Thinkpads Forum

Hi!

Can anyone point to a setting that could be behind the problem I'm facing with my Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-842 drive in my T60p (2007-83G)? It hardly recognizes any disks, no matter whether self or factory made. At times the drive will try to spin up, but then stops after a few attempts, at others the disk will not even show up under devices. Device Manager claims that the drive is functioning perfectly.

Of course the drive could be defective but I'd like to check every avenue before making any claims about the drive to Lenovo.

So, is there still hope for this drive?

TIA

There is something touchy about that drive. Mine spins up just fine but I thought it was defective because with a couple of CD (original install disks for software packages) the eject button appears to be dead. The only way to eject those disks is with a paper clip. The other disks I tried eject without problem. I suspect a firmware bug.

claudeo, I had exactly that same problem--I tried to eject a CD and it just wouldn't eject until I shut off the computer and turned it back on.

There is something very touchy about it. I tried running the PC Doctor tests on it and after shuffling a lot of cds and dvds (commercial and self made) it failed in the "DVD linear seek test" and claims an "internal error" on "DVD-RAM Random Seek Test." It won't run the rest of the tests.

Seems like my drive is broken. I opened a ticket at Lenovo yesterday, but so far all I've gotten is an acknowledgement that they have received my request for assistance.

The firmware on this drive is RB01. After a lot of digging, I was able to find RB02, but it won't install on my drive. The installation program claims that no drive is present, when there in fact is. Before trying that I tried the ISO-firmware-update-disk from Lenovo, but that one said that there was no need to update.

Let's see what Lenovo has to say.

Duh. I did not read the OP closely enough. My drive is DVD-ROM/CDR-W by Hitachi-LG, so the problem is different... There might be some problem in the way the BIOS handles the bay, as I assume some interesting tricks were used to allow use of a SATA drive in a bay for which the original design was for PATA only. This might explain the occasional "eject" problem even if the drive itself is perfectly fine.

Off-topic:

Hi Lusmu,

Where did you download the RB02 firmware for the UJ-842 drive? Been looking for it for some time. Hope you can share.

TIA.

dejakenth wrote:Off-topic:

Hi Lusmu,

Where did you download the RB02 firmware for the UJ-842 drive? Been looking for it for some time. Hope you can share.

TIA.

Hi!

Sorry, I didn't notice your question earlier, I've browsed the forum without logging in...

I got to the (At least, what I thought was the RB02 firmware) through this forum. Can't remember the exact location of the file. As I reported, I wasn't able to install it, so it may have been a modified firmware for some other manufacturer's laptop.

As for my personal dilemma, Lenovo support promptly sent me a new GSA-4083N drive, which is working fine. Sorry, I couldn't be of more assistance. Have you asked Lenovo?

There is no problem with how the BIOS access the bay, because the BIOS has little to do with it to begin with. The problem where you cannot use the eject button, or any other key combination bound to eject the CD, is primarily an issue with Windows XP and I have seen it on many drives and many systems and it even comes up when you try to eject it via a software link. If there is some process that, for whatever reason, wasn't done with the optical drive for either the previous disc or the current disc, then the disc can't really be ejected properly according to Windows.

I would say that your optical drive has a defect and should probably be replaced by IBM/Lenovo. As a general note, if any hardware repeatedly fails a test by PC-Doctor, then it is a valid claim for support.

I believe DLA can sometimes be the culprit. Try going to My Computer, right-click on your optical drive and choose Properties > DLA tab, and uncheck box "Enable DLA on your drives". You may have to reboot for the changes to take effect - I am not sure. If you want, you can uninstall DLA from Windows Add or Remove Programs. It is called Sonic DLA.

EDIT: The above refers to the eject CD problem.

Lusmu wrote:

dejakenth wrote:Off-topic:

Hi Lusmu,

Where did you download the RB02 firmware for the UJ-842 drive? Been looking for it for some time. Hope you can share.

TIA.

Hi!

Sorry, I didn't notice your question earlier, I've browsed the forum without logging in...

I got to the (At least, what I thought was the RB02 firmware) through this forum. Can't remember the exact location of the file. As I reported, I wasn't able to install it, so it may have been a modified firmware for some other manufacturer's laptop.

As for my personal dilemma, Lenovo support promptly sent me a new GSA-4083N drive, which is working fine. Sorry, I couldn't be of more assistance. Have you asked Lenovo?

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I've been loaded with work lately and have only been able to visit this forum again just recently. My multi-burner works fine, its just that it has difficulties recognizing the new media coming out, my drive then defaults to 2x or 2.4x burn, which is quite irritating when I have 8x capable or faster media.

Will try to get in touch with Lenovo.

Thanks.