Sony dru 510-a problem with reading discs

[batorideikou]

I have a Sony dru 510-a and up until about a month ago I never had a problem with it at all. Then, about June it started coastering DVDs with Nero on occasion, then by July it got so bad that it was every other DVD giving a "write error" with Nero. I bought a new spindle of DVDs around the same time this started happening, so I thought maybe it was the DVDs (even though I always use TDK DVD+Rs). And so ultimately I decided to get the newer firmware on Sony's site like a week ago now. Now I don't know if this was before or after I got the fw upgrade, but the drive started sticking whenever I'd go to put the tray back in on occasion sometimes it'll stick like a cm or 2 on the way in, sometimes it'll stick close to the drive, and to the drive it's like the disc is already in, it tries to read it when the tray is stuck. So in addition to this, lately I've been having to reinsert the disc like 10-15 times to get it to see that there's a disc in the drive (this includes blanks, DVDs, CDs, everything). I downgraded the firmware afterward back to like 1.0d in hopes that it was that'd fix it and it didn't. I also sprayed it out with canned air, I stuck the straw inside and sprayed in and out, in retrospect I don't know if that was such a good idea, but I cannot figure out why this is happening all the sudden. Any ideas about this? I didn't have any problems with this till recently, and it worked perfectly before. Also, let me make something clear, once the disc is read, everything goes well, I haven't had a coaster with other programs since, Nero I think is the problematic thing as far as erroring burning, I've used DVD Decrypter, Alcohol 120%, CloneDVD and Veritas RecordNow since and all have been okay. As far as the drive not reading the discs, I have no clue, like I said, so any help at all would be appreciated. The damn thing's a Sony, it should work!

[Pisces225]

I have your drive bro and it can be picky about media.

I've found that any -R disc has a 90% chance of failing in Nero due to a 'power calibration error'. The problem is not Nero's however. If you try with the same 'failing media', Tmpeg Author will make coasters as well, but doesn't say why.

I honestly don't know why Nero gives the "power calibration error" as I highly doubt it's anything to actually do with power (I built my box and my supply is more than robust enough for what it's doing).

I've found the solution was to use only +R discs like you mentioned you were using. You didn't say specifically, but when you blamed it on your DVD's is that because you picked up -Rs?

Also, I actually have the DRU-410 or something it was (I forget now), which as I received it wasn't able to be upgraded and isn't supported by Sony. I wanted a firmware upgrade and had to hack it. I did, and it's fine (considers itself a 510 now, fully upgradeable with Sony's newest firmware upgrades as they're released but was cheaper than buying a 510A to start with, muhahaha) in all respects except that this drive absolutely DESPISES -R media!

Oh, and oddly enough it started like it did for you... very slowly at first. I make coasters 100% of the time now with -R media no matter what brand or burn speed or application. Kinda sucks as I believe that most set top players like -R media better. My set top happens to plays +R perfectly every time so the fact that my drive won't deal with -R media isn't too upsetting, they're cheaper usually anyway!

[Pisces225]

Oh, and there's no problem blasting your drive with air like you mentioned. I'm sure it appreciated it.