Looks like my DVD Rewriter is knackered.

Interesting Ian

Banned
I
Joined
Feb 9, 2004
Messages
7,675
I'm about 99% certain. But before I send it back to Dabs I would appreciate the thoughts of people who know somewhat more than me about these sort of things.

The problem is that when I double click the drive it simply gives me a message saying "Please insert a disk into drive E". It happens with all media. Commerical DVD films, CD music, and all stuff I've recorded whether on DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW. The only one I haven't tried is DVD+RW. And it comes up with the same message for blank media too. It also comes up with the same message when I boot up into my other drive on another partition. Both drives are Windows XP. I uninstalled the driver and restarted and Windows reinstalled it. Still the same message. I read on the Net somethoing about "firmware", but I don't know what it is and it said it might damage the drive, so I didn't bother updating that.

The drive is a LG GSA-4163BA.

Any advice would be welcome.
 
Try unpluging and re pluging the ATA cable back in, it sounds stupid but it might be it.

And don't be afraid of firmware, it is like the BIOS for a device and is no problem to change if you follow the directions.
 
Make sure that the DVD player's jumper setting is set properly. It's either master, slave, or cable select. How many devices share the Ribbon (ATA) cable with the DVD writer?
For example;

If the DVD writer is alone on the ribbon cable, make sure that the jumper is set to "master".

If you have a hard drive, or some other device, on the same cable, that is set to the "master" jumper setting, then the dvd writer jumper should be set to "slave" or "cable select", but most often it's slave.

If you have a hard drive, or some other device set to slave jumper, then the DVD writer should be set to master.

The jumpers are usually located next to where the ribbon cable plugs into the back of the dvd writer.

You should also consider to RTFM

You should be able to recognize media without a bios upgrade. Bios upgrades usually are to make the writer more compatible with a wider variety of burnable media, or more compatible with some burning software.
 
thrombus29 said:
Try unpluging and re pluging the ATA cable back in, it sounds stupid but it might be it.

And don't be afraid of firmware, it is like the BIOS for a device and is no problem to change if you follow the directions.
Click to expand...

I don't know what I'm doing in there or what the ATA cable is. All I've done is to make the thing even more broke! Now there's a slight rattling sound (but only slight) when it's trying to access the drive and when ejecting a disk! :eek: All I did was press the 3 connections in so as to make sure they're making proper contact. Looking at it from the back of unit there is a connection on the left going to sound card, there is a "belt" type thing going to motherboard via other CD-ROM, and there's a bunch of leads united by one connection, half of which go nowhere, the other half to the power unit.

Anyone any idea what I could have done to make it rattle?
 
Chocolate Chip said:
Make sure that the DVD player's jumper setting is set properly.
Click to expand...


I was using the writer to burn something. What happens is that it burns something, recycles the "logical unit" (as it describes it), and then verifies. I wasn't looking at what happened because I was watching TV at the time, but the window on the screen said it had completed the burning process successfully. But the verification was not taking place.

Anyway, the point I'm making is that although I really don't know what "jumper setting" is, this is something you have to physically do isn't it? In other words the jumper setting couldn't just change all by itself? If that is so, then that therefore cannot be the problem.

You should also consider to RTFM
Click to expand...

Ummm . .something the flipping machine? :confused:
 
Read this page , and check you did everything.

Jumpers are stupid small bits of plastic like in this diagram:

hard-014.jpg


You can move them around with a pair of tweezers, however the positions are not always the same as in the diagram, but it should say somewhere on the writer.

When you turn the PC on it should say during load up what the Master/Slave settings are.

Rattling sounds like the motor that moves the drawer may be wearing out??? In a new drive?? No idea.

ETA: RTFM: read the f****** manual.
 
Smike said:
ETA: RTFM: read the f****** manual.
Click to expand...

It does say under the heading "Cannot read or write discs"

"Did a screen saver or other application operate whilst writing to the disc"
Click to expand...

Well something flashed up informing me there was an upgrade available. I pressed no. And it appears the disk was burned successfully. Moreover, don't forget the same problem is on my other partition which seems to rule out any software problems.

I'll be testing it out in a friend's PC anyway. I'll let people know what happens.
 
Ian -

Did it work for a while and then stop working, or has it never worked?
 
Interesting Ian said:
I explain what happened just 4 posts above this one!
Click to expand...

You did. But you didn't say whether it had ever worked correctly or not, just that you were burning a disc and it didn't work properly.

It obviously makes a difference when people are talking about jumper settings.
 
richardm said:
You did. But you didn't say whether it had ever worked correctly or not, just that you were burning a disc and it didn't work properly.

It obviously makes a difference when people are talking about jumper settings.
Click to expand...

Yes of course it has. I've backed up about 20Gb from my hard drive. Now all inaccessible! :mad:

Backed up all that, but it's probably only had a couple of hours use all told before breaking.
 
Interesting Ian said:
Yes of course it has. I've backed up about 20Gb from my hard drive. Now all inaccessible! :mad:

Backed up all that, but it's probably only had a couple of hours use all told before breaking.
Click to expand...

In which case, as RichardM says, it is unlikely to have anything to do with jumper settings, unless you added new hardware since installing it.
 
I only sent if off on Saturday. I filled in the form at Dabs. Ticked that I didn't agree to their conditions. Got a message they would email me about it. Waited about 5 days and never received anything. Emailed them about their lack of response and giving all the details. They responded telling me to fill the form in. Thus, as seems to be with most people, they obviously didn't read my email. So full circle!

So I just sent it off to LG. I thought it would only cost me £3.65 or whatever for the postage. That's what it says on the post office site. But it cost me £4.52. God knows how I'm going to get that money back since I can only contact Dabs by this form, and they either completely ignore it, or ignore what I say on it.
 
asthmatic camel said:
So, Ian, any further news? I get very attached to my hardware and worry about other people's too.
Click to expand...

I just received back about 40 mins ago. 4 weeks 2 days since I sent it and over 6 weeks since it broke! (took 2 weeks trying to get responses from DABS and I eventually gave up). Managed to put it in and get it working! :eek: First time I've ever attempted to do that.

I got a replacement, and this came with software and screws and a belt, unlike my original one.

Just one concern. My original DABS receipt has not been returned to me (they specifically requested that I send it). So what happens if it goes wrong again?? I've just emailed LG that question.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom