DRU500 Burning Probs - Disks not recognized after...

[steppin_razor]

I'm having some very frustrating problems w/ my DRU-500a.

I burn a DVD (I've tried this w/ Nero and with Recordnow Max), it will go to completion w/ a success message. I then put the disk in my drive, but Windows doesn't seem to read it. If I sue the "media info" option w/ Nero, it looks like it reocgnizes there is data there.

Sometimes my drive doesn't recognize it when disks (i.e. even pressed CDs) are put in it. I just get a "please insert disk" message. If I reboot the machine, they are then read.

Any suggestions?

Windows XP Pro
latest 2.0G firmware

[handyguy]

What media you using? I only use Accu media with my Sonys with 100% success rate. But I also keep some Sony media around to test.

[steppin_razor]

What media you using? I only use Accu media with my Sonys with 100% success rate. But I also keep some Sony media around to test.

Actually, I use Accu media for my burning. I've been having a lot of problems lately. A lot of my burns fail @ the end w/ an error (see this thread:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=193678&highlight=
for mroe info).

I started playing w/ my DVD+RW media so that I would stop wasting so many of my DVDs.

The weird thing is that even when I get a successful burn, I often times can't read the disk till I bounce.

I'm thinking about moving my burner to another computer to see if it works better on it.

[steppin_razor]

Just a shameless bump...

[pmcdee]

I'm also the proud owner of a Sony DRU-500a, and having similar difficulties. It may be little consolation, but at least you're not the only one!

I bought the unit almost a year ago, and up until a couple of months ago, it worked perfectly with all the disks I threw at it. Gradually, I started having more and more problems - mainly that disks were no longer being recognised. Rebooting, sometimes several times over, usually overcame the problem.

In frustration I emailed Sony. They suggested I upgrade the firmware to 2.0g, strip off all DVD s/w to just leave RecordNow, uninstall the writer in safe mode and redetect it, and try testing it with Sony approved DVD media.

Not very keen on changing s/w on my PC, I upgraded the firmware to 2.0g. then tried burning a disk. After several reboots, the disk was eventually recognised and written successfully. On the following disk, again after rebooting to get the drive to recognise it, the burn failed. Looking at the disk surface, it would appear that only half the data was written. After that, no matter what I did, the drive failed to recognise any disk at all - DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW and CD-R. (It did however find an ordinary audio CD.) When a disk was inserted, RecordNow reported "Getting ready..." and then "Not ready", even with a Sony DVD+RW!

By this time I really needed a DVD Writer that worked, and so I bought a Pioneer DVR-106. Without any re-configuration of my PC, it worked like a dream. I'd forgotten over the last couple of months that burning a DVD could be so easy. No more rebooting to get the disk detected and all disk types recognised immediately.

A few days later I got access to a relatively new PC with no DVD stuff on it, and installed the DRU-500a. Amazingly it worked. Just like it used to when I first got it. I brought it home again and put it back into my own PC, and it worked there as well! Totally baffled, I emailed Sony to tell them the problem was resolved and that the drive was now working perfectly.

For two days everything was fine, then the problem returned. Looking at the original suggestions from Sony, I tried uninstalling and re-detecting the drive. Eureka, this fixed the problem, and once more all disks were detected. I emailed Sony once more to tell them what was happening. Their response was to ask me to try out the drive in the other PC to see if the fault is intermittent. Unfortunately I don't have access to another PC for to test the drive for several days or weeks. Sony say "Please be informed that the drive simply works or doesn't work." I wish I could agree with them.

So, at the end of all this, may I suggest that you uninstall and re-detect the drive. I'll be interested to hear the result, and maybe Sony will be too. I expect Sony will get back to me on Monday. I'll keep you informed of the response. In the meantime, my DRU-500a continues to work... I'll keep you informed on that as well.

[steppin_razor]

Thanks for taking the time on the response. That sounds very similar to my experiences.

While I really want my DVD burner on my primary desktop machine, I'm thinking about trying to move it to my server in case the issues are derived from software/driver/ASPI type changes.

All in all, this is really diminishing my "love affair" w/ my DRU-500.

[Roll Tide]

Welcome to the club, guys. My DRU500A is in the shop as we speak for this same problem. It took 3 months of fighting Sony to take the drive for repair. All they know to tell you is 1) update the firmware, 2) use Sony-approved media only, and 3) only use the software that came with the drive.

[SaSi]

It appears the SONY drives have a 1 year life expectancy. Mine, as well, is 1 year old.

It recently started giving me Power Calibration errors with some TDK DVD+RWs. Also, while it was happily recording 4x DVD-R at 4x, it recently started recording them at 2x max.

I bought a LiteOn 811s for another PC I use at work and I've been more than happy with it. No problems with s/w, drivers or media. It will even record at 4x on media the SONY discarded as not being DVDRs.

Anyhow, if you've been using it for a year consider it has paid-off, and never buy a SONY product again.

[steppin_razor]

Welcome to the club, guys. My DRU500A is in the shop as we speak for this same problem. It took 3 months of fighting Sony to take the drive for repair. All they know to tell you is 1) update the firmware, 2) use Sony-approved media only, and 3) only use the software that came with the drive.

