What happened to my drives?

[johnsees]

I have weirdness happening with my drives (Lite-On 1633s/1653s and Sony DRU-820a):

They no longer detect when I put a disk in (blank or full, CD-R/RW, or DVD), even though the Device Managers are set to auto detect. They used to autodetect (started playing whatever music or movie was on the disk as soon as I inserted it).

Also, if I put a blank disk in, and double-click the drive in My Computer, it says "(drive) is not accessible. Incorrect function." The system (WinXP SP2) also will not allow me to copy anything to a blank disk. (If I try, it gives me the same error message.) I've used Windows to copy files to CDs plenty of times before.

Windows will recognize a disk that has data on it when I double-click the drive in My Computer, it just doesn't recognize the blank ones.

My burning applications seem to work just fine when I put a blank disk in, the problem is just with WinXP.

I went into the Device Manager, the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, and deleted both items that were labeled "Secondary IDE channel." (Both my DVD drives are on that channel.) But when I rebooted, nothing had changed. (I did see the system recognize and re-install both drives on boot-up.)

I'm not sure, but this may have started after I installed Nero 6. I uninstalled it before uninstalling the controllers, but nothing's changed.

If anyone has any ideas about this, I'd really appreciate it.

John

[aedipuss]

should probably be a stickey on this one. try a net search for remove upper and lower filters. delete all such filters from your registry and then reboot.

[redwudz]

aedipuss probably has it right. And when you uninstall Nero, you should run the NeroClean Tool as Nero leaves remnants that can cause problems. You can get it on Nero's site: http://ww2.nero.com/nero6/eng/General_Clean_Tool.html

I wouldn't install InCD from Nero either, it can cause problems sometimes.

[johnsees]

Well, I found the process on MS website, and made the registry changes, but it didn't fix anything. And, actually, when I searched for remove upper and lower filters, every entry I found was someone saying that removing them didn't fix their problem.

I'll try the NeroClean, if I can download it. (You know, after I first installed Nero, I uninstalled InCD; I guess that caused my problems.)

Thanks, guys.

[johnsees]

I ran the clean tool. I suppose it cleaned out all the Nero junk, but didn't fix my problem.

Hope somebody has some other ideas!

[budz]

Brand of dvd media you are using?

[johnsees]

The DVD-Rs are Memorex on the spindle; been using them for over a year. The DVD+RWs are memorex also, only been using them since the end of May, same time I installed Nero. I use lots of different brands of CD-R/RW.

[The Miracle Man]

It might also be possible that cd recording has been disabled for that drive or with the AutoPlay feature? I'm no expert but it might be worth a shot. Just right click on the drive in question under My Computer, click properties, and click the AutoPlay tab, make your adjustments there. That should help the auto play issues. As for using windows to directly record to cd, you can only have 1 cd burner enabled at a time to be the burning drive. The tab for Recording will allow you to choose the drive you need. Hope this helps.

[Timmychuck]

This happen to me one time.

TRY THIS
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

[johnsees]

Miracle Man, you were on the right track: neither of my drives was designated as the one to record to. (How in the world did that happen?) HOWEVER... after I designated one, it no longer gives me the "drive not accessible..." message. But it still doesn't see my blank disk. When I try to copy a file to it, it says there is no disk in the drive. (Tried it with 2 different kinds of CD.) ??????

And, no matter what I do with the Properties/Autoplay tab, it still doesn't auto-anything.

Timmychuck, I tried your idea, and it didn't fix anything.

Sorry to take so long getting back to you guys, but I didn't receive an email telling me I had messages.
Thanks.

[Timmychuck]

Sorry that didn't work for you. Just want ask you if you try updating you your
firmware on your drive sometimes it resets stuff, or you try System restore?

get your firmware here, just look for your drive.


http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php

[johnsees]

Well, it's just getting weirder by the minute! (By the way, both my drives recently had the firmware updated to the most recent.) Sonic Record Now is telling me I don't have any burners on my system; 2 days ago I used that program to copy a CD. And when I try to use Windows to copy a file to a CD, instead of telling me there's no disk in the drive, now it opens Windows Media Player to do the burning! (I didn't even know Media Player could burn! I thought it just played!) And then Media Player tells me my disk isn't good.

I can't think of anything I've done in the last day to result in these changes in Windows and Sonic. I've removed each of the drives one at a time, and checked the cable connections, and uninstalled both the drives and the IDE APA/ATAPI controllers in the Device Manager. And, since things seem to be changing, I did a full system scan with Norton Antivirus. Oh, and I tried System Restore, but, as usual, it didn't do anything.

I don't really want to reinstall Windows.

Any other ideas, anybody?

[budz]

Remove SONIC RECORD NOW after that RUN REGEDIT and remove any other SONIC RECORD NOW registry entries in windows. Remove any other CD/DVD burning software as well. Use NERO CLEAN TOOL after you uninstall NERO BURN. Reboot the pc and see if your drives show in BIOS then in windows. Then install NERO BURN again.

BTW did you install any of WINDOWS MEDIA updates? I never install WINDOWS MEDIA on any of my computers or on ones that I build for others.

If all else fails then reinstall WINDOWS. I know it's a hassle but when you think about how much time you've spent on finding a solution, you could have already reinstalled WINDOWS. Good luck!

[handyguy]

Also be sure you don't have Roxio on your computer. XP already uses a version of it.

They did make a better version for XP, it think its #6 though.

[johnsees]

Well, I have a partial success. Uninstalling Sonic Record Now and deleting its folder from Program Files took care of the problem with WinXP not being able to copy disks. I can now copy files to a CD or erase a CDRW while in My Computer.
The drives still won't autoplay, and so they also don't recognize when I swap out the disk in a drive. (Still shows the previous disk in My Computer.) I removed all the Record Now entries from the registry and that didn't help any.

If all else fails then reinstall WINDOWS. I know it's a hassle but when you think about how much time you've spent on finding a solution, you could have already reinstalled WINDOWS. Good luck!

I've been thinking about this, wondering how bad I want autoplay to work. I've got probably half a dozen applications that can burn disks; the thought of uninstalling and reinstalling all of them...agh!
The thought of reinstalling Windows... agh! The in-laws are moving here in 2 days. This may not be the time to do this!

Thanks to everybody for all your help. If there's any news, I'll let you know.

[johnsees]

Well, I'd actually given up on trying to do anything about this, and I just accidentally found what part of the problem was: DVD Decrypter! One of the settings is "Auto Insert Notification" which apparently defaults to off. I checked the box and exited Decrypter, restarted the computer, and voila! The computer now recognizes when I change a disk.
Still doesn't autoplay... wonder if that's another option in Decrypter?

[hanugro]

I've been thinking about this, wondering how bad I want autoplay to work. I've got probably half a dozen applications that can burn disks; the thought of uninstalling and reinstalling all of them...agh!
The thought of reinstalling Windows... agh! The in-laws are moving here in 2 days. This may not be the time to do this!

Thanks to everybody for all your help. If there's any news, I'll let you know.

Well, I don't think it is a good idea to use more than one/two program for burning. Some of them may conflict each other. I use Nero only and I even disable disc recording on the drive (rigth click on drive). I let Nero take care of it.
Also do regular registry clean on apps that you have uninstall. DO manually after that to make sure no astray registry left over.