Faulty Sony DW-U18A DVD Burner

[Sakuya]

I've begun to notice problems with my DVD Writer. The model is Sony DW-U18A and I've had it since 2004. It's been working fine until now where it would not detect my blank DVD-Rs. It requires me to eject the disc tray several times. No, more like many times before it would burn! However, it would still detect my DVD+RWs instantly. Plus, the disc tray is faulty in that it would close by itself. Occasionally when I eject it, it would go back in before I can put my disc in.

It still burns pretty fast at 8x and I've had very little write errors. So my problem lies just in detecting my DVD-Rs. Does anyone know how to solve this problem? In TMPGEnc DVD Author (this is my primary program for burning DVDs), it lists the drive as "Sony DVD RW DW-U18A UYS1" if that means anything. Thanks.

[budz]

sounds like you need to buy a new dvd burner. what's the media id of those DVD-R discs? hope it's not crap media like TDK, MEMOREX, OFFICE DEPOT APTIVA or OFFICE MAX junk.

[Sakuya]

sounds like you need to buy a new dvd burner. what's the media id of those DVD-R discs? hope it's not crap media like TDK, MEMOREX, OFFICE DEPOT APTIVA or OFFICE MAX junk.

The media ID is TTG02 from TDK. It's actually one of the last bunch of good TDKs I have left over. I've just tried inserting the Sony DVD-Rs you told me to buy from Best Buy. It's still saying "Drive not ready" and I'd have to eject over and over. But once I get it burning, there's no problem in writing to disc.

[budz]

You got lots of patience which I don't have so I would just buy a new dvd burner if I was in your situation. Dvd burners are cheap these days at $30.00-$40.00 for a brand new one.
I've seen craiglist ads for honolulu with people selling dvd burners brand new and used.

[Sakuya]

But it's always detecting my DVD+RWs immediately. How long do DVD writers usually last? I find it annoying that store-bought PCs usually never have any problems with their parts while my personally-built PC recently started having problems everywhere from memory loss to case fan and now the DVD writer.

[budz]

But it's always detecting my DVD+RWs immediately. How long do DVD writers usually last? I find it annoying that store-bought PCs usually never have any problems with their parts while my personally-built PC recently started having problems everywhere from memory loss to case fan and now the DVD writer.

Trust me store bought pc's have their share of problems. I fix enough of store bought computers to know that they're not perfect either. Computer components are like any other electronic device, it ain't gonna last forever.

Do yourself a favor and just buy a new dvd burner. :P Sheesh! Today a new dvd burner cost anywhere from $30.00-$40.00 which is cheap compared to when the first generation computer dvd burners/cd burners that were $300.00 - $600.00.

[Sakuya]

Do yourself a favor and just buy a new dvd burner. :P Sheesh! Today a new dvd burner cost anywhere from $30.00-$40.00 which is cheap compared to when the first generation computer dvd burners/cd burners that were $300.00 - $600.00.

Ok, thanks. Is there a specific recommended brand to go with or should I stick to Sony again?

[budz]

Do yourself a favor and just buy a new dvd burner. :P Sheesh! Today a new dvd burner cost anywhere from $30.00-$40.00 which is cheap compared to when the first generation computer dvd burners/cd burners that were $300.00 - $600.00.

Ok, thanks. Is there a specific recommended brand to go with or should I stick to Sony again?

Are you planning on buying it locally from COMPUSA or BEST BUY? Or are you going to order online from Newegg?
I'd suggest buying from BEST BUY if you wanna buy it locally since they carry PIONEER dvd burners. But it's expensive since they only carry the "RETAIL" drives from PIONEER.

My suggestion is to stay away from SONY since they no longer manufacture their dvd burners. They use rebadged drives from NEC & LITEON at the moment. I'd suggest getting a PIONEER 112D or LGH62L. If you have SATA on your mobo then could get a 20x SAMSUNG S203B drive.

[Sakuya]

If you have SATA on your mobo then could get a 20x SAMSUNG S203B drive.

I'll be heading out to CompUSA tomorrow because it's closer. How do I know if I have a SATA? I think mines is SATA but I forgot where I read it and I just want to make sure before I go tomorrow. Thanks! And you wouldn't recommend the CompUSA brands, right? They're the cheapest. I have this in mind if I have an SATA and the sale lasts through tomorrow:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=BROWSE&N=500458+200765&product_code=346350

[budz]

If you have SATA on your mobo then could get a 20x SAMSUNG S203B drive.

