drive wont recognise CD-R's

[Florida_Bear]

Yes my combo drive will not recognise blank CD-R's at all ?
It will recognise all other blank disc's but not blank CD-R's.
Any ideas anyone ?

Regards......Ted

[colettej23]

Control Panel ----> System --->Hardware---->Device Manager

Locate your drive, and right click, select uninstall, your puter should restart and reinstall the drive itself.

if that doesnt work then its knackered

[Florida_Bear]

if that doesnt work then its knackered
I wish people wouldnt get technical with me :grin:


Thanks Collette will give that a try......Ted

[Matt Charlton]

How old is the drive?

Have you used this particular brand of CD-R before?

Different brands of CD-R use different coloured dye's - some are better than others and some CD writers just can't handle some of the dyes in some of the CDRs. I tend to find the darker the dye the better the compatability is.

A new CD-writer can be had for not much more than a tenner, a DVD-writer is less than £20 so its not the end of the world.

[Florida_Bear]

Thanks Matt, That's good point about the different brands.
I have used the Sony CD-R's in this drive with no problems before.
The drive came with the PC and is around two years old.

Regards......Ted

[Matt Charlton]

Two years is a very short lifespan, although I've had DVD-RW drives pack up in less than 6 months before, depends how much use they get I guess among other varying factors.

My first port of call would be to buy a drive cleaning CD (one of the ones with brushes and solution or whatever it is they sell these days) and buy a small 5 pack of a different brand of cdrs and check them.

[Florida_Bear]

Thanks Matt, I will give those things a try.

Regards......Ted

[Mickiengland]

I know that I've had this problem in the distant past & I think that it was that CD's came in two types - like A & B (although I don't think it actually is A & B as that would be too simple....). Trouble is that I can't find this on the net to confirm! I think that the best advice from above is to - before you disconnect the drive from your PC!! - buy a type and brand that you've used successfully before....

[Matt Charlton]

CD-Rs have two types but only in the case of CD-R (write once) and CD-RW (re-writables with the ability to erase).

It could be DVD blanks that you are getting mixed up with - there are DVD-R and DVD+R, most modern drives will write to both, older drives only did one or the other.

hope that helps :)

[Griff_389]

If it's just one type of discs that you've just tried for the first time (i.e. you haven't previously had success using), try going to the cd drve manufactures website and see if there are any firmware updates.

Firmware is the 'software' that is physically inside the cdrom drive and separate to windows drivers.

I have had to update mine twice now due to new media not being recognised.

If you are unsure, give us the make and model of the cd drive and we can take a look for you.

[Florida_Bear]

If you are unsure, give us the make and model of the cd drive and we can take a look for you.
Thanks All/Griff.
The drive is a HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GWA-4164B

Regards......Ted

[Griff_389]

Your drive appears to be an LG drive. I'm guessing it's getting on a bit now as I can't find any reference to it on LG's website, and so can't find any firmware updates for it.

There are some drivers (software to get windows to talk to the drive)from April 2006 for it here:
http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/FIRMWARE/LG/LG-GWA-4164B-105.shtml

You could try downloading these drivers and installing them to see if that helps. I'm presuming it's Windows XP you have. Failing that, probably easier to just get a new one at around £25-£30.

[Griff_389]

If it's an HP machine, there are a few firmware updates on HP's website for that drive, but they are from 2005 so chances are you already have that version in the drive.

[Florida_Bear]

Thanks Griff, I am downloading the update at the moment.
Failing that I do have a relatively new recorder drive in another pc that I could use.

Regards......Ted

[Florida_Bear]

Hi All. I still havent resolved this problem :blush:
Just been looking though, and there is NO recording option under propreties for the drive ?
Any ideas anyone ?

Ted

[Florida_Bear]

Hmmmmmm, Got the recording tab back by using the info found here (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316529) but still not working :confused2

Ted

[Florida_Bear]

Hmmmmm, I bought a new drive installed it ok.
But I STILL have the same problem :(
Any ideas anyone ?

Ted

[rpbert1]

What about updates for your Motherboard ,

[rpbert1]

or you could try this

follow the reg sugestion....

