Rastus2 Posted September 13, 2006 Posted September 13, 2006 Rastus2; I have used the same cleaning disc for the past 3 years and haven't done a bit of damage. Follow the directions and you shouldn't hurt the drive.... I am back at it today, I reset the DMA's on both the reader and burner. Then I uninstalled both and let windows "find" them. I checked the DMA's and they are on ultra DMA 5. I installed Nero express and did a disk to disk copy. IT FAILED at 93% with a NO SEEK COMPLETETION. I re-set the burning rights in the control panel to ALL and tried a direct copy again. it failed at 23% with a NO SEEK COMPLETION. My next move would seem to be to buy a disk cleaner disc and try that. I have tried the blow out method and it doesn't seem to change a thing. I placed a movie in the reader drive and the movie played fine from front to end and then I placed the same movie in the burner drive and it wouldn't read it. So, I now have to find the cause.
Rastus2 Posted September 13, 2006 Posted September 13, 2006 (edited) sounds like your drive could be dying I am inclined to believe that. I cycled the tray and the files showed up. It started to play the files then locked up the program. I have yet to try the cleaner disc, and if it comes to it, what are some good internal and USB drives? This NEC is only 1 1/2 half years old. By the way, the drive spins up fine, just doesn't see things all the time. Edited September 13, 2006 by Rastus2
Kenadjian Posted September 13, 2006 Posted September 13, 2006 Just before you go replacing the drive, try burning at 4X, looking at your logs, your machine is struggling beyond this speed.
Rastus2 Posted September 13, 2006 Posted September 13, 2006 Just before you go replacing the drive, try burning at 4X, looking at your logs, your machine is struggling beyond this speed. Sorry, I was out pricing drives, internal and external. I did try burning at 4x the drive made it to 90%. It ended with the same fault, NO SEEK COMPLETE. I still can't see files on the drive, so I will try cleaning it before I replace it. Money is money!!!
Kenadjian Posted September 13, 2006 Posted September 13, 2006 Fair enough, it's worth a try. Good luck.
Rastus2 Posted September 18, 2006 Posted September 18, 2006 sounds like your drive could be dying Thanks for the help, yes it was the drive. I bought a external Memorex unit and I'm back to doing my thing !!!! I appreciate the hand holding during all of this, It's kinda like they say " you don't know what you had till it's gone" Rastus
polopony Posted September 18, 2006 Posted September 18, 2006 sounds like your drive could be dying Thanks for the help, yes it was the drive. I bought a external Memorex unit and I'm back to doing my thing !!!! I appreciate the hand holding during all of this, It's kinda like they say " you don't know what you had till it's gone" Rastus Memorex ,around here it brings a cringe and a shudder send it back while you can and get a BENQ ,Pioneer ,Nec ,Plextor the top 4
Rastus2 Posted September 19, 2006 Posted September 19, 2006 sounds like your drive could be dying Thanks for the help, yes it was the drive. I bought a external Memorex unit and I'm back to doing my thing !!!! I appreciate the hand holding during all of this, It's kinda like they say " you don't know what you had till it's gone" Rastus Memorex ,around here it brings a cringe and a shudder send it back while you can and get a BENQ ,Pioneer ,Nec ,Plextor the top 4 Thanks for the advice, I will take it back in the morning. I've already complained to Memorex concerning the unit because after the initial install and re-boot. The unit failed to recognize my Verbatim -R's. I checked the region code and it was set to -6-. I thought since we live in the USA, it should have beeen set to -1-. I tried to re-set it and it wouldn't change, so after the usual hisssy fit. I emailed Memorex and told them if they didn't contact me and help me get it to working, it was going back. Well, I haven't heard from them and it worked the next day,,,, so I counted myself lucky. Which Plextor external should I get? also, since my internal is dead should I also get the Plextor internal too? My desktop unit has a curved face plate on the DVD burner, can it be removed and installed to the new internal drive or are these custom units made just for the BIG box makers? (just an idle thought) Thanks, Ratus
polopony Posted September 19, 2006 Posted September 19, 2006 Plextor is the most expensive at around $100 ,the BenQ is about $40 the others about the same or a little less .The faceplate issue cant say for sure untill you have the new drive and can compare .I use an NEC 3500 an older model and am very happy with it had an Nec 2500 before it and it burned well still does .Try www.meritline.com or www.newegg.com for hardware you'll have to look real hard for better prices and Newegg's service is excellent great prices and fast shipping . It will come down to preference which drive you get but you wont go wrong with the names I've mentioned the BenQ 1655 is used by many members and also scans the Pioneer 111d turns out some impressive quality numbers.I still use a Pioneer 115 dvd rom for reading it must be 8 yrs old and still works perfect it was $120 at the time I bought it
JasonFriday13 Posted September 20, 2006 Posted September 20, 2006 (edited) I managed to get my drive at a pretty resonable price: NZ $149.90 which is about US $80 (I think). I thought it was a very good deal since the drive is a LG GSA 4167B [edit] Super multi drive that writes these formats: CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW (the one I use most often), DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL, DVD-RAM [/edit]with flashed firmware by me to DL13. I got mine in December 2005 and that is the month the drive was manufactured . I also have a Ricoh DVD+RW RW5240 with flashed firmware 1.19, funnily enough, can't read/write DVD's anymore. CD reading and writing is just fine. I use this drive to burn my audio cds because the LG DL12 firmware wrote unreadable first track info (who knows why), which is now fixed in the DL13 firmware. Good luck with your drive hunting/using . Edited September 20, 2006 by JasonFriday13
blutach Posted September 20, 2006 Posted September 20, 2006 funnily enough, can't read/write DVD's anymore. CD reading and writing is just fine. Laser is buggered and can only read at CD focus. It's a goner, for sure. Regards
JasonFriday13 Posted September 20, 2006 Posted September 20, 2006 Well, it's been gone since this time last year, and it still works .
polopony Posted September 21, 2006 Posted September 21, 2006 A DVD r/w drive can burn CD's and not be able to handle DVD's and the problem will be with the laser like BLU says
Rastus2 Posted September 28, 2006 Posted September 28, 2006 try reflashing it to the firmware before, maybe the one you got was corrupt Well, I blew it out three more times and re-flashed it and it will burn to 19% each time, then fail. I hate to use one of those DVD cleaners if it isn't a "dirt" issue because I have it that they can scratch the lens. For what it's worth, I managed to get my internal NEC unit to working again by using a disc cleaning disc that has a small copper brush mounted on the disc suface. It worked! The cleaner disc with the copper brush says it may be used only 20 times and to clean the DVD unit every 10 hours. Use on DVD units only. Brand name: Maxell, THUNDERON DVD-LC The first cleaner disc that I purchased used small plastic brushes on the surface, which created air flow over the laser-- It didn't work. Brand name: CleanDR www.digitalinnovations.com Both say they clean and demagnitize and both come with audio programs and such.
polopony Posted September 28, 2006 Posted September 28, 2006 good to hear I clean my drive once in awhile with the disc with the plastic brushes ,I guess you had heavy buildup on your laser .Cleaning the laser is pretty much something thats overlooked by most people
lfcrule1972 Posted September 28, 2006 Posted September 28, 2006 I use a lens cleaner every now and then when I remember, like polo I use the plastic brush model and have seen no ill effects so far.
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