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OS periodically can't read the DVD drive

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:22 pm
by mixz1
My Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-852 ATA drive will periodically fail to recognize a DVD and Vista pops up a message asking if I want to format the disc for recording.

If I go to Device Manager and delete the drive and then restart, the drive is rediscovered and funtions perfectly for a few cycles, playing anything I put into it and recording anything I want to record. Then the problem reappears. I can't figure out why this happens.

The machine is a 6459-CTO T61p running Vista Ultimate SP1.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:12 pm
by ZaZ
You deleted the drive or the ide drivers? Could run PC-Doctor or Lenovo Toolbox as I think it's now called to see if that shows anything.

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:39 pm
by mixz1
FredGarvin wrote:You deleted the drive or the ide drivers? Could run PC-Doctor or Lenovo Toolbox as I think it's now called to see if that shows anything.
Device Manager, right-click on drive, uninstall. It's an ATA device and the driver is the standard Windows cdrom.sys.

Toolbox finds no fault with the device, probably because there's no problem with the device. It's a software or registry issue is my best guess.

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:32 pm
by ZaZ
CDBunrerXP is free and works well for the basics if you want try some different software. Works well in Vista too.

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:06 pm
by mixz1
FredGarvin wrote:CDBunrerXP is free and works well for the basics if you want try some different software. Works well in Vista too.
Fred, thanks for the suggestion, but if the OS doesn't see the drive, the recording software doesn't mean anything.

To restate the problem, when double-clicking on the DVD drive, with a disc, either music or video in the drive, Windows reports an unformatted, blank disc. Uninstalling the drive using Device Manager and the re-booting restore the functionality of the drive. It's got nothing to do with recording software, be it Nero or Ashampoo. Also, I don't believe CDBurnerXP is intended for Vsta.

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:58 pm
by ZaZ
I was thinking of the ide driver, which is not the same thing as the drive in Device manager. It's a little further down the list. Windows will re-installed them when re-booted.

Do you have any packet writing software like InCD or DirectCD installed? I can't remember what the Lenovo version is called or if they're still using it. If you are it's a known troublemaker. You might want to dump it.