Burner Won't Recognize Blank DVD-R Discs
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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30. December 2007 @ 03:28 |
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Tony226
Newbie
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30. December 2007 @ 11:52 |
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Unfortunately it is not a fix at all. There are new root kits which are much more subtle now.
Most recently I have encountered ones, particularly on Disney DVDs and Harry Potter DVDs that don't just write to the registry but actually decommission the DVD burning capability of the drive(s) installed - permanently. Given that Sony, author most of Disney's disk, make DVD burners; it works out well for them.
Most recently I found a root kit that works at such a high level within Windows that it overrides all needs for permissions and authorities. When you copy a DVD ISO, it embeds itself into the drive on which you store the ripped files, and also writes itself into the system restore files. When you open the ISO with any burner, the embedded DLL overwrites the burner, not just to shut off the DVD burning ability, but also recodes it so the a firmware upgrade will not recognize the device. The DLL then shuts down and reboots the system deleting any DVD player software it finds.
There is no choice but to buy a new burner. However, you need to reformat your hard drives, because the DLL is till resident and will take your new burners out again. You have to make sure that, if you stored the ISO on a drive other than C, that you reformat that drive too.
I find this activity to be criminal. By all means they can try to protect their ?property?, but deliberately damaging DVD burners and computer equipment must be illegal in anyone?s country. The difficulty seems to be in trying to prove what is happening, and the fear of being branded a copyright thief, when all you are doing is simply trying to make a backup of what you legally paid for.
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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30. December 2007 @ 12:12 |
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Hmm...are you a SONY "undercover agent" trying to scare us? :)
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laddyboy
AfterDawn Addict
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30. December 2007 @ 13:04 |
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Why isn't this happening to everyone's drives then? Why are only so few apparently affected by these rootkits? There are thousands of members here and relatively few with these problems. Is AnyDVD ferreting them out like it does the original rootkit? I'm sceptical since I haven't seen this discussed anywhere else. The potential liability for installing rootlits is enormous. It cost Sony a handsome sum before so I'm not sure I believe they would be going at it again.
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Tony226
Newbie
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30. December 2007 @ 17:47 |
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Yeah well, Laddyboy, so far all of your suggestions that the media that once burned just fine on the same burner has suddenly gone bad - or that the firmware might suddenly stop recognising blank discs, haven't helped anyone frankly.
It is happening, in great numbers. Check some of the other BBS forums around and see just how many people are having the problem. Then assume that not 100% of people turn to a BBS for help. The problem is huge, but the reason it is happening is precisely because people don't think it can happen after the last Sony issue. However, that one related to A. CDs, not DVDs and B. became an issue because it created instability and security errors as well as blocking burners. As such, it would take a whole new court challenge to bring pressure to bear on the perpetrators. Furthermore, the way in which the new root kits work is so well cloaked that most people suffering the effects will probably think it is a drive failure and go buy a new one.
As for being a Sony agent - no! But I do have an IT company with over thirty software and hardware engineers who have helped me to identify and understand whats is going on, so I think I speak with a little bit of authority on the subject.
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laddyboy
AfterDawn Addict
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30. December 2007 @ 18:26 |
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You didn't address the question as to why it is not affecting everyone. Why isn't everyone eventually running into this problem? It's not that we don't believe you, but it needs some proof which you haven't provided. How about some links, etc.
We have people that come here to stir up trouble all the time, so you'll have to excuse us if some of us are sceptical as to your claims. We are always looking for new info but you can't just say something and expect everyone to immediately believe what you say without providing some backup. Once again, there are thousands of members here, and frankly, few seem to be experiencing the problem. Can you tell us what titles to avoid for example?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 30. December 2007 @ 18:44
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Moderator
1 product review
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30. December 2007 @ 20:09 |
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Quote: Check some of the other BBS forums around and see just how many people are having the problem.
So give us some links to back up your information...
Quote:
Yeah well, Laddyboy, so far all of your suggestions that the media that once burned just fine on the same burner has suddenly gone bad - or that the firmware might suddenly stop recognizing blank discs, haven't helped anyone frankly.
Without going back too far in the thread, the drive/firmware/media being used in the last suggestion by laddyboy was ancient in PC years and the media is known to be garbage pail material. laddyboy is a great help on this site and I'll have you remember rule 6
Quote: 6. No foul language, insults, personal attacks or otherwise rude messages.
The rest can be found in my sig if you need a refresher...
Why not supply us with a virus scan log or from your favorite root-kit removal tool that points to ripping DVD's as the source of malicious code work by Sony.
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Shaiyla
Newbie
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4. January 2008 @ 18:00 |
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I've also been having problems with my DVD burner not being able to recognize blank DVD discs, and also being changed to a CD drive as soon as I put in a blank disc.
I got my brother to replace my old CD burner with the DVD burner I got for Christmas, and didn't notice any problems until I decided I wanted to burn something. The first thing I noticed was that the drive changed from 'DVD-RAM Drive (D:)' to 'CD Drive (E:)'. At this point, the old cd drive was still installed, so I got that taken out and made sure that the new DVD drive was set to be the master instead of the slave drive . This didn't change anything.
