: Yep - IE works. Odd that Firefox didn't.

But anyway..... does anyone have any suggestions for me about the 411s?

[OneSickPup]

But anyway..... does anyone have any suggestions for me about the 411s?

It is very difficult to trouble shoot something like this in a forum environment. That is a quite old drive - it may be at the end of it's life cycle. You mention the timing of the hard drive failure and then these problems start. This could be an indication of a marginal power supply. Power problems can cause strange behavior in optical drives. Maybe someone with more hardware knowledge may come along and suggest something. I would probably try replacing the drive if it were me based on how inexpensive drives are these days - not to mention the advancements in drive technology since the 411s. But be patient - someone may come along with a better idea. Good luck.

[ROF]

It may be coincidence that both drives died in such a short span but I also would suspect power issues. Is your system operating normally? Any lockups or programs that simply shut down for no apparent reason? Any oddities at all in system behavior.

[budz]

check out the LITEON FORUM at Cdfreaks.com regarding your 411 drive. i have a 411 drive crossflashed to a 811 drive. i use it more as a reader than a burner.

[Bjs]

This problem relate's to power connection's used at that time .

It may have been the case that the power connector used by the device was on a shared line as used by the hard drive .

Most of these problem's are normally sent to ground , but it depend's on the case design and if it was properly assembled .

Optical drive's are very fussy about there power supply , and if on a shared line , the first point of ground should have been the hard drive's case to pc ... if that for some reason fail's , which is possible ... then the next point of ground become's the optical drive , being closer than the power supply .

This is not the case , should they be on seperate power supply line's , as ground then become's power supply itself .

I have seen a few of these appear over the year's ... we have not seen this occur on unit's not sharing power supply line's as yet .

[pixiemom]

Thanks for the replies so far!

Actually, my Liteon drive is not sharing the same line as the hard drive. It's on the secondary IDE together with the zip drive. The zip drive is fine. In fact, there are NO other problems with the components, no strange lockups, nothing. The Liteon drive is the only problem.

[ROF]

I believe the "line" people are speaking about is the power line not the data line. If the hard drive was first in the chain and the optical second this would explain alot. if not, it may have just been coincidence.

As has been pointed out the drive is aging as a 4x4x2 drive it might well be time to consider replacement with something more modern. The media you are using now will appreciate an up-to-date write strategy.

[pixiemom]

Hmm.... ok.... which of the Liteon drives would you advise me to stay away from, then? Are there any with known problems in burning/playback? I haven't reserached it yet because I was happy with my Liteon until this happened.

[OneSickPup]

Hmm.... ok.... which of the Liteon drives would you advise me to stay away from, then? Are there any with known problems in burning/playback? I haven't reserached it yet because I was happy with my Liteon until this happened.

You may want to research this thread before deciding on the current Lite-On lineup:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=168558

This thread can be quite technical but involves a dialogue between CDFreaks members and a couple of Lite-On employees. It deals with an existing current issue with any 5th or 6th generation Lite-On drive. This lead-in issue only involves DVD-R media (Not DVD+R). It is in the process of being fixed with firmware changes. If you are a DVD+R user - OR - are willing to wait for these firmware changes that are forthcoming - then the 160P6S model would be a good choice. If you insist on a Lite-On and can't wait or whatever - then the 1693S if you can find one is a good versatile drive (older 4th generation Lite-On model). Newegg had them in stock earlier this month but I have not checked recently (assuming you are in the US). Good Luck.

[pixiemom]

Thank you! I can't afford to buy the latest model anyway. I always go for "yesterday's" model, because it's always newer than my current one, bugs have had time to surface and people have figured out ways to deal with them.