AOpen DRW4410 Problems

[iaresean]

Hi All;

I have just got a "AOpen DRW4410 4x DVD+R/RW Drive". And it is already giving me problems. I am running windows xp on my amd athlon xp box. The drive is able to interface with normal cd's no problem, but it can't seem to read any dvd's with it. It can't even read the dvd utilities dvd that was bundled with the hardware, well actually, sometimes it reads the directory structure of the dvd, but I can't access any of the files without it bombing. It has the same feel as if I had put a seriously scratched cd into the drive. I tried putting in a normal dvd movie to play and it didn't pick it up at all.

Don't know whats going on????

I also noticed something in the properties that allows you to change the dvd region that it is being used from. it said that I would only be able to change this five times, even after re-installing windows or moving it to another pc. So I didn't want to do anything until I asked the pros about this.

I swopped this drive for my previous Sony DVD-Rom drive, which played everything 100%. I can't understand whats going on???

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks;


Sean.

 

[satrow]

Do you have the Adaptec aspi layer installed?

Do a search for 'forceaspi' that may cure it.

Andy.

 

[franklin97355]

Does it work with the sony reinstalled? If so it might just be a bad drive.

 

[iaresean]

I did a search for 'forceaspi' and it brought up zero results. I have updated the dvd drive firmware and it still can't read dvd's at all.


It looks like I might have to visit the distributor.

Sean.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there, for the Adaptec ASPI layers go to Adaptecs HomePage, there you can download the latest drivers... as you don't really need them for displaying DVD's, here come progs like WinDVD, PowerDVD to mind... for burning DVD's, CD's you should install the ASPI layer from Adaptec, as most burn soft uses them, some like NERO don't cause it uses its own ASPI Drivers...

but as Franklin mentioned, it may be a bum drive... have you tried the drive in another PC? if you still have warranty get it exchanged for another or have them test it for you...

Ben


If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[iaresean]

Lol, thanks for the tips.

Yeah I tried it on a few pc's and I eventually took the hint that it was in fact a bum drive. Luckily it was still under warranty so I was able to exchange it for a brand new one.

The new one seems to be reading all my dvd's fine now, but I have once again run into another problem. I have two dvd rw's filled with data already. They are Melody DVD-rw's. I tried popping one into my dvd drive to erase the data, using Nero 5.5 which was bundled with the drive. Every time I try this it tells me that the dvd is not rewrittable. ???? So then I tried burning to a normal, empty, Melody DVD-r, but it Nero gets stuck in an endless loop saying that it is trying to get the media info.

Could this just mean that my dvd-rw drive isn't compatable with these dvds??? That doesn't make sense because it can read the data on the dvd-rw disk, it just can't erase it. I also tried Nero 6 and CloneCD 3.4 and both of them say that the dvd-rw is not rewrittable. ????

Why oh why is this so hard?

Do you think I should still give the aspi layers a bash? Or is there something that I am perhaps missing????

I am using Windows XP Pro SP1, so i shouldn't be having problems in the driver department...I think.

Thanks for your help all!

Sean.

 

[BadBigBen]

it may just be that the DVD-RW is fixed, meaning you can't burn anymore to it or erase it (also called finalized, etc.)... could also be that your DVD burner doesn't recognize the MEDIA (in this case the MELODY DVD-RW) correctly... FIX/SOLUTION - update the FIRMWARE from the Manufacturers website (as most important geometrical information pertaining to DVD-R's/RW's are stored therein)...

did NERO 6 burn your MELODY DVD-R? Did NERO recognize your DVD drive? the OEM version of Nero 5.5 that came supplied with your Drive, is cropped to be used for that drive only and using it on other drives will cause you headaches... Reinstalling (CLEAN) NERO 6 (and above) covers more drives and MEDIA (DVD-R's RW's etc) as Nero uses a sub database about MEDIA's and if it doesn't recognizes them will set general parameters for burning, which of course will limit things...

Ben


If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[iaresean]

Hi Guys (and Gals);

Sorry I took so long to reply. Life has been hectic. Anyway I tried your advice and installed Nero 6 to see if I would have any luck with the dvd-r's, but to no avail. Nero 6 also says that it is not writtable. So then I browsed around Nero 6 and noticed that it has a nice "Drive Info..." function. I opened this and I was surprised to see that it says the my dvd-rw drive has no writting capabilities, only reading!!

Could this possibly mean that I have to update my aspi drivers?

Thanks for your help once again, I can't wait till I finally write a dvd one day!!!

Sean.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there Sean4E, no NERO 6 has it's own ASPI Drivers!!! no need to load any others, except you wanna use other progies to burn or check the Copy-Protection on CD's...

the possibility that the drive in use isn't being fully recognized by the Burn softwares is HIGH (ergo new type of DVD burner)... ergo get yourself an update from say Ahead Nero website (

http://www.Ahead.de/)

the german homesite... two other possibilities jump to mind, 1.) a bum drive (get it replaced if still under warranty) and 2.) Drive doesn't recognize Media in use... but I'll do a bit of research on this myself (it's got me curious)...

Ben


If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[iaresean]

Hi All!

Phew, I feel embarressed to say this, but I guess it has to be said. You guys (and gals) will probably kill me when you hear/read this. I went out and bought a dvd+rw Verbatim dvd and was EXCSTATIC to see that it actually burned the dvd, even though nero 6's "Drive Info..." function reported that the dvdrw drive had no writting capabilities. This of course lead me to one conclusion! It is a dvd+r+rw drive that cannot write to dvd-r's or dvd-rw's. I feel like a fool for not knowing this, and for wasting your time. A friend of mine had given me the drive without the box and hadn't informed me of its limitations. SORRY EVERYONE. But at least my original post to the forum was a REAL problem, the original drive was in fact bust and needed replacement.

Now all I have to do is find someone to buy all these dvd-r's and dvd-rw's dvds from me.

Reason I only had -rw's and -r's is cause someone said these were normally used for dvd movies.

Thanks again to everyone's input. I learned alot about dvd-roms in this process.

Sean.

 

[BadBigBen]

one never stops to learn... *BG

later days and better l..s!!!

Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...