NEC 4571A problem

[rmorrison1]

Hi guys,

I'm having a problem with my DVD burner, NEC 4571A. It doesn't read any media I have burnt, it only reads pressed discs or DVD-RWs. Movies I have burnt work fine on my DVD player. Is it time to buy a new burner or does anyone have any ideas?

[bevills1]

Are you running WinXP or Win2k, and are you using -R media? See http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=209168 for more on this perplexing problem affecting many NEC users including my NEC 3520A.

[rmorrison1]

Ok, I've decided to give up on it and buy a new one. Can anybody recommend me a good make and model, preferably an 18X and something that will read all my burnt media.

[budz]

Ok, I've decided to give up on it and buy a new one. Can anybody recommend me a good make and model, preferably an 18X and something that will read all my burnt media.

Get a PIONEER 112D or a LGH42.

LGH42N, $34.99 from GEEKS.COM
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLK-GSA-H42N&cat=DVD

PIONEER 112D, $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129007

[bevills1]

I read all reviews of different brands on CDFreaks as well as problems posted in threads there, and the Pioneer 111D is best overall for DVD backups with fewer user problems reported IMO. The only disadvantage to Pioneer is it's not a good scanner if scanning is important which it is not to me. The Pioneer 111D may be cross flashed to 111L to gain bit setting if desired. FYI http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4099553 shows Pioneer DVR-710 (DVR-111) for $25 after rebate or $15 after rebate with Google checkout.

[budz]

I read all reviews of different brands on CDFreaks as well as problems posted in threads there, and the Pioneer 111D is best overall for DVD backups with fewer user problems reported IMO. The only disadvantage to Pioneer is it's not a good scanner if scanning is important which it is not to me. The Pioneer 111D may be cross flashed to 111L to gain bit setting if desired. FYI http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4099553 shows Pioneer DVR-710 (DVR-111) for $25 after rebate or $15 after rebate with Google checkout.

Just a reminder that crossflashing any PIONEER drive to enable bitsetting to dvdrom will VOID THE ORIGINAL PIONEER WARRANTY.

[rmorrison1]

Well I think I'm gonna go with the Pioneer 112D, I've been reading a lot of good reviews on it.

[budz]

Well I think I'm gonna go with the Pioneer 112D, I've been reading a lot of good reviews on it.

[bevills1]

Because crossflashing any PIONEER drive to enable bitsetting to dvdrom will VOID THE ORIGINAL PIONEER WARRANTY as budz states, I always test with official firmware first just in case drive is defective and may need to be replaced under warranty. I liked my first 111D so well that I got a second for backup just before NewEgg stopped selling the 111D, and I'm sure you should be happy with the 112D.

[rmorrison1]

Thanks for the tips guys but I don't have any plans on cross flashing, I just need the drive to backup stuff and burn movies.

[budz]

Thanks for the tips guys but I don't have any plans on cross flashing, I just need the drive to backup stuff and burn movies.

The crossflashing is to enable bitsetting to dvdrom for DVD+R media. Then I'll assume you'll only be using DVD-R media with the PIONEER 112D drive. If you have a older model dvd player it may not be able to playback DVD+R media without bitsetting it to dvdrom. Most newer model dvd players are now able to playback DVD+R media w/out the bitsetting.

[rmorrison1]

I actually don't have any stuff backed up on DVD +R discs so I'm not really concerned with it, I can make do with DVD -R media.

[rmorrison1]

ok so I went out this morning and bought the drive, Pioneer 112D. I have installed it and it is reading all my discs the NEC drive wouldn't read so I'm real happy. I haven't burnt anything yet but I'm sure it will be fine.

[kush]

I know the OP already replaced the defective drive I just wanted to note that I had similar issues (with a 3550a).

