Is my Sony DRU-510A dead?

[choirislife923]

When I load up a blank TDK DVD-R, it would take a few moments before it would recognize it.

Sometimes, pressed (commercial hollywood) DVDs won't play on it but would run fine on my standalone DVD player.

I just bought a pack of DVD-RWs and when I load them up in DVD Decrypter to burn a DVD (that I created in iDVD on my Mac), I would see at the bottom "Device Not Ready: Incompatible Medium". When I try to pop in DVD-Rs from Memorex, I would get the same thing, which is ironic because those worked in the summer.

Does this sound like a failing laser to you guys?

[thor300]

My ND1300A died in a similar way. First it stopped reading pressed dual layer DVD-ROM, then no more blank/burned DVD and single layer DVD-ROM some weks later. After that again it often had errors even when writing CDs. I guess it will come to full stop soon. I had it checked just after it stopped reading dual layer ROM, the technician said "weak laser, cant fix". So it sounds like failing laser to me.

[choirislife923]

ok, i just called it dead cause there was a sale at MicroCenter (a small compusa-ish chain). It was a OEM DVD+-R dual layer burner for $60, a deal I can't miss. here: http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0178385 for you people who want to get one.

So I got my new drive and everything is going fine now.