Now, I've been needing to reformat for some time, so I figured I may as well do it now and just hope that the drive will somehow sort itself out. Once I finished reformatting, I noticed that the drive is now called 'DVD-RAM Drive (E:)', and switches back to CD Drive (E:) once I insert a blank disc. It still reads discs just fine, as long as it's not a blank one.
I read a comment one the first or second page of this thread, and someone mentioned about flashing the drive, but I got pretty clueless when I got to the site that was mentioned (LiteOn Firmwares) so I haven't done anything else yet.
My boyfriend suggested looking in the Device Manager to make sure it didn't somehow think that the old CD drive was still installed (apparently he had that problem at some point in time), but this wasn't the case so I have no idea now how to fix it at all. I would like to find out a way to fix this myself, if it's possible, so any tips would be greatly appreciated.
The drive is GSA-H55L, and I've been using Memorex (I know some people think this isn't the best choice, but I've never had problems with it before so I doubt it's the discs).
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laddyboy
AfterDawn Addict
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6. January 2008 @ 13:35 |
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If you're running WinXP and the drive renames itself CD instead of DVD when you insert a blank DVD, that is not a reason to be concerned. WinXP only supports CDs natively so any disk is presumed to be a CD by the OS. The real question is whether you can burn a DVD or not with third party software.
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Shaiyla
Newbie
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6. January 2008 @ 14:40 |
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I haven't been able to burn a DVD with anything so far.
And I'm not too worried about how it switches from DVD to CD but I figured that might help identify the problem.
I'm also not sure if I should just take it back and replace it with a different burner or keep trying to find a solution.
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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6. January 2008 @ 16:26 |
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Piss me off, and I Will ignore You!
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laddyboy
AfterDawn Addict
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6. January 2008 @ 16:32 |
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What software are you using for burning? Are you trying to burn data or backup a movie DVD? Can you burn CDs with the drive? Have you examined the comm channels in Device Manager to ensure they are in the proper mode? You will also have to try some different media like Verbatim and try limiting your burn speed to 4X. Also tell us exactly what happens when you try to burn. If you can easily exchange the burner, I think I would just to see if that's the cause of the problem. Or install it in another system to see if it works there.
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Shaiyla
Newbie
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6. January 2008 @ 21:55 |
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@ cyrprusrom
Thanks so much for the link, I was able to burn a DVD after flashing the drive, and it all worked just fine!
@ laddyboy
Even though the problem seems to be resolved, I'll answer your questions as best as I can, in case they might help someone else out later on.
I've always used Nero for burning, and I was able to burn CD's just fine. Each time I tried to burn a DVD however, it seemed to think it was a CD in the drive (it would show 700mb as the size limit) and wouldn't burn anything even if the files I wanted to burn were less than 700mb altogether. I even tried to use Power Producer to burn a movie, and I can't remember exactly what it said at the end, but I know it didn't recognize the disc as a blank DVD-R.
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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6. January 2008 @ 22:33 |
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Glad to hear you're back in DVD burning business!
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laddyboy
AfterDawn Addict
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7. January 2008 @ 12:57 |
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OK. Thanks for adding the info.
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patmartin
Newbie
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9. January 2008 @ 06:05 |
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Just been reading through this thread as my laptop DVD burner has suddenly developed a similar problem (DVD-Rs recognised as CD-Rs) after previously working fine for over a year.
What has changed recently on my setup? Guess what? I installed Nero (v.6) a week ago!
I've uninstalled it but the problem remains.
I will go though all the steps mentioned in this thread (firmware upgrades etc) and report back if I have any success along the way.
Patrick
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kiko23
Newbie
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9. January 2008 @ 15:09 |
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Hi everybody. i am new to this forum and it seems that we all have the same problem, but i haven't seen one general solution for this or the main reason why is this happening. i've had my problem a week ago and i searched the internet for solutions and it seems that this problem has gone since couple of years ago and until now people are still looking for answers.
i have a year old external LG DVD-writer and ever since i've been burning DVDs and it's working fine. last week, i was gonna burn a VCD movie over a CD-R disc when i found out that my writer won't detect the blank CD-R. i'm using the Memorex CD-R and it was fine 3 months ago the last time i used it for my audio CD. so i tried another brand, Maxell, but to no avail still the same.
Funny thing is, i tried any blank media i have: DVD-R, DVD-RW & CD-RW and they are all fine... only the blank CD-R. any media with content or data on it are fine.
i tried every possible solutions i found in the net such as trying different media, cleaning the lens, updating the firmware, unitnstall/re-installing and i actually considering that maybe one of the lenses has failed as per suggested on one of the forums.
but last night, i have a chance to try my dvd-writer on my friends laptop. hook it up, put a blank CD-R on it and it detected the disc instantly. so i unplug the usb and hook it on my PC without taking the disc on the writer and my pc detects it. so i tried writing on that disc and its successful. the sad part is, if you put a new blank disc on the drive which is already connected to my pc, it won't detect it.
so my hope is up that my dvd writer still ok and i suspect that somewhere in the registry, settings, or software got messed up. my last software installations, as far as i remember before this happened, was Nero 8(8.2.8.0). as i've read some of the testimonies in this forum, i believe they mentioned Nero so many times as the "culprit". i tried clean uninstalled it but i think it already made some changes in the registry that until now my PC won't detect any blank CD-R as it will always say that "drive is empty".
