Help! DVD-RW drive not reading anything now!

[Admiral Falcon]

I just got my Optorite DD0203 dual-format DVD burner seven months ago. It has worked beautifully up until Thursday night. I ran out of CompUSA media and opened up a spindle of Value Disc (what a huge mistake!).

Who'd have thought that trying to use my drive to do what it was designed to do would foul it up?

I put the blank DVD-R in, and watched as my burner (which had been having zero problems before this) simply locked itself into an infinite loop trying to analyze the disc. The only way to get it to stop was to shut down the system. Now, it won't read anything - not pressed DVDs, not even standard CD-ROMs. With any DVD disc, it starts up that infinite loop again. With CD-ROMs, it just chirps a little like it's analyzing the disc, then does nothing.

I tried resetting the BIOS, with no effect. I flashed the drive's firmware to the lastest revision, no effect. I sure hope to God that this is not a hardware failure - because I simply cannot accept that a drive barely seven months old could fail just because I put in a different brand of media!

Has anyone here experienced this? Is it a hardware problem or can the drive be fixed from software? Is it permanent damage? The drive has a one-year manufacturer's warranty if it needs to be replaced.

[Admiral Falcon]

Doesn't anyone know anything about this problem?

[tompika]

Have it replaced.

You will probably get an 8x burner

[jimmalenko]

My Pioneer 106D started to exhibit similar behaviour to the point where it would crap out on every second burn and refused to read burnt discs, as if overnight. I originally thought it might be the media but I have used the same brand of media since day 1 with only minor issues every now and then. I then thought that maybe I got a bad batch of discs, but the perfect test was to try another couple of discs out of the same spindle on a friend's burner with 100% success. It was 9 months old. I say was because it is @ Pioneer as we speak. I am sorta crossing my fingers that the 106D is not in production any more, and they'll have to give me a 107D instead

Luckily I am building my brother a PC so I have a 107D to play with until I get mine back I decided to throw the firmware update on it and I'm now happily burning at 8X on 4X rated media. I haven't tested the unlocked ripping as yet.

[Admiral Falcon]

I still fail to see how simply inserting a blank DVD-R can permanently wreck a DVD-RW drive. I didn't even try to burn to the disc - I just inserted it and the DVD burner locked itself into an infinite loop trying to analyze the media.

It's just unforgivable that the simple act of putting in a blank disc can somehow damage the drive beyond the point of repair, and I refuse to accept that I now have a $100 paperweight because of a cheap $0.85 disc.

[lenti_75]

don't think the disc is the problem...probably just a coincidence.
have it replaced, or flash it again with a new firmware. that should fix it.

[jimmalenko]

don't think the disc is the problem...probably just a coincidence.
have it replaced, or flash it again with a new firmware. that should fix it.

I sent mine back to Pioneer and they flashed the firmware. They reckon it is fine now. It makes me wonder how it worked perfectly for so long with an allegedly "bad" firmware.

[lordsmurf]

Probably got corrupted. Firmware can have this happen with things like power spikes to the device.

Most of them use EEPROM ... electronically erasable programmable/reprogrammable read only memory

As such, they are vulnerable to electrical currents. This is how hackers can "glitch" into backdoors on "unbreakable" firmwares and devices.

Check your power supply.

[jimmalenko]

Probably got corrupted. Firmware can have this happen with things like power spikes to the device.

Check your power supply.

Very interesting indeed.

I have been having some issues lately with my PC locking up but I thought it must have been a heat issue as I now have my tower in a very confined space. Problems seem to have ceased as soon as I put a pedestal fan right next to the tower. I assumed it was the auto-shutdown feature of my P4 that was causing it because of this.

Numerous other times unexplained phenomena have occurred that may well have been due to the power supply.

I've got something to check out now.

[Alan69]

I still fail to see how simply inserting a blank DVD-R can permanently wreck a DVD-RW drive. I didn't even try to burn to the disc - I just inserted it and the DVD burner locked itself into an infinite loop trying to analyze the media.

It's just unforgivable that the simple act of putting in a blank disc can somehow damage the drive beyond the point of repair, and I refuse to accept that I now have a $100 paperweight because of a cheap $0.85 disc.

Some things to note:

First, it could have been sheer coincidence. Your drive may have failed on the next disc regardless of brand.

Second, some component of your drive may have been week for months or all along, and the extra exercise from the different disc made it go out.

Third, beyond that it is a hardware/firmware problem with the drive. No matter how bad or corrupt the media is, something wrong with it should never be allowed to make the drive fail or go out of bounds.

But that's life, things are flawed. You're not getting how many millions of things are working for that drive to work right, and how easily one can fail, if you're surprised by any particular thing happening.. There was nothing ever simple about an incredibly complex drive working in the first place. It's a miracle they ever work, not amazing that your one broke..

Poor firmware or a glitch or about anything could have let the drive go out of bounds. Could be damaged, but may just be stuck. It should have mecanical gross positioning of the optics package. usually a stepper with screw lead or similar. If it went too far out looking for something it didn't find on the disc and got itself stuck, then all it may take is moviing it back near the middle of the disc. So could easily be a rather minor problem.

But since it's 7 months old and most have a year warranty, it is still probably better to just send it in.

Alan

[jimmalenko]

I still fail to see how simply inserting a blank DVD-R can permanently wreck a DVD-RW drive. I didn't even try to burn to the disc - I just inserted it and the DVD burner locked itself into an infinite loop trying to analyze the media.

It's just unforgivable that the simple act of putting in a blank disc can somehow damage the drive beyond the point of repair, and I refuse to accept that I now have a $100 paperweight because of a cheap $0.85 disc.

Shit happens

That is how you accept it.

The drive is not beyond the point of repair - send it back to whoever you bought it from or to the manufacturer and they will tell you if it is beyond the point of repair. If it is under warranty, they will replace it.