LG GSA-4040B not reading media

[beaumac]

I have a brand new LG GSA-4040B burner and it refuses to read my ritek dvd-rs. I looked everywhere and they are highly reliable. It reads the panasonic dvd+r that it came with. Is there something wrong with my burner or what? Do I need to do something different if I am using dvd+r instead of dvd-r?

[zod5000]

ritek 4x dvd-r's? are have problems reading or writing?

I had a batch of ritek's with the dull (matte) silver tops and they wouldn't burn at 4x.. if i chose 4x mode the drive would hang and i'd have to reboot. about 80 percent of the 2 spindles i'd ordered were like that. I've heard of people having the same problem on sony and pioneers 104 drives.

try burning at 2x or returning them... it seems theres been a few subpar batchs of riteks making their way 'round.

[beaumac]

Yes ritek 4x dvd+rs are having problems being recognized by the drive at all. It changes the drive name from LGA GSA-4040b to cd-rom drive in the windows explorer. This happens with the 2.4x Riteks also. I have been able to use maxell and panasonic media though

[hech54]

I've got a 4040B and use Ritek G03's almost exclusively without a single problem. I also use cheapo Princo's in my 4040B without a problem and +RW's from my Philips DVD Recorder.
If it's brand new...I'd take the 4040B back just in case. My 4040B has been bulletproof so far with my XP Pro system.

[beaumac]

That sucks to hear. Theres no way all those Riteks could be bad right? I got the burner as a christmas present, now I gotta ask where she got it from. Ugh!

[Kingnog]

I also use cheapo Princo's in my 4040B without a problem

yeah, me too

I'm a cheap princo user, and PROUD OF IT!

[BBez]

etting the same problem with the same drive. Was firmware version A300 whenm i purchased it in November 2003, updated to A301 fw and worked fine with Princo's, Ritek and Unbranded White Tops. Got a batch of Princo's which kep ivin a "write track error" in Nero and a similar error in DVD Decrypter.

Upgraded firmware to A302 which has cured the problem...

I haqd nothing to lose as was prepared to bin the drive and buy a new one but if you want to try the firmware upgrade, goto,

http://gb.lgservice.com/index_b2c.jsp

then on the menu, select, "device driver" then "CD-RW" section and get the "GSA-4040B_-_A302" flash" to get firmware upgrade...

[oldfart13]

Taiwanese RicohJPN 4X +R will also not burn at a speed higher than 1.6X in this drive. These are from various batches of Maxell +R. I use the drive entirely for transferring my DVD-RAM discs from my E80 Panasonic DVD recorder to my PC for authoring. I've heard the 8X version of the burner works much better than the 4040B...

[beaumac]

I tried downloading the firmware upgrade and it didnt work. Maybe installation was incomplete. I will try again. thanks

*EDIT*

Alright, I tried reinstalling the firmware and it still wont read the Riteks even though they are specifically listed in the readme file. WTF??? It says something about setting it to secondary master and disconnecting other IDE drives when installing the firmware upgrade. Is this going to help? I doubt it...