Who has just lost the ability to burn in winXP

[wwwTHEVIDEOGEEKcom@ntc 0]

Everything was working great, however, now it is not. Very odd. Nothing on my system has changed. Anyone else have this happen?

[c0rv1d43 0]

Mind giving us a little info? As it is, we don't know whether you're referring to the built-in CD writing features of WinXP or a third party burning app. (If third party, be sure to tell us the version.) It might also be helpful to know what type of CD writer hardware you're using and whether or not you've installed the Windows XP CD Burning Update at the Windows Update site.

 

- Collin

[wwwTHEVIDEOGEEKcom@ntc 0]

I referring to the built-in burning software. I have an Aopen 2040 Burner. Yes, I've updated all updates for winXP

[c0rv1d43 0]

Okay, I don't know your burner (the Aopen 2040). I'm assuming that it's an IDE-connected drive?

 

I've been reading a lot of messages online about sudden loss of CD writer functionality in WinXP. So here are some more questions to help narrow it a bit further:

 

1. Tell us how the drive is connected (IDE, SCSI, USB, Firewire). Sorry, as I said I don't know your drive.

 

2. Have you used any ASPI "layer" utilities? (NOTE: I am NOT suggesting that you do so.)

 

3. Have you installed any third party CD burning software at any time during this system's history with this installation of the operating system, regardless of whether or not you've used it.

 

4. How does the CD writer drive show up in Device Manager?

 

5. If your right-click on the drive in Windows Explorer and choose Properties, does the resulting Properties dialog have a Recording tab on it? If so, what are the settings that are showing on that tab?

 

6. If your drive's Properties dialog does NOT have a Recording tab, go to this registry key

 

HKEY-CURRENT-USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CD Burning\Drives

 

and looke at the curly-bracketed volume folders there. One of them should have a Drive Type entry of "2". If all your CDs are showing as Type 3, then they are all listed by Windows XP as non-writable drives, and that would be what would cause you not to have the Recording tab. The writable drive should also show entries for "CurrentCDWriteSpeed" and "MaxCDWriteSpeed".

 

Please let us know what you learn. Be detailed and precise in your response in order to give us the best chance possible of helping you.

 

- Collin

[wwwTHEVIDEOGEEKcom@ntc 0]

1. Tell us how the drive is connected (IDE, SCSI, USB, Firewire). Sorry, as I said I don't know your drive.

a. IDE

 

2. Have you used any ASPI "layer" utilities? (NOTE: I am NOT suggesting that you do so.)

a. Yes

 

3. Have you installed any third party CD burning software at any time during this system's history with this installation of the operating system, regardless of whether or not you've used it.

a. Yes, cloneCD only

 

4. How does the CD writer drive show up in Device Manager?

a. AOPEN CD-RW CRW2040

 

5. If your right-click on the drive in Windows Explorer and choose Properties, does the resulting Properties dialog have a Recording tab on it? If so, what are the settings that are showing on that tab?

a. No, not anymore

 

6. If your drive's Properties dialog does NOT have a Recording tab, go to this registry key

a. and this worked, however, I still can't burn to the burner. I go through the burner wizard but it says I do not have a writeable disk in the driver (which I do)

[c0rv1d43 0]

Okay, based upon what you've said I'm going to suggest the following:

 

1. First, if the drive is set to DMA, try setting it to PIO mode. If this doesn't help, then go through steps 2, 3, and 4.

 

2. Get rid CloneCD AND the ASPI layer -- if you haven't done so already. If you use, and need to keep, CloneCD, then I don't know what to suggest about this. I would certainly say that it's not a good idea to install files like WNASPI32.DLL in the \%systemroot%\system32 directory. Reboot.

 

3. Uninstall any "installation software" that came with the drive, assuming there was any. Reboot.

 

4. Uninstall the Windows CD Burning Update. (You'll have to match the update with the Q number in the Add/Remove Programs dialog.) Reboot.

