Cannot burn DVD with SPTI, but can with ElbyCDIO

[jontyy]

This is not a problem with Imgburn, but from 10-15 hours hunting around the net, it could be an issue for a few others out there, including Imgburn existing users and new converts (like me). The Imgburn forum seemed the best place to raise it, as it's thanks to Imgburn logs and functions that I've narrowed it down as much as I have.

 

I have an LG BD-RE BH10LS30 DVD drive on Windows (Win 7, but seems this problem goes wider than that). "All of a sudden" I can't burn anything - can read fine, but writing is not possible. Tried several DVD authoring / burning / blank disc permutations.

 

The clue I have seems to be the log when I start up Imgburn, because it tells me "CreateFile Failed; Reason: Access is denied .... You need Administrative privileges to use SPTI".

 

The things I have tried are:

1. Upper and Lower filters in Regedit - there aren't any.

2. Created new accounts, normal user and new admin user - no dice.

3. Secpol.msc - changed "grant access to CD/DVD drive to active user only" to Enabled, as recommend on a few forums

4. Reset DMA as per Imgburn FAQ, apparently there is no DMA to reset on my machine (its purely SATA, no IDE)

 

After beginning to suspect the hardware I finally disproved this, as by switching to ElbyCDIO under Imgburn I/O settings, I can indeed burn a DVD.

 

It's taken me a day and a half to get this far, even an hour's call to Microsoft didn't help. I found the SPTI error a few times on the net, but always either with one of the solutions above, or ... without a solution.

 

By the way, the thing which might have changed "all of a sudden" was using Nero 10. I remember some kind of notification about "burn rights". I have subsequently removed Nero (no mean feat, using Revo Unistaller), and will not be going back there again.

 

One final measure is that I have done a fresh (upgrade) install of Windows.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts, please?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

1. You can delete Upper and Lower filters directly in ImgBurn via the Tools menu, no need to invoke RegEdit at all.

2. Windows 7 seems to provide all users (with and without UAC enabled) with SPTI access to optical drives.

3. -

4. DMA sill applies. You just remove whatever controller entries you have listed in device manager under the IDE ATA/ATAPI branch.

 

It would have helped if you posted a log from ImgBurn.

 

If you install Unlocker and/or LockHunter, does anything get listed as locking the device when you right click on a problem drive in 'Computer' and select 'What's locking this file?' or 'Unlocker' ?

 

Does ImgBurn have access to the drive if you boot up in safemode?

 

What if you boot into Windows XP from something like the Hiren's Boot CD?

 

There are some viruses/rootkits that can cause these kinds of issues - TDSS (and variants?) for instance.

[jontyy]

Thanks very much for the reply and suggestions.

 

DMA - removed all controller entries under IDE ATA/ATAPI in Device Manager, and re-booted. No change to behaviour (possibly interesting that although icon in lower menu bar said devices were ready to use, the progress box for ATA 1 remained at "scanning for preconfigured drivers").

 

Logfiles - from Win7, showing first ElbyCDIO success then SPTI problem:

 

 

Logfile from XP (via Hiren boot mini XP);

 

 

Unlocker and Lockhunter: on right-clicking the drive in Explorer, both initially said "locked by explorer", this was then cleared by the software, but no change to problem.

 

Safe Mode - no change, problem remains

 

Virus - scanned with Eset and Malwarebytes, no outstanding issues.

 

 

 

1. You can delete Upper and Lower filters directly in ImgBurn via the Tools menu, no need to invoke RegEdit at all.

2. Windows 7 seems to provide all users (with and without UAC enabled) with SPTI access to optical drives.

3. -

4. DMA sill applies. You just remove whatever controller entries you have listed in device manager under the IDE ATA/ATAPI branch.

 

It would have helped if you posted a log from ImgBurn.

 

If you install Unlocker and/or LockHunter, does anything get listed as locking the device when you right click on a problem drive in 'Computer' and select 'What's locking this file?' or 'Unlocker' ?

 

Does ImgBurn have access to the drive if you boot up in safemode?

 

What if you boot into Windows XP from something like the Hiren's Boot CD?

 

There are some viruses/rootkits that can cause these kinds of issues - TDSS (and variants?) for instance.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

TDSS is a very sophisticated rootkit and will probably go totally unnoticed by most software running on the infected system.

 

You'd have to scan the problem drive within Hiren's XP.

 

As you know it works fine in Hiren's XP, I'd probably consider just zero filling the entire hdd (again, using Hiren's - there's a nuke program on the initial menu) and installing from scratch.

[jontyy]

Thanks for the suggestion on rootkits, it seems they are indeed nasty things. But before I go down the nuclear option (since I've tons of installed programs, settings and related data on this drive - we are talking days to recreate from scratch), might there be anything else to try?

 

My thinking was just that if its a sophisticated rootkit, would it bother disabling SPTI alone, or rather stay quiet and plan something more juicy for its masters.

 

Also, I believe this all started with Nero messing with my burn rights.

 

Are there any other registry settings or access issues to explore, or any other theories to test?

 

 

TDSS is a very sophisticated rootkit and will probably go totally unnoticed by most software running on the infected system.

 

You'd have to scan the problem drive within Hiren's XP.

 

As you know it works fine in Hiren's XP, I'd probably consider just zero filling the entire hdd (again, using Hiren's - there's a nuke program on the initial menu) and installing from scratch.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I thought they stopped shipping 'burnrights' ages ago.

 

The version of it that I've got actually makes Windows 7 pop up a box saying it's not compatible.

 

As SPTI isn't working anyway, I guess there's no harm in running it again (ignoring the prompt) and trying to reset the permissions (or enable 'everyone' support) - sorry but I don't know which registry keys it manipulates.

