All DVD-RW discs suddenly not working?

[Marc_L]

I have tried to think of what may have caused this problem. But I only end up getting more confused.
I have been using DVD-RW discs for burning the last 2 years. They have always been working perfect on any DVD player.
One day I had just finished burning a video, and I wanted to watch it on my DVD-player. It took the player forever to load, and then it finally said "Unknown Disc"

I tried burning the video once more, but with the same result. Then I tried another disc, and got the same "Unknown Disc" result.
I was wondering if it was my player or my burner that caused the problem. I then took one of the other discs, which had last been burned months ago, and that didn't work either. I tried the rest one by one. ALL my DVD-RW discs didn't work, including a two brand new ones I just bought a week ago.

So of course, I thought it was my player that had a problem. BUT, for some reason they didn't work on my sister's or my brother's DVD players either, where they have worked before.

And here comes the weird part. For some reason all my DVD-R. Old as well as new, work perfectly fine on all players like they always have.
Why have my DVD-RW discs suddenly become useless in a matter of 1 day? What in the world have happend??

[DereX888]

ALL my DVD-RW discs didn't work, including a two brand new ones I just bought a week ago.

So of course, I thought it was my player that had a problem. BUT, for some reason they didn't work on my sister's or my brother's DVD players either, where they have worked before.

There is nothing wrong with your DVD-RWs. There is no way they all would have "die" suddenly in the same time.
IMHO your writer (burner) is dead, or "halfdead" (if it still burns DVD-Rs or other types).

[Marc_L]

But how does that explain the discs that worked weeks ago, and haven't been burned again? Those should still have worked then.
What would have caused the burner to go dead all the sudden? considering the computer is nearly brand new.

Another possibility I have thought of: There is a small space on the top of my computer, where you can place CD's/DVD's.
I have always kept my RW discs there. Can it have something to do with magnetism/radiation?

[lordsmurf]

It's not the discs, it's the device.

[oldandinthe way]

Try cleaning the player. Best of all potential solutions. Try cleaning the burner too.

Beyond that I agree with Lord Smurf, its a hardware problem/

[Nelson37]

Carefully describe your problem. Note that when you say you "tried" all your disks and they failed, it is not clear if you attempted playback in the player, or attempted a burn. If the burner went bad, this would kill all the disks.

There is no KNOWN reason all your DVD-RW should suddenly die. That does not mean it is not possible. Three seperate players all losing the ability to play RW at roughly the same time is a relatively improbable event. This needs to be carefully confirmed.

How often do these players play an RW disk? Are the players the same age, or similar? Same brand, or similar? Significantly different player types and ages would make this less likely. Three players all bought at Wal-Mart 3 Christmases ago (How the heck do you spell multiple Christmas??) might be more likely to experience a similar failure. It might have been years since one or more attempted an RW playback.

RW playback failure in an older DVD player is not at all uncommon.

Describe the numbers of RW disks you have, including number of times used.

Are you stating that you have 3 or more RW disks, burned once, verified to play in 3 or more seperate players, untouched since this verification, stored for an unspecified time, that now are verified to FAIL in the same three or more players, all of which can be verified to play valid RW disks from another source, AFTER the suspect disks fail? How close to that can you get?

The multiple, seperate, and independent playback checks, of both media and player, are the most important.

If all that is true, or with minor variations, then it is time to investigate your storage, heat or strong sunlight being the most likely factors.

[dnix71]

He described the problem fairly well, I think. They won't read in any standalone or computer and they did before. If he is telling the truth, that means the discs failed.

Marc, did you burn them with Nero? Nero puts the ifos and bups in the same physical location on the disc. That defeats the purpose of having bups (backups). If that sector goes bad, the disc is unreadble.

You may have a bad device (dvd player or burner) that has a 'hot' (out of calibration) laser. The discs are RW. The act of reading the file tables may be damaging them. If you burned a too fast a speed to begin with, that would not have helped either.

You don't say how they were stored, exactly. Were they in proper dvd cases, or just laying on top of each other? Does the sun stream in and light the storage area each day. I make a point to keep mine in cases and out of the light.

