NEC ND-4550A - A Weird problem

[wesker]

Hi all

I got an NEC ND-4550A a couple of weeks ago and everything was perfect with it, burnt a few dvds backing up stuff off my hdd etc.

All of a sudden the writer did not recognize any dvd that I put into it including the ones that were actually burnt using it. After several hours of re-trying on and off it recognized a few dvds but not all.
The next day all dvds were recognized again and the drive appeared to have no problems, then some of the dvds were not being recognized again, then they was, then no disk was recognized at all.

I've been going on like this for over a week now, one minute the drive can read any dvd, then it can only read certain ones, then it cant read any, then it can read them all again.. It can go a full day running perfect then it starts again...Its driving me mad !!

Ive tried this drive in XP pro, Win2000 and Linux .. I get the same problems in all three OS's... Ive also changed the ide cable and that makes no difference.

Does anyone know if this drive has any known problems like what I described?
Does the drive sound like its busted?
Is there anything that could be loading up thats causing these problems?

I've had drives go before, usually when they go they go.. I just cant get my head around this.

Any help would be very appreciated, Id like to cover all bases before sending it back.

BTW: cd's work perfectly all the time, Im only getting the problem with dvds.

TIA

[thevoelk]

Is the drive getting too hot? Reading a DVD is a little more sensitive than a CD, and too much heat can cause odd issues.

[wesker]

Is the drive getting too hot? Reading a DVD is a little more sensitive than a CD, and too much heat can cause odd issues.

No, The drive isn't getting hot.

Cheers