dereksh 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Hi all. Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give. I just got a DVD CD-RW drive (part no. OP-270-73502) for my NEC VERSA LX notebook running W2K. It plugs in right where the old CD-ROM used to be, so there are no issues with cables or anything of that sort. The problem is this. It plays DVDs fine, audio CDs fine, reads data CDs fine. BUT, when I put in a blank CD-R to burn something, it won't recognize the CD. It sounds like the drive tries several times over the period of about a minute, then gives up. My CD burner program thinks the drive is empty, and so does W2K. Furthermore, after I try this (inserting a blank CD-R) it won't recognize ANY other DVDs or CDs I try until I reboot. And it's not a problem with the CD-R, because I tried a bunch of them with the same results. I also took one of my CD-Rs and burned stuff onto it on a friend's PC successfully. Has anyone had a problem like this? Do you think the drive is defective? It only just arrived on 8/19/2004, so I have enough time to return it. Thanks! -Derek.. Share this post Link to post
Sampson 0 Posted August 22, 2004 Reading back over this, if your Bios can accept the burner, did you make sure that it has DMA support? Share this post Link to post
dereksh 0 Posted August 22, 2004 I didn't specifically check these things. The info on the part said it was for my model, so I got it. How would I find out if my BIOS supports it and/or if I have DMA support? (What is DMA support?) Thanks. Share this post Link to post
peterh 1 Posted August 22, 2004 There are 2 types of acess to IDE drives: PIO (slowest) and DMA (Direct Memory Access) which is fastest. And you need fast access for fast and reliable CD Burning. It will mention it in BIOS settings for this on IDE Channels. If using Windows XP Burning, make sure it is enabled via My Computer, properties of the CDR/RW drive and enable Recording. Share this post Link to post
Sampson 0 Posted August 22, 2004 The Bios is that bit of code in a rom in your computer that identifies peripherals for it. Whenever you boot your computer, you will see a message like Hit DEL or F1 to enter the Bios. Since flashing the Bios is a major heart attack on a stick, you can go to the webpage of your computer maker and look up the latest BIOS for it. If it is the same as in yours (when that message to press a particular button comes up it will say what your Bios is; it might F4 or 2.3 or some such.) Many times items will come out after your computer is on the market and a new Bios is created to "upgrade" the computer to be able to handle it. To check the DMA go to the My Computer icon and right click, choose properties, click on the Hardware tab, then the Device Manager button. A screen comes up and look for the Icon with the word IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers written next to it. Click on the "+" sign and you should see a primary and secondary IDE. Right click first on the Primary and choose properties and go to Advanced and make sure that DMA is available or requested. Do the same for the Secondary IDE. If your DVD had only PIO support, it needs the full DMA to burn Disks. It might ask you to reboot when you reset these values. Share this post Link to post
dereksh 0 Posted August 25, 2004 Ok, Sampson, I did what you said. The Device Mgr says DMA is available. I did find a BIOS update, though. Version 44F12, which came out in 2001. I've had the laptop since '99, so I'll give this a shot. (One chocolate-coated heart attack on a stick, please.) Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how it goes. Share this post Link to post
