Pioneer's Dead (Sob)

[miketree]

My A05 has started playing up - It won't write properly & sometimes won't read.

It's going back!!!!

[TBoneit]

Just a stray thought, but have you tried the drive in another computer. I have seen windows cause good drives to malfunction, Floppy, CD and DVD drives

Good Luck

[miketree]

Yup - Two PCs one XP one win2k with three types of media.

[hunghuynh]

Is your drive can read and write CD perfect? If yes, your laser sensor inside your DVD writer is bad. That happen with my A04. Good luck.

[miketree]

Good luck? What's that supposed to mean?

[AarontheRipper]

Approx. how many burns did you get out of it before it died?

[miketree]

About 20

[Faustus]

Few questions. 1) does the burn compelete or error? 2) is it not reading even original media? aka not burned?

Just want to get an idea, I've worked with quite a few problems with Pioneer burners. I'm on my second, but I still love 'em.

[miketree]

It seems to read original media OK.
When it burns, sometimes it stops mid burn & sometimes it completes, but fails to verify & won't play.

[txpharoah]

Clean it:

It may be simply just be an accumulation of dust or haze on the laser lens and it may just require cleaning which is quite a simple process. Take out your DVD-R writer.

These instructions are for the Pioneer DVD-R burners. However, it should work just fine on other writers.

1. Unscrew 4 screws on both sides of writer, not the funny looking middle ones!
2. Take of the front mask and the top cover.
3. Unscrew 4 screw on top of the inside cover.
4. Take of the inside cover.
5. Apply a small amount of Isopropyl Alcohol to a cotton bud.
6. Clean the laser lens GENTLY with the wet cotton bud.
7. Dry the lens GENTLY with a dry cotton bud .
8. Reassemble the drive and put back.
9. BURN some MEDIA at 2X/4X

Isopropyl Alcohol is a surgical spirit and is used as a cleaning fluid in the tv and electronics industry it is commonly used in tape head and VHS tape cleaning kits. It is commonly referred to a "rubbing alcohol" and can be bought for mere pennies at your local pharmacy.

Try to use a Q-TIP brand cotton bud. Other brands tend to be more coarse and can scratch your laser eye. The Q-TIP ones also tend to not be furry or leave cotton strings.

If this doesn't work, your drive may be damaged. Damage is usually caused during production or from bad firmware upgrades by the user (especially the hacked ones).

[miketree]

I've only had it 3 months - It has the latest Pioneer Firmware & It's still under waranty. I'm not going to start taking the damn thing to bits.

It's going back!