I'll be heading out to CompUSA tomorrow because it's closer. How do I know if I have a SATA? I think mines is SATA but I forgot where I read it and I just want to make sure before I go tomorrow. Thanks! And you wouldn't recommend the CompUSA brands, right? They're the cheapest. I have this in mind if I have an SATA and the sale lasts through tomorrow:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=BROWSE&N=500458+200765&product_code=346350

COMPUSA is sold out on that MAD DOG MEDIA 20x SATA dvd burner. Check the availability and it's gonna tell you sold out. If you want the SAMSUNG S203B 20x SATA dvd burner then order one from NEWEGG because with the shipping it's still cheaper than if you bought the MADDDOG one but it's out of stock anyway at COMPUSA. There's been some mention at Cdfreaks.com that the MADDOG drive could be a rebadged SAMSUNG S203B drive. By the time I found out COMPUSA was already sold out which is fine since I already have 2 of the SAMSUNG S203B.

You'll have to check your motherboard specs to see if you have SATA ports but if you don't you could always use a PCI SATA CONTROLLER CARD. But beware of compatibility issues as well because some older motherboards SATA controllers don't support DVD BURNERS! Also if you have NVIDIA ide controllers they may not work with a SATA DVD BURNER. You'll have to use the MICROSOFT IDE drivers. PCI SATA CONTROLLER cards that have the VIA CHIPSET will not work with some SATA DVD BURNERS. Check out the SAMSUNG forum at Cdfreaks.com.

[Sakuya]

Damn, sold out already? I found the post elsewhere that I made and they told me that I have an ATA burner. So no Samsung burner for me.

[budz]

Damn, sold out already? I found the post elsewhere that I made and they told me that I have an ATA burner. So no Samsung burner for me.

Then buy a PIONEER 1810 which is actually a PIONEER 112D or a LGH62L drive from BEST BUY. Wait for tomorrows Sunday ads. On Saturday nights you can see the Sunday BEST BUY ads online after 9pm Hawaii time and COMPUSA Sunday ads after 7pm Hawaii time.

[Sakuya]

Then buy a PIONEER 1810 which is actually a PIONEER 112D or a LGH62L drive from BEST BUY. Wait for tomorrows Sunday ads. On Saturday nights you can see the Sunday BEST BUY ads online after 9pm Hawaii time and COMPUSA Sunday ads after 7pm Hawaii time.

Thank you very much for those information.

[budz]

Then buy a PIONEER 1810 which is actually a PIONEER 112D or a LGH62L drive from BEST BUY. Wait for tomorrows Sunday ads. On Saturday nights you can see the Sunday BEST BUY ads online after 9pm Hawaii time and COMPUSA Sunday ads after 7pm Hawaii time.

Thank you very much for those information.

your welx!

BTW when you go to those websites don't use a Hawaii zip code, use a mainland state like NYC or Maryland. That's the only way you'll be able to see what's in the Sunday ads!

[Sakuya]

I just got my DVD drive. :P I've been reading up on installing DVD drive tutorials but I was wondering, would I have to go to Device Manager or somewhere in the Control Panel to uninstall a DVD drive before I remove it from the computer?

[budz]

I just got my DVD drive. :P I've been reading up on installing DVD drive tutorials but I was wondering, would I have to go to Device Manager or somewhere in the Control Panel to uninstall a DVD drive before I remove it from the computer?

What dvd burner did you buy? There's no need to go through the Control Panel when uninstalling a dvd burner. Just uninstall the drive from your pc. Make sure you have the correct jumper setting on the drive when you install it into your computer. The jumper setting will either be MASTER or SLAVE setting if you bought a internal ide dvd burner. For SATA dvd burners there are no jumper settings.

[Sakuya]

What dvd burner did you buy?

Sony again. DRU-8410A, it was on sale at CompUSA.

[budz]

What dvd burner did you buy?

Sony again. DRU-8410A, it was on sale at CompUSA.

Yikes! You do know SONY doesn't manufacture their own drives. It's probably a rebadged LITEON or NEC drive. The SONY firmware support is terrible. Good luck on your new drive!

[Sakuya]

Yikes! You do know SONY doesn't manufacture their own drives. It's probably a rebadged LITEON or NEC drive. The SONY firmware support is terrible. Good luck on your new drive!

Yeah but at least it will work for another 3 to 4 years or so (hopefully) and then I'd have to get another one.

[budz]

Yikes! You do know SONY doesn't manufacture their own drives. It's probably a rebadged LITEON or NEC drive. The SONY firmware support is terrible. Good luck on your new drive!

Yeah but at least it will work for another 3 to 4 years or so (hopefully) and then I'd have to get another one.

As I said good luck on your SONY drive. :P

[budz]

Hey! You have good luck your SONY drive is a rebadged Samsung SH-S202 PATA drive according to the SAMSUNG FORUM at Cdfreaks.com.

[Sakuya]

Hey! You have good luck your SONY drive is a rebadged Samsung SH-S202 PATA drive according to the SAMSUNG FORUM at Cdfreaks.com.