 

5. Regardless of the fact that your drive shows up okay in Device Manager, you should uninstall the device from within Device Manager. Reboot. WindowsXP should detect the drive again. Check to see that it is recognized properly by Device Manager and that you are showing all the proper WinXP CD writing functionality.

 

6. Go back to Windows Update and re-install the CD Burning Update.

 

This kind of uninstall / reinstall two-step can often get a messed-up device working again. I hope it does in this case.

 

- Collin

[wwwTHEVIDEOGEEKcom@ntc 0]

Thx. It is now working.

 

This is what I did:

 

Unistalled the "Q309691 CD Update" rebooted and then updated the "Q309691 CD Update" again from the MS update site and rebooted

[c0rv1d43 0]

Aw, you did it the easy way!!!

 

 

Seriously, I'm glad it worked out for you. Now don't we all have to wonder if maybe there was something wrong with the CD Burning Update that was originally posted on the Windows Update site???

 

Oh well, as long as it all works out.

 

- Collin

[wwwTHEVIDEOGEEKcom@ntc 0]

Quote:

Aw, you did it the easy way!!!



Seriously, I'm glad it worked out for you. Now don't we all have to wonder if maybe there was something wrong with the CD Burning Update that was originally posted on the Windows Update site???

Oh well, as long as it all works out.

- Collin

Yes, I wonder! I tried it after I just uninstalled the CD Burner update without up[censored] it again and it still worked. I did the update for the hell of it!

[c0rv1d43 0]

Well, it wouldn't be the first time a patch had to be patched. Done a few of those myself.

 

I just looked at your Web site. Very interesting. I registered, and I hope to get a chance to take a good look around soon. (When my to do list, mandated by wife, gets a little shorter.)

 

- Collin

[wwwTHEVIDEOGEEKcom@ntc 0]

Yea, those "to do lists" can get long. heehe

[brainsoft 0]

CloneCD doesn't need a third-party ASPI layer to be installed to function properly and those third party ASPI layers have given me nothing but grief.

 

CDex is the only I have that application that needs an aspi layer and won't use the native layer support offered in NT. Even then, I don't go install Adaptec ASPI or LSI Logic or anything like that. The Adaptec ASPI, updated and all, won't make CDex work for me, but putting the one file CDex needs, winaspi32.dll, into system32 makes it work fine.

To avoid any problems with doing that though, I placed the file directly in the CDex folder. If there are any applications that need that file, I suggest you put them directly in the install folder of the app that needs them. Programs that call dll functions check their home dir first, then proceed to the system folders.

 

I you need a good working ASPI layer, I suggest the one that BlindWrite includes in it's install. When you install BlindWrite it also installs a a powerful ASPI layer into it's own directoy, named ntaspi.dll. It has all the expceted aspi calls in it, plus many more features. Renaming ntaspi32.dll to wnaspi32.dll and placing in the dir of whatever program needs it can do wonders, and avoids system problems because nothing else will ever try to use it!

 

Like I said, even the Adaptec and LSI LOgic ASPI layers wouldn't work right, but using that one file worked wonders. I'll send it to you if you really need it, but I highly suggest not installing any ASPI layers if you don't need to.

[c0rv1d43 0]

From my own experiences, and those of others that I've seen first-hand, I'd have to agree wholeheartedly. I've seen a lot of advice posted here and in other places that would seem to indicate that just grabbing ASPI file complements and throwing them onto the hard drive is the thing to do when your CD writing software is misbehaving. It kind of puts me in mind of the corporate IT types who can't seem to configure TCP/IP properly and wind up loading NetBEUI and IPX/SPX on every box they configure in the forlorn hope of achieving connectivity of some kind. (One of my big-time pet peeves.) Any software that insists that I fiddle with basic functionality of the OS and other software in order to make it work is asking me to blow it off my hard drive. The vendors should at least tell people to use local copies of support files which might not get along with other software on the system.

 

- Collin