A while ago my drive stopped reading most (say 90%, not ALL) DVD-R discs (DVD+R didn't seem to be affected)..It didn't matter if they were new, old, TY/MCC or Prodisc/Ritek...I was getting 'empty disc' messages when trying to scan in DVD Info (or empty tray, blank media in the media info tab); supposedly 'incompatible' or damaged discs messages when trying to examine the discs in Explorer, LONG load times with anything other than pristine discs... I could normally browse/use the offending discs directly after burns, but next try and ZILCH. I tried everything I could think of short of a format/OS reinstall - removal of the drive, switching IDE ports/cables, switching out the cdrom.sys driver, reinstall all drivers, and so on; nothing worked. The funny thing is the drive worked fine, and was recognized perfectly, discs readable within my Vista install (go figure ); as well as being able to do an ISO rip via PowerISO (ummm OK).

Rather than stoop down and go through the hassle of reinstalling Windows (and the hours long reinstalls of my various programs!), I much like the OP bought a Pioneer DVR-112 via Newegg. I had a good experience with both a DVR-106 and DVR-109 in the past. The price and the fact that Newegg ships to me next day (I'm in SoCal so par for the course with them), I figured WTH. It was the best $32/free ship I have spent in quite a while. All discs read fine. I can now reliably burn @ 16x, whereas with my NEC I never could go above 8x without issues. I can now use imgBurn for building, as well as the actual burns; whereas the NEC would ALWAYS choke no matter the media, method, content, whatever - used to have to use imgBurn to build, Decrypter to do actual burns (again only @ max of 8x).

Just one note here. I had to use a customized firmware to get my Prodisc F03 (Maxell branded ) to get recognized/burn @ 16x. While Pioneer had just released a new F/W that bumped the speed from 12x to 16x for some reason my system wouldn't take it higher than 12x (not much difference I know, but still). Grabbed Media Code Speed Edit (? I think; the RPC1 Ligge & Dee F/W didn't work right for some reason), loaded the stock v1.21 F/W, hit the tab for unlocked rip speeds, added the 16x entry to the affected media code, exported and flashed...All is fine now. I may have invalidated my warranty, but I don't really care - the drive wasn't bricked and I can now do what my NEC never could. Next up testing 18x on 16x TY when this last 50 spindle finally runs out just for the hell of it - I'm sure the drive can handle it.

Sorry for the LONG post, I figure this rambling *may* help others affected (infected? ) with a crappy NEC drive in the future, this seems like a somewhat common thing over @ cdfreaks, rpc1 forums, etc.. I can't believe I put up w/ the NEC drive for so long. I should have just gone w/ a 110 when I killed my 109 (2x discs in the tray [OOPS!] and it never quite worked right again, wanted black drive).

[bevills1]

kush, are you saying the NEC drive was working in Vista but began not reading -R burned discs? The link in my 6/18 post here has some posts in it indicating this problem wasn't seen in Vista systems as well as Win98 systems there. This will be the first instance of the problem in Vista that I've seen posted if you have same problem in Vista. BTW you should update your OS info if now running Vista.

[budz]

ok so I went out this morning and bought the drive, Pioneer 112D. I have installed it and it is reading all my discs the NEC drive wouldn't read so I'm real happy. I haven't burnt anything yet but I'm sure it will be fine.

Good to hear your new PIONEER 112D drive is able to read all the discs from your NEC drive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To Kush: I've read so many problems regarding reading & burning issues that I was never interested in NEC drives.

[alvasilias]

I have a problem too. I own a DVD-WR NEC 7173 Labelflash and there are some DVDs that the are not recognized. I have copied games in Intenso DVDs but I don't know other compatible labels. Now I want to burn an AVI to DVD and I don't know what brand should I choose. Anyone who knows a few common brands;

[bevills1]

alvasilias, are disks not recognized by the 7173 or other drive, and are unrecognized disks -R media? Many recommend Verbatim and TaiyoYuden with which I agree, and I've had good results with Sony D21 too. You may want to stay with +R media to avoid the possible problem detailed in the link in the second post of this thread.

[alvasilias]

Actually I don't know what -R and +R is. All I know is that when I did a servise on my computer they gave me the DVD writter but they told me that a few brands are compatible like Intenso.