I'm new here, so I hope I've posted to the appropriate forum.
Anyway, I just tried to create a dvd of an old home movie for the first time. I'm using Sonic RecordNow, which I like a lot. When the file is ready to burn, my system acts as though there is not a blank media disc in the drive.
I am using a Dell 8400 system with a Philips DVD8631. It is a DVD +-R/W dual layer drive. The media I am using is Fujifilm DVD-R 8X 4.7GB. When I put it in the drive, it's as if there's nothing in there. If I go through Windows Explorer to even see how much space is available on the disc, it tells me to put a disc in the drive. I have burned a CD-R with the drive, so I know it is functional.
Could it be that I have a bad batch of discs or is it the driver of the DVD drive? Dell support could not help me because the rep could not understand my problem. *sigh*
I have just received my new Dell Dimension 8400 myself last week.
Since the PC arrived, there has been 2 new firmware upgrade for the Philips DVD8631.
The original was D9something, then BD10 came out.
Now the latest as of Jan 2005, CD21 (Dell A3) just came out.
Upgrade to CD21 and try again.
I hope Dell Tech Support were smart enought to at least as you what firmware you had :)
As for Sonic whatever software, I have never used it.
Check for updates also.
Should work because Dell installed it, but hey updates are there to fix problems :)
Everything I tryed up to now worked like a charm on this new Dell 8400. But then again, I blow everything out of the water and installed Windows XP Pro myself, CLEAN and the way I wanted :)
Could this have anything to do with DLA being on or off and the media being formatted before attempting to burn? I have tried both having DLA on and formatting the disc. Then I get a "disc is not blank" message. If I disable DLA and put in a new disc then start burning, the burning software hangs up at "building menus" and never writes to the disc.
Might I not be waiting long enough? I mean, when I just pop the disc in and click burn, it goes through the "building menus" thing and then it appears to build menus again but nothing happens and the cpu does not seem to be doing anything. This goes on for about a half hour.
