Pioneer DVR-AO4 Not working with XP

[falco533]

Today I purchased a Pioneer DVR-AO4 DVDR/RW Writer, and I cant get it work in my system. It just cant read any data off any media thats in the drive.
Control Panel \System\ Device manager \ Hardware the drive is recognised and installed.
BIOS recognises it at bootup. Works 100% ok in DOS
I tried a new XP installation booting from the Pioneer DVR-AO4 DVDR/RW
Everything went fine, installation finished then rebooted after the install
and EXACT SAME THING happened. Wont read from the drive. (Obviously the problem is in Windows XP)
Tried it as a master and also a slave, removed EVERYTHING from the PCI slots.
Still the same.
I took it back to where I purchased the drive and they tried it in another system with same motherboard, and it worked perfectly
The shop wants a 10% restocking fee for the return of this drive. (I paid
$850 here in Australia) so I would dearly love to get this going.

Any suggestions

[clunk]

Did you try disabling DMA on the drive. I too have the A04 on WinXP and Nero wouldn't burn to it 'til I made the drive have PIO access.

Go to your Device Manager in XP and choose the Primary or Secondary IDE channel. Choose Properties -> Advanced Settings and make the transfer mode "PIO Only" (or something like that).

Good Luck.

[PhilipL]

Withdrawn

[falco533]

OK tried altering the drive settings in BIOS to PIO Mode 1,2,3,4, & 5 made no difference.
Also changed the setting manually in Control Panel \ System \ Device Manager Secondary IDE port to PIO mode.
This made a difference, it could read the volume label on the disk but still couldnt see any files. Also after doing this the sytem booted at a normal speed instead of taking 5 minutes to get to the desktop.
Put the AO4 in a ME system and worked flawlessly. Unfortunately I am going to be working with large video files so ME isnt a solution for me.
Thanks for your words of advice

[falco533]

PhilipL can you tell me what the event viewer is.

Hello!
Pioneer DVR-AO4 ,
The first time i burned a dvd-r with Nero i could burn in 2x but now i can not select 2x only 1x for dvd burning. Nothing seems to help.
Could the problem be in Nero or is it the DVD burner?


Has anyone else had this problem?

Is there any else program besides Nero that display burn speed for DVD?

[IonNuke]

Yeah I get that same problem too. Well it's actually not a problem. NERO just dectects that your cheap DVD-R media is only 1x compatible. Forcing 2x (don't know how you can) will destroy the disc......dunno about drive.

NERO has the tendoncy to detect all the writing compatiblility speeds that the disc physically can sustain. So don't expect DVD burning to display 2x unless your media says 2x compatible on there. Ya can't assume either. You'll know when you have 2x media. Take a look at the price tag....

Hello.

Can you select 2x In nero with no disc in the drive?

I could do this in the beginning when the drive was new, but not anymore.
I have tried with several computers (with Nero) but I can only choose 1x.
Doesn't seem like it's a medium problem, In my eyes it looks like its something wrong with the drive... or..........?