Is my DRU500A trashed?!?! Won't recognise ANY disc

[ButchNapkins]

Boy do I hope someone can help me here.. I've had my DRU500A for a couple months now and have made mostly coasters with it. The best luck I've had has been with the newest version of Nero, but that's not saying much.. Anyways, earlier today I made an attempt to back up some video files by making 2 DVD data discs through Nero. Both burns came off successfully. The first disc read fine - I was able to browse it and play files from it in Zoom player.. But the 2nd disc! It was recognised in the drive and I was able to browse it.. I started playing some files from it - a couple worked, and then... The program froze. The DRU500A kept going for about 3 minutes or so, 'til I hit the open tray button.. It opened, but the drives light stayed on. I pulled out that no-good 2nd disc and hit the tray button again to close up the drive... Nothing. I rebooted (with the drive still open).. The drive STILL wouldn't close! So I turned my computer off for a minute. Turned it back on and the drive closed.. Whew, right? Wrong. Now ANY disc (dvd, cdr, etc) that I put in the drive results in this - The DRU500A and at the same time my HD run rampant for about 3 minutes or so, and then both stop.. And no disc is recognised in the drive.. I'll click on the drive icon and it says "Insert disc" when there's one there already. Device Manager says all drives and IDE controllers are working properly, and I've already uninstalled the driver and let windows reinstall it.. Same thing. Good God, can someone help me out here? If I've RUINED this effin' drive that easily, I'm gonna chew my own arm off!! Thanks in advance.


Butch

[Chips144]

It seems that the communication link between the DRU and your mother board may be broken. I say MAY be broken. It is possible that your ASPI layer got corrupted. I have seen this happen before for no apparent reason. Try uninstalling your ASPI layer, then reinstalling it. I hope that will help you.

[ButchNapkins]

It seems that the communication link between the DRU and your mother board may be broken. I say MAY be broken. It is possible that your ASPI layer got corrupted. I have seen this happen before for no apparent reason. Try uninstalling your ASPI layer, then reinstalling it. I hope that will help you.

Thanks for your response! Didn't seem to work though.. Did I do it right? I'd never tried uninstalling my ASPI layer, so what I ended up doing was downloading the newest ASPI layer from adaptec's website.. It came with a program called aspichk.exe that examines your layer and reports if there's anything wrong.. Sure enough, mine said it was not installed properly. I then installed it, rebooted, and ran aspichk.exe again.. This time it said everything was fine.. Then I put in a cd and the same thing happened.. DRU500A and HD ran for about 3 minutes and then stop.. This time when I click on the drive in MY Computer it appears to "explore" the disc (go into it) but doesn't show anything.. It looks like the disk is a blank, and of course it isn't.. This is a bit of a change from before, where I'd click on the disc and it would say "Insert Disc".. That's about the only improvement I saw, if I've done it correctly..


Butch

[MrE 15]

I had exactly the same problem over 2 months ago. My drive was confirmed dead at sony uk repair centre. Along with hundreds of other peoples. Only got my new drive back yesterday, after lots of nagging.

Seems there is a design fault somewhere, which is why they have been hard to get anywhere, giving sony chance to do a quick modification. Check your manufacturing date, is it sometime around september or october, these seem to be the drives that give the most problems.

Good Luck.

[SonyUser]

My drive did the same thing on the 24/12/2002. Drive was sent back to place of purchase yesterday. Now waiting to see what they do with either a replacement or a refund.

See here >> http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8229

[ButchNapkins]

Thanks to everyone who responded to this post.. As soon as I realised my drive was indeed trashed, I found another Office Depot (where it was purchased) that had some DRU500a's in stock and made an exchange. My fried drive was dated October 2002, but the new drive is dated December 2002, so hopefully Sony fixed this problem. Quick question to anyone who's had their DRU500a fry on them - were any of them December 2002 models, or were they always earlier ones (Sept-Oct)? Just want to see what my chances are of this happening again.. Oh yeah, it might be interesting for some to know that this new December 2002 drive had a big sticker on the inside flap which states " FOR US CUSTOMER: If your product is not working properly, DO NOT RETURN IT TO THE STORE" and then info to get ahold of Sony's tech support follows.. So if it does indeed fry again, a 2+ month wait for Sony's tech support to get around to it is pretty much guaranteed - The store I'd attempt to exchange it at would probably see the sticker and that'd be the end of it. Oh, also found it fun to watch the store clerk DEMOLISH the drive with his bare hands (while getting out a dvd that had gotten stuck in it).. After all the trouble I'd experienced with it, I was wishing I could do it myself! At any rate, hopefully this new one works better and lives longer. Thanks again!


Butch