Optiarc dvd rw sata 7241s problems

[burner1]

Hi i just purchased this dvd rewriter and am experiencing a lot of problems burning to dvd media. I keep getting logical communication errors ultra dma. However the thing is sometimes it works. I burn a file fine next day try to burn get the logical communication errror. Ive used all sorts of media but still the burn process fails. Sometimes it burns successfully then i try another file and it fails. If i try to burn say 2-gb it fails after around 3 mins. If i try a small file say 100mb which takes hardly any time it succeeds. at the moment no files are burning at all but yesterday i burnt quite a few successfully. I had a standard ide dvd drive previously and then purchased a sata host adapter and cable and this sata drive. Device manager says everything is fine. Anyone got any ideas. All dvds are failing with logical communication error.

[redwudz]

Maybe the SATA host adapter. What adapter are you using? Is that a PCI type SATA adapter or a IDE>SATA converter?

And welcome to our forums.

[bevills1]

Note not all chipsets work correctly with optical drives. Intel and Silicon Image chipsets do work correctly while many others don't. See http://club.myce.com/f7/silicon-image-based-sata-ide-controllers-flashable-not-252721/ for info on Silicon Image PCI adapters that are flashable including info on flashing adapter BIOS. I got the one in post #4 at that link, and it works well after flashing adapter BIOS. Another option might be to exchange the SATA burner for an IDE burner to eliminate the need for an adapter.

[burner1]

Hi yes its a pci sata host adapter (my-link 3 port sata serial ata + 1 ata pci controller card)

It came with a driver cd and device manager had it as working fine.

Anyways after going though about 50 dvds some working some not and much reading I think ive solved it. The error kept coming up ultra dma so I switched to pio mode. I installed klite codec pack because when using cdxp burner it says beforehand need wm9 runtimes if burning wmv files so i figured maybe the same sort of thing is true for other media files. Then i did some more reading and found out my aspi driver was not installed. I installed an adaptec aspi driver. Now dvds are burning but very slowly, but at least they are working.

Stangely though I went to use my floppy drive and noticed the icon had gone. I checked my bios and said it was not installed so that had changed somewhere along the line. I reset my bios to default and floppy drive reinstalled with drivers on startup.

I did have an ide drive previously and never experienced any problems. I ended up with sata by mistake because i didnt pay attention to the sata part. It was only when i t arrived i realised i needed sata ports and so on.

[budz]

^^^^post your motherboard brand and model number. that way it's easier to figure out if it's a problem with the sata controller on your pci sata controller card or the chipset controller on the motherboard.

[burner1]

yes heres my motherboard model.

Field Value
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8SIML

[budz]

I see you have a old pentium 4 socket 478 motherboard which doesn't support SATA & uses SIS chipset controller. What is the make/brand model number of that PCI SATA controller card that you're using. If it uses VIA chipset on the pci sata controller that's the reason for your problem. PCI SATA controller cards with SILICON image 3112, 3114 & 3512 chipset will work with SATA dvd burners. Here's a PCI SATA controller that you could use and it's cheap at $14.99.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CL-SL3114&cat=CCD

[burner1]

thanks for your help it seems that the sata controller does have a via chipset heres the one i bought

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000LS4LXS/ref=oss_product

SATA PCI - 3 int and 1 ext ports - VIA VT6421a



so i guess this means i need to buy a new controller

[budz]

thanks for your help it seems that the sata controller does have a via chipset heres the one i bought

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000LS4LXS/ref=oss_product

SATA PCI - 3 int and 1 ext ports - VIA VT6421a



so i guess this means i need to buy a new controller

Yup, you'll have to buy a new pci sata controller card that uses the SILICON image 3112, 3114 & 3512 chipset. The one you have uses the via chipset controller which will not work correctly with SATA DVD burners.