My new NEC 3500ag burner disappears intermittently

[elizard]

I installed an NEC 3500ag burner and it intermittently disappears! It's crazy. It's there, then I'm burning and on something like the fifth burn it's gone. Have to reboot to get it back. Driving me nuts.

Is this a Windows problem or the drive? The drive is listed properly in device manager, was picked up correctly, I reinstalled it more than once, unplugged the cdrw (so no conflicts) and it still happens. Help?

Thanks everyone for any advice.

[bazooka]

If you would fill out your computer details in your profile, you would get more help.

[elizard]

Sorry, I should have included that:

Brand new Compaq, AMD Sempron 2800+ (2 ghz)
pc3200/768 ram
cdrw
40 HD
XP home ed
9-1 card reader, firewire

I'm using clone dvd and region free dvd for burns. Haven't use the included recordnow yet.

The drive decides to disappear either when I'm looking at it in Explorer or when I'm using Clonedvd, after I've ripped to the HD, when trying to write. Suddenly the blank dvd isn't read and the drive is gone.

Thanks for the reply.

[bazooka]

Are you running Service Pack 2?

If you are, then it is a bug in Service Pack 2.

I had that happen to me the other day.

It happens after so many read errors.

[johns0]

Make sure you set the nec 3500 to master and the other dvd/cd device to slave.

[bazooka]

Make sure you set the nec 3500 to master and the other dvd/cd device to slave.

That does not do any good.

[johns0]

It does if both are set on master or slave or the cdrw is set on cs.

[bazooka]

It does if both are set on master or slave or the cdrw is set on cs.

Mine was set to master with nothing else on the cable and it disappeared.

It is a bug in Service Pack 2

That is why I was asking him if he was running SP2.

[johns0]

Its best to check all possiblities,it can be cable or os problems.

[elizard]

Yes, I'm running SP2. So that's doing this?! Is this the worst service pack or what?

I do have the burner set as the master. I even removed the cdrw so the NEC burner was the only drive on the cable.

I have a new system and it's setup with SP2. I bet they didn't give me the option of uninstalling just the service pack.

How did you find out it was an SP2 bug? Is there something on MSFT's site or did you just figure SP2 was bad?

Thanks so much. So I guess I should reformat this if I can't rollback the service pack.
-Elizabeth.

[bazooka]

Yes, I'm running SP2. So that's doing this?! Is this the worst service pack or what?

I do have the burner set as the master. I even removed the cdrw so the NEC burner was the only drive on the cable.

I have a new system and it's setup with SP2. I bet they didn't give me the option of uninstalling just the service pack.

How did you find out it was an SP2 bug? Is there something on MSFT's site or did you just figure SP2 was bad?

Thanks so much. So I guess I should reformat this if I can't rollback the service pack.
-Elizabeth.

It is a bug in service pack 2. Instead of the drive reverting back to pio mode on read errors, the drive disappears.

It happened to me and when I uninstalled the ide channel and rebooted, the drive reappeared. You don't need to reformat or get rid of SP2, just keep that in mind and next time you will know what to do.

If you were to go back to SP1, then the drive would revert back to PIO mode and your ripping and burning speeds would be slower.

You must pick the lesser of two evils.

If you choose to remove service pack 2, you can remove it through the add/remove function of the control panel.

[elizard]

Could I solve it now if I uninstalled the ide channel and rebooted? Is that a permanent fix or just when it decides to disappear?
-E.

[bazooka]

Could I solve it now if I uninstalled the ide channel and rebooted? Is that a permanent fix or just when it decides to disappear?
-E.

It is not a permanent solution. It is just used when the drive disappears.

The only permanent solution is to use Linux.

[elizard]

I didn't see where the service pack is in add/remove programs. I also checked under Windows components. I know it should be there, but these pre-packaged setups are always strange. I can see in explorer under windows, the uninstall folders at the top.

[elizard]

smile. Yes, Linux but I'm just a teacher and writer so I suffer along with everyone else with MSFT.

[bazooka]

It is in the add-remove list toward the bottom.

It will say Windows XP Service Pack 2

[elizard]

Yes it should list it at the bottom, but it doesn't. I promise it isn't there. This pre-packaged nonsense doesn't have that option. My last item is weatherbug (a free weather program from Compaq). This is a new machine that doesn't just give you the darn OS, but the whole monster reinstall.

But I do have 8 folders that are like this: $NTUninstallKB834707$ etc. I see each has an uninstall program but which one do I use? All of them? Shesh. They always think they make these things easier when they load all this gunk for you.
-E.

[bazooka]

Yes it should list it at the bottom, but it doesn't. I promise it isn't there. This pre-packaged nonsense doesn't have that option. My last item is weatherbug (a free weather program from Compaq). This is a new machine that doesn't just give you the darn OS, but the whole monster reinstall.

But I do have 8 folders that are like this: $NTUninstallKB834707$ etc. I see each has an uninstall program but which one do I use? All of them? Shesh. They always think they make these things easier when they load all this gunk for you.
-E.

Get rid of weatherbug. It is spyware. Unless you have another operating system, then you are stuck with it. It sounds like you have an OEM version.

If you got a restore disc with that computer, then it probably has SP2 on it.

[elizard]

It's an OEM. I do have a restore disk and I think I'll have to redo the whole darn thing with my own copy of XP. I just didn't want to do this until I was absolutely sure everything worked in case I had to call Compaq.

I just hope this is really just sp2. If it isn't, I'm going through a lot of work for nothing. Just for the heck of it, I emailed NEC to see if they are aware of this.

Thanks for all the info.
-E.

[bazooka]

I just hope this is really just sp2. If it isn't, I'm going through a lot of work for nothing. Just for the heck of it, I emailed NEC to see if they are aware of this.

Thanks for all the info.
-E.

It is SP2. They may not be aware of it yet.

If you have a different version of XP, then you will need to get the compaq drivers for the computer.

[elizard]

Nice...I just tried to use my scanner tonight and it's gone. All I had to do was unplug and replug in the USB. So this is all nasty SP2? Why do they put out such buggy software?!

Fortunately, someone else who bought the same system knows where HP hides the drivers so I've been backing them up. I know I'll need them once I clean out all this gunk. Frustrating but thanks so much for letting me know.
-E.

[elizard]

Bazooka - Thanks. That seems to be it. I've burned various dvd's for a few days without a problem.

It really bothers me what MSFT does to everyone. Security holes a truck could drive through and a lousy service pack that messes with other vendors.

Did you notice they're giving away free antispyware?
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Thanks again. I'm so glad it isn't the drive or my computer hardware.
-E.

[bazooka]

No problem

[handyguy]

If you search the net for 'drive stuck in PIO mode' you should get some answers, if its that PIO thing someone mentioned....

But for me, it turned out that in the BIOS listed my dvd writer as NONE & I changed it to AUTO.....worked wonderfully.