humbletech99 Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 This is a break from my usual sysadmin posts, but I have a really annoying problem at home on my DVD-RW. It's an LG (GSA 4163B) which I have been using for a year to burn cds and dvds, but about a month ago it stopped reading disks of any kind including originals and disks it had previously burned.I tried a lot of stuff but the only thing that seems to make it work again is to remove the drivers and reboot and then it starts reading disks again indicating that it is likely a software problem.I am running XP Sp2 (Pro) and have tried googling for this which seems to have happened to a couple of other people as well, although I didn't find any solutions.Has anybody seen this before or got an idea of what causes it. There must be something that triggers it, some conflict, bug, registry setting, etc...This drive has been working well for a year, I can't imagine it just packing up. It's actually burning as I type this now after removing the drivers and rebooting again.... <sigh> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted November 29, 2006 Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 I have found that my CD-ROM would sometimes disappear after removing a program like Nero, or Roxio.I have fixed it with this file: http://aumha.org/downloads/cdgone.ziphttp://aumha.org/regfiles.htm (scroll down to Restore Missing CD Drive. Win XP ONLY!) Here's a quote:The popular CDGONE patch. CD drives may vanish in Windows Explorer, Device Manager, etc. if a third-party CD-burning package has been uninstalled and Registry references for some code modules aren’t removed successfully. This patch and a reboot usually will restore the missing drives. Any third party package still required will then have to be re-installed. For more information on this and other possible causes, see the “Problems” section of Alex Nichol’s Burning CDs in Windows XP article.I have found that this has restored the burning functionality to my drive, every time I have used it. Perhaps this is the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
humbletech99 Posted November 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2006 but I haven't installed or uninstallted anything at all.The drive works for a while and then when I finished burning one disk and tried to burn the next it just stopped working again!The drive is still there and I can see it in both explorer and device manager but it just doesn't read a data on disks, treats them all as though they're blank or not-in the drive or something.Properties on the drive when I have a full disk in there just shows 0 bytes used and 0 bytes free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 30, 2006 Report Share Posted November 30, 2006 Do you have another drive you could swap this one with to test?Most of the symptoms exhibited point to a failed or failing drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted November 30, 2006 Report Share Posted November 30, 2006 I agree with pops. Sounds like its on its way out.How about an non-CDR or CDRW disc. A pressed disc (original). Do they come up with the same thing?It could be that the laser is getting dirty. You should try blowing some compressed air into the drive to clean it out. If you can't manage to get anything to work, a new DVD-RW drive, which does CD, CD-R, DVD-R, DVD-RW (and +R/+RW) are now a days quite cheap (under $40USD). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
humbletech99 Posted November 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2006 yes, it comes up the same with official disks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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