My DVD Drive unit is driving me crazy. I wonder if someone could help me on diagnosing whether it's a matter of the unit or Windows 7 64 bit. I have no technical knowledge (little above average PC user), but am willing to follow instructions.
I have a 2 year old LG GH22NS50 TN03 running on a Desktop with Windows 7 64 bit for about 3 months. The optical unit and the Win 7 never got along very well since the beginning.
First, I put blank DVD-R media on the drive and it took ages to recognize it as a DVD blank. Sometimes it lasted 10 minutes, with a low noise drive work (apparently not stressing the unit). On Win 7, a green bar progressed from left to right on "My Computer" window.
Since some weeks ago, I got some error when burning media on Nero Burning Rom. The software check accused read errors, as Nero Disc Speed accused damaged sectors. But then I tested those supposedly bad burned discs on my Laptop and all that disappeared! The Laptop Nero Disc Speed didn't see the bad sectors the Desktop Nero Disc Speed saw. Also on the laptop I tested the recorded content by copying it to the HDD, and it seemed perfect (straight copy, no slow downs, no CRC problems, not even missing bytes).
This week, things got tougher. Sometimes I can burn a DVD-R perfectly, but rarely now. Other times, I got "PMA update failure" on Nero Burning Rom. Other times (most common), I get "read errors" when Nero finishes the burn and starts verifying written data.
Since yesterday, whenever burning finishes, Nero starts checking the disc and the check is incredibly slow (sometimes down to 100 kb/s). When I close Nero and try to access the data of the newly finished DVD-R on Win 7, also it's very slow (even if I want to open a small jpeg pic). When I try to copy it, very slow too (down to 100kb/s). And even the Laptop now also deals with the newly burned discs at such pace.
Any help diagnosing what?s wrong or maybe even correcting (if it?s not a hardware issue) will be truly highly appreciated
Those are the facts, but let me add some more details.
-The first symptom (blank DVD recognition) never seemed to me a hardware issue, as depending on the boot section this didn't happen at all (that is, sometimes the problem vanished after a reboot). I've been told that this could be a conflict with either Windows indexing services or Windows Explorer built in media burner. So I disabled both and got the feeling the problem became somewhat rarer.
-I can't detect who's the bad guy in this situation because 3 months ago I had a major change in my machine nearly all at once. I updated the LG firmware, then I had a burned motherboard (dead after a thunder) replaced by another MB, as a new power supply, and then I quit XP and installed Windows 7. So I kept the LG, the processor (an intel quad), the memory (4GB), the video card. So I can't see who's the real trouble here: the Win 7 or the LG unit.
-I use the optical drive a lot, burning DVDs, ripping audio CDs, testing etc.
-I use Alcohol 120% and have the virtual drive installed.
My Desktop:
Intel Core2 Quad Q9550
Motherboard: Asus P5KPL-AM SE Memory: 4GB DDR2
HDD: Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 - 1TB (partitioned)
Video card: XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 625mhz 1GB DDR3
Optical Drive Unit: LG Super Multi DVD Writer GH22NS50 TN03
Windows 7 Ultimate SP-1 64 Bit
Antivirus: AVG Free
Firewall: Zone Alarm