 

There's a similar tool by Poikosoft too - just Google 'poikosoft burnrights'. Give that one a go too.

 

You've tried the MS Fix It tool yeah? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

 

and you're quite sure the filter driver list is empty when you look at it in ImgBurn? (via the feature in the Tools menu)

[jontyy]

Thanks v much for your further time on this.

 

I've got rid of Nero, it took some time to do that. Before I killed it I had manually gone into the Burn rights section and granted full rights to all.

 

The poikosoft looks very much like a front-end interface for the SecPol.msc setting that all Users can access CD-ROM - I've already set that manually to the recommended setting.

 

Yes, I can confirm that I cleared the filters from the registry and they are empty in Imgburn look-up.

 

I have tried that MS fix, and a further MS trouble-shooter which told me that the drive isn't capable of burning DVDs!

 

I have a call booked tonight with the second-tier of Microsoft support, so fingers crossed ...

[jontyy]

P.S. Are there any potential compatibilty issues of using ElbyCDIO ? I often have to burn DVDs and send them to folk all over the country. If I use ElbyCDIO is there a higher chance someone's DVD player or computer can't read that disc (compared to using SPTI)? (It's not a full solution, as I also need Adobe Encore, which isn't recognising the "non-SPTI" drive, but I might have to use in the interim)

 

 

I thought they stopped shipping 'burnrights' ages ago.

 

The version of it that I've got actually makes Windows 7 pop up a box saying it's not compatible.

 

As SPTI isn't working anyway, I guess there's no harm in running it again (ignoring the prompt) and trying to reset the permissions (or enable 'everyone' support) - sorry but I don't know which registry keys it manipulates.

 

There's a similar tool by Poikosoft too - just Google 'poikosoft burnrights'. Give that one a go too.

 

You've tried the MS Fix It tool yeah? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

 

and you're quite sure the filter driver list is empty when you look at it in ImgBurn? (via the feature in the Tools menu)

[LIGHTNING UK!]

The I/O interface is just the road the I/O commands travel down to get to the drive (or final driver that then talks to the drive... I'm not exactly sure!).

 

The commands that reach the drive will be exactly the same no matter which one you use - and that's all that really matters.

 

SPTI is the one that gets all the testing though.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Ah, it seems you were using a burnrights built into Nero... try using the standalone version.

 

As I mentioned above, it's not 100% compatible with Windows 7 but I've done some testing and managed to go from it working, to getting 'Access Denied' and then back again to it working.

 

http://www.nero.com/enu/support-nero6-tools-utilities.html

 

Install it, run it via C:\Program Files\Ahead\NeroBurnRights\NeroBurnRights.exe - you'll have to right click and run as admin if you have UAC enabled.

 

Switch to the extended options tab and click the reset button.

 

I'd be interested to hear what MS 2nd line support have to say on the matter and what the fix is (if one is found).

[jontyy]

Update - just to say that the call with MS hasn't happened yet, it had to be postponed by MS and should happen tonight.

 

 

Ah, it seems you were using a burnrights built into Nero... try using the standalone version.

 

As I mentioned above, it's not 100% compatible with Windows 7 but I've done some testing and managed to go from it working, to getting 'Access Denied' and then back again to it working.

 

http://www.nero.com/enu/support-nero6-tools-utilities.html

 

Install it, run it via C:\Program Files\Ahead\NeroBurnRights\NeroBurnRights.exe - you'll have to right click and run as admin if you have UAC enabled.

 

Switch to the extended options tab and click the reset button.

 

I'd be interested to hear what MS 2nd line support have to say on the matter and what the fix is (if one is found).

[jontyy]

Decided its a fundamental problem with OS. The call with MS didn't happen again due to staff illness. But meanwhile I found I can't install Win7 SP1, and can't "turn windows features on or off" - tried all the fixes and no dice. I am concluding that my registry has got messed up, possibly due to using Registry Clean in CCleaner (attempting to remove traces of Nero).

 

So, I'm going nuclear and installing everything from scratch on a newly formatted drive.

 

Thanks for your support and suggestions, and for a very efficient and non-intrusive software in Imgburn.

 

In case this can help anyone else, here were the original symptons:

 

- Adobe Encore, trying to build a DVD by burning onto DVD: on the Build tab = Destination / Recorder / None found

- right-clicking drive in Windows Explorer and looking at properties - drive thinks its a CD-ROM drive

- drive unable to burn CDs or DVDs onto any blank discs

- Windows 7 troubleshooter concluded that drive is unable to burn discs / DVDs / CDs. OS thinks its a read-only CD-ROM drive

- Imgburn reported in log file: Initialising SPTI, CreateFile failed, Reason access denied

- explored all avenues desccribed above such as Upper and Lower Filters etc

- Imgburn able to burn using ElbyCDIO so proved hardware is OK

 

 

Update - just to say that the call with MS hasn't happened yet, it had to be postponed by MS and should happen tonight.

 

 

Ah, it seems you were using a burnrights built into Nero... try using the standalone version.

 

As I mentioned above, it's not 100% compatible with Windows 7 but I've done some testing and managed to go from it working, to getting 'Access Denied' and then back again to it working.

 

http://www.nero.com/enu/support-nero6-tools-utilities.html

 

Install it, run it via C:\Program Files\Ahead\NeroBurnRights\NeroBurnRights.exe - you'll have to right click and run as admin if you have UAC enabled.

 

Switch to the extended options tab and click the reset button.

 

I'd be interested to hear what MS 2nd line support have to say on the matter and what the fix is (if one is found).