That's good, thanks for letting me know. What is better about a Samsung compared to whatever rebadged Sony I had before? It lasts longer or something? The only problem I had with my rebadged Sony was not recognizing the DVD-Rs which means it's about to die, I used it since 2004 so it lasted pretty long as well. I don't recall ever getting any write errors or coasters either.

[budz]

Take a look at the SAMSUNG FORUM at Cdfreaks.com. I can't remember what SONY rebadged drive you had. Dvd burners can't last forever so depending on how many dvd discs you burn should or would determine the longevity of the drive. The latest SAMSUNG dvd burners seem to be great drives especially the SATA S203B drive.

[Sakuya]

All right, I installed the new DVD writer fine and it detects all my DVD-Rs and CDs. When I try burning, the data is burned onto the disc and on the computer I can access the video fine. But none of my discs can be played back on my DVD players. These discs are DVD+RW that I use for testing before writing to DVD-R and they're the same discs I've used since before I installed my new DVD writer. So it's not the DVD players' fault.

I have not been told in the install instructions to install a new driver. It said that once I installed it, Windows should automatically detect it. But it didn't give me such notice on startup. But still, I found that it worked by reading discs all right so I thought it was successful. Until now.

The DVD project I just burned was just authored in TMPGEnc DVD Authoring and burned using its burner. Then I tried burning a data disc of AVIs using Nero 7 and playing it back on my DivX player, same thing, it doesn't detect the disc.

[budz]

what brand is that DVD+RW discs that you're using w/your new SONY dvd player? there's no drivers to install when you have a new dvd burner in your computer. what brand is your standalone dvd player?

don't use TMPGE's burning program, use IMGBURN. if you wanna burn AVI files then use CDBurnerXP program instead of NERO.

[Sakuya]

what brand is that DVD+RW discs that you're using w/your new SONY dvd player? there's no drivers to install when you have a new dvd burner in your computer. what brand is your standalone dvd player?

don't use TMPGE's burning program, use IMGBURN. if you wanna burn AVI files then use CDBurnerXP program instead of NERO.

The DVD+RW brand says Legacy. Here is its web site (which doesn't work in Firefox). As for my DVD players, Sony DVP-K880D, KLH Digital DVD-8350, Philips DVP 3040. It's not the DVD players' problem because I've been using these DVD+RW as test discs and then erase-burn-erase-burn for so long. It's worked on all these players in the past when I burned with my old DVD writer.

I just checked out ImgBurn and for some reason, it makes an ISO image out of what I already authored in TDA. Why can't it just burn the VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS folders.

Edit:
I burned some AVIs using CDBurnerXP and it works! But I don't see why Nero, which was included with the new DVD writer, won't work. I just find having to author and then to further convert that to ISO time-and-space-consuming. And ImgBurn takes hella long to erase a disc. Even when I erased it before using TDA, it prompts me to erase.

[budz]

LEGACY media is crap. Your new dvd burner probably doesn't support that MEDIA ID. Buy VERBATIM DVD+RW discs if you want it to work correctly in your standalone dvd players. You could check the SONY website if LEGACY DVD+RW media is supported or if there's a firmware upgrade for your drive. But my bet is that LEGACY media isn't supported. Use DVDINFO PRO or CD/DVD SPEED to find out the MEDIA ID of those LEGACY DVD+RW media.

IMGBURN is the best FREEWARE burning program to use for dvd burning. I hardly ever use NERO BURN for my dvd burning.

[Sakuya]

LEGACY media is crap. Your new dvd burner probably doesn't support that MEDIA ID. Buy VERBATIM DVD+RW discs if you want it to work correctly in your standalone dvd players. You could check the SONY website if LEGACY DVD+RW media is supported or if there's a firmware upgrade for your drive. But my bet is that LEGACY media isn't supported. Use DVDINFO PRO or CD/DVD SPEED to find out the MEDIA ID of those LEGACY DVD+RW media.

I've just used CDBurnerXP to burn a data disc using that same LEGACY DVD+RW and it now works on my Philips DivX player. The Media ID is A10. Meanwhile ImgBurn is still erasing the DVD+RW. If it means anything, Nero InfoTool says that the drive's region code is set to 2. I wonder why that is since I haven't changed it and the US code should be 1. Could that be the problem? I can only change it 5 times for some reason.

[budz]

if the drive is set to region 2 it could be why the discs can't be played back on your standalone dvd players. go ahead and change the drive to region 1. yes the region can only be changed 5 times. do a search if your SONY drive has a region free firmware then you won't have to worry about the 5 region changes.

[budz]

post the firmware of your drive by using CD/DVD SPEED or use DISCINFO. i wanna confirm whether or not your drive is the SAMSUNG rebadge.