So i hope that my testimony will give a head start for you guys who are more knowledgeable regarding software & registry settings to pursue our quest to find a solution in this pestering problem.
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laddyboy
AfterDawn Addict
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9. January 2008 @ 16:21 |
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Hi.
It seems like your drive may be working but that your OS is corrupted. It is also possible there's a communication problem with your burner. This is kind of a black magic environment sometimes as there are so many things that can contribute to problems.
If you feel up to it, backup your data, reformat your HDD, and reinstall your OS. When reinstalling your apps, take care to only reinstall apps you actually use. Be careful to not install a bunch of different DVD/CD burning packages, i.e., either Nero or Roxio, but not both. If the problem is due to a corrupted registry, this should solve your problem and you'll have a pristine OS again to boot. If you have a backup HDD, use Ghost or a similar program to make a ghosted image of your virgin OS for a quick reinstall in the future. I "refesh" my system every 6 months and it really cuts down on problems in my opinion.
You can also try using a registry cleaner first and see if that solves the problem.
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frbernard
Member
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9. January 2008 @ 18:55 |
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To add to the dilemma - I have three lite on burners that will often not recognize a dvd I am trying to burn (using Any DVD and Clone DVD) and if i take it to my laptop, which has an old NEC, it recognizes, reads and burns immediately. The only reason I don't use it much is that it is so slow. My Lite Ons have always been tricky and often need extra care.
Fr Bernard
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kiko23
Newbie
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9. January 2008 @ 21:15 |
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reformating the HDD and re-installing the OS is really the last thing on my mind, unless everything is not working and mess up. I don't burn cd-r most of the time, only dvds, so i'm still ok. my point on this is if we can figure out the cause... we may find a better solution in diagnosing programs and settings, not jumping to a dead end solution as reformatting.
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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9. January 2008 @ 22:38 |
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@kiko
I don't have a fix for your problem, but I am throwing in some ideeas...
Since the drive works with your buddy's laptop, I wonder if something happend after installing Nero 8. Windows XP has a rudimentary Roxio based software included that is hard-coded/imbedded in it. Maybe Nero turned it off, or corrupted it ??
Have you checked the IMAPI CD burning COM in Admin Tools? Make sure is set to manual, maybe Nero disbled it and your CD drive is not working.
Do an ASPI check, maybe Nero corrupted it or replaced it. Try removing the upper/lower filters.
Piss me off, and I Will ignore You!
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kiko23
Newbie
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10. January 2008 @ 10:58 |
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yeah i did check the IMAPI, they're fine and also i tried the upperfilters/lowerfilters but still the same. How do you do an ASPI check?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. January 2008 @ 11:00
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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10. January 2008 @ 11:05 |
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Piss me off, and I Will ignore You!
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juicer
Junior Member
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15. February 2008 @ 15:15 |
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Just started with this problem. When viewed through My Computer if I insert a blank dvd into dvd drive it changes the drive to cd rom and shows 0 bytes available. Insert blank cd into cd rom it reads as o bytes. Insert blank cd into dvd drive and it reads it as a blank cd.
Various discs manufacturers (cd and dvd have been used successfully in the past).
Dvd player/burner will play recorded discs and can record using Nero or DVD Shrink last I checked. CD burner will burn disc through Nero as well.
Nero sees the blank discs normally.
What is happening occurs when viewing through My Computer/DVD or cd/Properties.
I have been trying to use Pinnacle Studio 10 and this may only be a coincidence but the problem doesn't exist on 2 computers that never touched Pinnacle software or it's upgrades and patches. Curious, of the three computers that are not recognizing blank media correctly, one of them was reformatted and never "Pinnacled" afterwards. I spoke with Pinnacle and uninstalled all of their software and registry entries still with no success.
All computers running same xp pro sp2.
Is there something disarming the dvd drive within windows?
Why wouldn't the reformat have fixed the old HD??
If there is a causal relationship, are Pinnacle's changes "beyond" the HD??
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juicer
Junior Member
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15. February 2008 @ 19:05 |
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http://club.cdfreaks.com/1185617-post11.html
OK From the "What a dope I am" department, the above link shows that my experience was the default under windows explorer and nothing to have spent the better part of the day researching!!
Under properties and recording for the drives, there is only one drive that apparently can be enabled to "record cd" so that is the one that would show the disk as free or used space. Enable one drive, the other becomes disabled for this purpose. Put a blank DVD in and it doesn't read it as anything but Nero will tell exactly the nature of the disk and contents.
Thanks for listening.
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