1. Run Regedit to open the Registry Editor
2. Switch to the following key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\CD
Burning\Drives

- All CD drives show up in same key

- "Drive Type" value determines whether drive is capable of writing and
rewriting

01=CD-R Drive

02=CD-RW Drive

03=Write Disabled

3. Note: if you have more than 1 CD-ROM / CD-RW devices installed, you
will
see the related items under the Drivers. Please change the keys one by
one,




instead of my computer listing my drive as a CDRW in the reg, it lists it as a CDRom, and that was my problem. So where your drive types lists your DVDRW/CDRom drive, change the value to 2.....I did this and I just successfully burned my first CD this week with no probs since that ANNOYING issue came up.

Hope it helps, let me know. Obviously the problem is that XP recognizes the drive, but does not recognize that it has the capability to burn as a CDRW as well, I suppose. if it doesnt work change the value back to 1

Good luck

[Florida_Bear]

Thanks for your help Robert.
I have already tried that registry thing to no avail, but I didnt realise a motherboard update may cure this problem so I can certainly give that a try.

Regards......Ted

[jackie2]

I have just read the replies to this post rpbert1 suggested checking the motherboard can someone explain how to do this please in easy english.
Thank you.

[Florida_Bear]

I have just read the replies to this post rpbert1 suggested checking the motherboard can someone explain how to do this please in easy english.
Thank you.

Ahh Jackie, you have the same problem ?
Just put a new drive in and it was still the same.
Installed Nero 8 and now I can burn using that, but the 'send to' option will not work ?

Ted

[jackie2]

I have a new CD/DVD/RW drive waiting to be installed when a friend can do it, I can read CD's but I cannot copy to CD's after reading some of the information on here it might be that I do not need to replace the CD drive.

[Florida_Bear]

Jackie, This is a really strange problem :erm:
DS has almost the same PC as mine and also has this problem, when I contacted the pc manufacturer (Fujitsu Siemens)
They advised me to re-install the operating system !

Ted

[jackie2]

I only had a new drive in June as the same thing happened and I still had the extended warrenty with Dell, they have replaced the drive as a goodwill measure but they will not send anyone to install it this time.

[Florida_Bear]

Jackie,Welcome to the Dibb by the way :wavey: .
The other thing they mentioned was to get some burning software and try again, so I tried the latest version of Nero and to my surprise it worked and allowed me to burn some data :)
I have just copied a disc using a program called Clone DVD and that worked as well :)

Ted

[essexmick]

Jackie,Welcome to the Dibb by the way :wavey: .
The other thing they mentioned was to get some burning software and try again, so I tried the latest version of Nero and to my surprise it worked and allowed me to burn some data :)
I have just copied a disc using a program called Clone DVD and that worked as well :)

Ted

hiya ted

i use clone too also i use anydvd that works in the background, which then alows you to backup anything you have and it works a treat

[Florida_Bear]

hiya ted

i use clone too also i use anydvd that works in the background, which then alows you to backup anything you have and it works a treat

Mick. Yes it's great isnt it.
One of the few bit's of software I have bought and well worth it.
I havent found a disc yet that it will not copy.

Ted

[jackie2]

I have seen your reply, can you tell me please how to update my motherboard? I have never heard of this.
Thank you.

[Florida_Bear]

I have seen your reply, can you tell me please how to update my motherboard? I have never heard of this.
Thank you.
Jackie, I must admit I have done this and still no joy.
I have given up now and bought an external drive !

Tes

[rpbert1]

I have seen your reply, can you tell me please how to update my motherboard? I have never heard of this.
Thank you.

Name and model of M/B then go to the makers site and see what Bios upgrade and driver upgrades available.

[rpbert1]

I use DVD Fab Platinum for backing up DVDs also have DVD region + CSS free to enable to make the dvds region free as DD has quite a few different region DVDs ,so we are able to play them on any DVD player

[jackie2]

Thank you for your reply I will try to find out the name of my mother board, as I explained before I only had this CD/DVD installed in June as the same thing happened to the drive it could read CD/DVD's but not copy.
Thank you again.