[DereX888]

Given the information OP wrote, I repeat:

There is nothing wrong with his DVD-RWs.
1
It is impossible for all of his discs to turn bad in the same time, even if they were the same batch/lot/brand (and they aren't since he bought some new ones).
2
No magnetic field from computer can wipe out optical discs.
3
Since he tried the burnt DVD-RWs in at least 2 different players and discs didn't play on any of them, the problem is with burning, most likely his burner is acting up.

So, unless he stored them on top of microwave oven etc, it is almost impossible for all of his DVD-RWs to go south out of the sudden and in the exact same moment



OP:
make an ISO image (of a DVD-Video) and burn it with ImageBurn with verification.
Im sure ImgBurn will tell you the problem right away.

[dnix71]

All his discs could very well have failed together if they were stored together improperly. Heat and direct sun can warp a disc. He said he stored them on top of his computer. HP computers used to have a cd container built into the top for convenience. That's not a good way to store dvds.

"Another possibility I have thought of: There is a small space on the top of my computer, where you can place CD's/DVD's.
I have always kept my RW discs there. Can it have something to do with magnetism/radiation?"



He plainly stated that they played before and now they will not play on multiple standalone devices and computers.

"So of course, I thought it was my player that had a problem. BUT, for some reason they didn't work on my sister's or my brother's DVD players either, where they have worked before."

[DereX888]

All his discs could very well have failed together if they were stored together improperly. Heat and direct sun can warp a disc. He said he stored them on top of his computer. HP computers used to have a cd container built into the top for convenience. That's not a good way to store dvds.

"Another possibility I have thought of: There is a small space on the top of my computer, where you can place CD's/DVD's.
I have always kept my RW discs there. Can it have something to do with magnetism/radiation?"



He plainly stated that they played before and now they will not play on multiple standalone devices and computers.

"So of course, I thought it was my player that had a problem. BUT, for some reason they didn't work on my sister's or my brother's DVD players either, where they have worked before."

What are the odds of *several* discs (different brand and age) to go bad in exactly same moment?
vs
What are the odds of a burner becoming defective on one of its lasers or phases?



I've changed more than 10 personal burners due to dying lasers in past 6 years (and unaccounted number at work).
Yet I have to see any of my DVD-RWs to quit working (and to give it a justice I must add there were very few cases of DVD-RWs dead at my work).
Simple calculations.

Its only plausible to assume the discs are at fault if he really would abuse them anyhow. Keeping them on top of computer case is not the case. Even if he stack'em on top of a 'leaking' microwave, probably only the first one or two would become internally damaged, but not all of them.

[Nelson37]

Stating that a particular player has played RW disks in the past is very different from stating that This disk, with This video on it, played in This player, and has not been erased, only stored, since that time.

It looks like each disk went thru either the burner, or player, before testing on another unit. I don't know about the laser destroying the disk, I would think something more mechanical. If a few disks had failed on the other players without being run thru a suspect one first, this would be better.

You do not approach PC problems from the standpoint of "there is no mechanism for this to occur, therefore something else has happened." You start with a very careful determination of "What has happened", and then work toward finding out How and Why. Often you get neither, just that "If I stop doing This, everything works OK".

"That's not supposed to happen" is no adequate answer to "This is the clear evidence for what has happened". "We'll fix that next update."

The problem is almost always the failure to identify the common factor in what seems to be unrelated events. "Exactly, step-by-step, what did you do? With What disk? Tested How, and Where, and what done since with That Particular Disk?"

Denmark. Gets pretty cold in some seasons, damp also I believe. Repeated heating and cooling cycles, like several hours on a PC followed by several hours in a cold winter basement room, couple times a day for a few months, along with humidity, could certainly affect a small stack of disks.

[DereX888]

Denmark. Gets pretty cold in some seasons, damp also I believe. Repeated heating and cooling cycles, like several hours on a PC followed by several hours in a cold winter basement room, couple times a day for a few months, along with humidity, could certainly affect a small stack of disks.

Possible, of course.
Although somehow I can't believe the OP or anyone would be such an ..., umm, such inexperienced I mean, to move his discs from top of computer to the fridge and back and forth...


Lets hope he'll find out very soon what happened and kindly let us know, before this thread will be too old and lands on forum page 12345678...