Typical first level support. unfortunately for me, it has been over a year that I've had my drive so I don't see any warranty or repair service in my crystal ball.

[Roll Tide]

Welcome to the club, guys. My DRU500A is in the shop as we speak for this same problem. It took 3 months of fighting Sony to take the drive for repair. All they know to tell you is 1) update the firmware, 2) use Sony-approved media only, and 3) only use the software that came with the drive.

Typical first level support. unfortunately for me, it has been over a year that I've had my drive so I don't see any warranty or repair service in my crystal ball.

Sorry to hear that. Mine arrived at their service center last week with exactly 10 days of warranty left, so I was lucky.

[pmcdee]

I'm disturbed at how many people are having the same problems as me. Sorry to hear your warranty has expired steppin_razor. That's not good.

Anyway, to update you on progress...

I got an email back from Sony yesterday asking me if I was using the supplied IDE cable and that I should upgrade the firmware. I saw red, and phoned them instead of using email. I had to explain the whole problem twice, but they have now agreed to pick up the unit for repair. Just as well, as my warranty expires today.

So I've now swapped my Pioneer 106 back in, and I'm looking forward to some totally hasske free DVD burning over the next weeks.

[Mark_Venture]

Not sure if its related, but back in September all was fine with my setup and my Sony DRU500A (full system specs HERE) . Then I read on abxzone.com about a new version of the Intel INF Update Utility being released. The one I had installed was "older" so I decided to try the update...

At the time I was making my own "unattended/upgraded" WinXP SP1/hot fixes/etc... CD (ok too big for CD its on a DVD+RW).

After upgrading the Intel INF drivers to the new one, my burns said they were successfull, but the discs had problems. Trying to install Windows resulted in various intermittant file copy problems.

The next couple of burns, I added the Data Verify step, and it always failed a different spots of the verify step. Tried different discs, same problem. Backed down to Intel INF utility 5.00.1003 using -over all switch and DVD burn problems are gone, even when using those "suspect" discs.

I have stuck with that older Intel INF utility version and all has been fine since.

[mob]

does it make a sort of clicking nise when it attempts to read the disc?

it happened to me one time when i tried to play one of my dvds.. it made some wierd clicking noise and wouldnt load the dvd...

it never happened to me again after that though, so i dont know.

[twen]

I bought this drive not too long after it came out and never given me any problem until (I think) I upgraded to firmware g. It basically has problem with RW discs, especially old ones, be it CD-RW or DVD+RW (Verbatim is the only brand I use for DVD since I bought the drive).

It will take several tries to detect a RW disc even if it only been written once. For CD-R and DVD+R it has no problem (because they are new). Even if it does recognize the RW disc it will take a loooong time.

Then I upgraded to h, still the same. Maybe even worse because now it burns 4x DVD+R showing around 15 min. until it reaches 10% then it'll drop to around 28 minutes.

I e-mailed Sony but nobody return my mail (I guess they've heard enough from you guys ).

Interesting that it worked by re-detecting it again.. I'll try that first. Also, if it works in another PC... I might reformat my HD this weekend... it's due for a clean start anyway, too many junks been in and out... (usually do it once every 6 months to regain the speed...)

[Popee]

I own a Sony DRU-500AX, that is just under a year old. It is now at Sony in San Jose, CA being repaired/replaced.

I too was having detection problems so I searched for answers and found that a lot of people have been having problems with the Sony DVD writers.
My deck would read/write a CD with no problem, but would choke on DVD's, even original movie DVD's. I believe the problem to be a bad laser pickup. When I spoke to support at Sony, they confirmed there are 2 separate pickups, one each for CD and DVD.

I will update everyone on how the repair/replacement goes.

[johnnyz]

I love this forum very much because everyone gives useful information in there reply posts.
I have my SONY DRU500ax at 2003.3.3, some days before I got Power Calibration errors, discs recognized as 4x media but when start to lead-in the Power Calibration error appears, I tried to upgrade my firmware to 2.0h, but I think it's worse, because I get some other errors than Power Ca.. error. I read some posts in this forum, sb. told me I should open my drive and clean the lens, I didn't do that, I just opened my PC, uninstalled my SCSI card, and changed DRU500ax to second IDE channel master.It really worked, dru500ax was re-recognized by WinXP, and using nero 6.3.0.3, I recorded 7 discs continuously, no one failed.
I think dru500ax will get more power supply after I uninstaledl the SCSI card, and change to master will make it work better(I dono why).
But I'm not saying that SONY is good, I think I'll buy a pioneer dual 8X recorder next time, not SONY's.

[johnnyz]

Another advice: You should DO FIX your drive with SCREWS!! Before I fix it, there were lots of noise inside the drive like a helicopter! I think the lens can't work properly because of the shake, so you'll get some errors.
After I fixed the drive, it runs very smoothly and quietly, so I think I made a big big mistake that I didn't fix my drive!

[Bob W]

My DRU500a died after about four months and some 200 or more burns with the same problem except it also stoped burning as well.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Mine died after 8 months.