XP won't recognize DVD medium only CDs

[pjb6492]

I'm new to this forum and have a problem. I have a Dell Dimension 3000 with XP SP3. I purchased as I/O Magic DVD +R DL sometime ago for work to make backups - works fine. I brought it home and XP recognizes it as a DVD-RW drive however, when placing a dvd in the drive for backup, XP is looking for a CD and not a DVD. I looked for a drive update, but found that XP should have the correct driver. My question is how can I get XP to recognize the DVD medium? Thanks for your help in advance.

[El Heggunte]

when placing a dvd in the drive for backup, XP is looking for a CD and not a DVD.

Huh?

Please define "XP is looking for a CD and not a DVD."
Also, does the same happen to a DVD-ROM or an already-recorded DVD-R
FWIW, I always untick the checkbox "Enable CD recording on this drive" on the Properties page of the DVD-RAM units, and also I always disable Autorun for all types of drives in the Registry. Often Windows Explorer will say "Filesystem unknown" , but the discs are read correctly anyway.

[fritzi93]

I can think of three reasons for that problem, all of which I've encountered:

1) The optical drive is failing. Typically, the drive beginning to fail will no longer recognize either DVDRs or CDRs.

2) Bad cables. Replace.

3) Software you've installed has screwed the device. That was more common when folks used packet-writing apps like Nero's InCD. The solution is to delete the offending registry keys and reboot:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325 -11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} - "Upperfilters" and "Lowerfilters

If deleting registry entries make you nervous, Microsoft has an automatic fix for you. The support page specifies it is for a burner not recognized by the system, but it applies in this case as well:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

Note that the program that caused the trouble will probably no longer work, and you'll have to re-install it. Or preferably find something else to burn with, like ImgBurn.

[hello_hello]

I didn't think XP decoded DVD video unless you had third party DVD decoding software installed, or did that change with a later service pack?
Not that I've ever tried it, but I'm sure XP's built in burning software doesn't support burning DVDs. For XP it's CDs only, unless I'm remembering wrong, so you'd need to install a third party DVD burner such as ImgBurn, which is probably a good thing anyway.

If XP can see the contents of a DVD (it understand the file system) which it should, then I'm pretty sure the problem comes down to needing a third party DVD burner. If XP can't play DVD video even though it can see the files, a replacement for the Windows hunk-o junk media player would be in order if you don't have one already. MPC-HC, VLC etc....

[MOVIEGEEK]

Are you using the built-in burn software(right-click and send to)? If so don't because it defaults to CD's, get a real burning program such as ImgBurn.

[jgg]

I agree with fritzi93 that it's probably something mechanical. You didn't mention which I/O Magic DVD +R DL device you have (I saw lots of them here, but none with that specific designation -http://reviews.cnet.com/dvd-drives/?filter=1000036_126751_).

Anyway, if it's an external device, I'd say try it in another machine. If it's an internal drive, maybe you should check the I/O Magic forum and see if other people have the same problem.

I have the exact same issue with an LG drive on an older IBM machine, and I discovered that the laser in the specific model of the drive I have is known to go bad quickly. I installed another dive in the machine, and it works fine.