Upgrading a burner

[JimL]

Running XP Pro, SP3, heavily updated.

I last burned a CD in my 15 inch T42 over a year ago - absolutely no problem - in the original CD/DVD drive. Personally I haven't even used it to read data or play two dozen times, but it does do that fine. Now it won't erase or burn at all. I see no indication that it was heavily used before I got it and I've burned with it maybe half a dozen disks. It just doesn't make sense to me that it would just quite because I didn't use it.

I do believe the IMAPI has changed since I've burned anything and have wondered if it is a problem. At boot IMAPI ALWAYS comes online then shuts down in about 5 or 6 seconds according to Event Viewer. Watching the services in a utility it does the same thing if I manually run the exe - 5 or 6 seconds then it's vamoose time. I don't see it even come on when I start a burn.

In an "erase" the progress bar jumps to 30% instantly, holds for about 10 seconds and jumps to 100%, ejecting the disk. On a burn it runs at an apparently normal speed up to 20 or 30 percent then ejects the disk. This is with various disks and two different softwares - the same pattern

When I brought it up on the XP Basic newsgroup I got an instant, "You need a new burner/player." But I don't like the idea of buying a new one and finding out that isn't the problem.

I've tried the support.microsoft.com remedies with no effect.

Any suggestions welcome.

If it needs a new cd/dvd drive, any suggestions on a replacement? Try to find the exact item new?

JimL

[ZaZ]

Did you try to see if PC-Doctor or System ToolBox if you've done your updates says anything? You might want to delete the IDE drivers in the device manager. If it's somehow corrupted, Windows will reinstall them when re-booted. It's probably a long shot, but worth a try.

Due to the slimness and the connector issue you'll only be able to use a ThinkPad drive. If you're going for a DVD burner, I might suggest going with a T60 drive. They're faster and some of the T4x drives are total crap. I know, I had a couple. A T60 fits, though the bezel isn't quite the same and a 8x DVD burner T60 drive is probably a bit more expensive. You can pick one up on eBay or you might want to post over in the Marketplace forum you're looking for one. Someone may have an extra. Good Luck.

[Kaervak]

I also recommend going with the T60 burner option as you'll get a newer, faster drive. I just today received a 39T2851 MultiBurner III for my T43. Brand new drive for a T60 and it works perfectly. It does have the flat bezel, however only about 2mm or so sticks out. It's really not noticeable or that big of a deal to me. Oh, from experience, don't bother with going after a non IBM/Thinkpad drive as the IBM/Thinkpad drives have a proprietary data connector.