Can Read but cannot write to CD-RW drive

[mshirley001]

I used to be able to write to my cd-rw but now I cant. I installed a dvd-ram/dvd-r drive and a bunch of dvd/video authoring software plus a new video card. Ever since that I have been unable to write anything to the cd-rw. I'm running Windows XP Home Edition and this is what I have done to try to correct the problem:

1) removed and uninstalled all dvd-ram/-r hardware and software.

2) reinstalled and verified ASPI layer (even though XP doesnt use it).

3) removed the new video card and re-enabled the on-board video.

4) Replaced the hard drive (c with a new one and re-installed a fresh XP OS using my recovery CD.

5) Switched the cd-rw from the secondary to the (primary) IDE controller (thinking the mapping got screwed up somehow) so that it now looks like this:

Primary Master = HDD1 (c
Primary Slave = CD-RW (e
Secondary Master = HDD2 (d
Secondary Slave = None (DVD-RAM/-r removed)

(do those drive letter assignments look right to you?)

My thinking was that by switching to the other controller with a HDD as master would force XP to remap and ensure read/write on that controller.

6) Installed a new (brand new) cd-rw drive in the #5 above configuration. Along with a brand new IDE cable.

7) Swapped out memory chip (desperate, dont know what else to do).

In my mind, by doing the above, I have ruled out hardware and software. What else is there?


For Sale: 1.2Ghz Celeron Boat Anchor/Shrub Sinker

 

[stevieblunder]

I don't see this so I will suggest it:
The DVD software/drivers messed up the CD-R/RW drivers in the registry. If you have Roxio or Nero, re-install it. If not, try the XP backup feature. It's unlikely there is any kind of hardware problem, if you can read the CD drive.

It's important to understand that writing to a CD-R/RW adds another driver(s) vs a CD-ROM, and packet writing adds more layers yet. It is not just one driver like a hard drive. Look up "upper filter"s and "lower filter"s.

Good luck!
Steve

 

[mshirley001]

Well, that was what I thought too but like I said, I pulled the c: drive out and replaced it with an empty drive, formatted it, and installed a fresh XP Home on it. Same problem. Using XP's native CD writing process, it goes through the entire process and gets to "performing final steps to make CD usable... estimated time remaining: 5 seconds".

At this point the computer is locked up and has to be turned off via the power switch, ctrl-alt-del doesnt work.

It always hangs at exactly the same place... 5 seconds remaining.

Easy CD creator and Nero both get about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through and takes a dump with some vague error message.

 

[Newposter]

It's often recommended to keep the HDDs as Primary Master and Slave, with CD and DCD drives as Secondary Master and Slave. Newposter
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."

 

[mshirley001]

Thats the way I had it set originally but because of the write problems to the cd-rw drive I wanted to put the cd-rw on the primary controller with a HDD to ensure read/write ability. I'm stumped. Dont know what else to try.

 

[dcwtechmech]

hi
lets start over please. With your fresh install and all your hardware installed including drivers for your cdrw please tell me if it works.
1. both hdd on primary
2. both cd devices on secondary with cdrw as master
3. cdrw software installed but not the dvd software. (video should not matter)
4. all updates from microsoft web site should be installed first before anything else.
NOTE: only critical updates and drivers, not recomemded updates.
do this and let me know. Hope you have high speed connection to internet.....
We will figure this out. Let everything that have breath praise the Lord.

 

[mshirley001]

> "We will figure this out"

Thank you, I will do as you suggest but am at work right now so it will have to wait until later. I may go home for lunch and fool with it. And yes, I do have cable modem.

You mentioned cdrw drivers... Dont have any, when I first got the system & installed xp it used it's own drivers for it (I guess). Its a Samsung 212 something or other (I'd know it if I saw it) so I'll try to locate drivers for it on the net.

 

[mshirley001]

This is all I could find on the net related to this particular drive (Samsung SW-212B) <- thats my drive. Here's the description of the download:

The firmware P000 of SW-212B ( WindowsXP) ** Caution: this firmware is applied to SW-212BE or SW-212B_DOM. You can check it on upper surface of the drive after you disassemble the drive from the PC. How to upgrade the firmware in Windows. -Windows 95/98/ME(sfdnwin.exe) - Dos mode(sfdndos.exe) -Windows2000/XP(sfdnw2k) 1. Download zip files to your C: drive. 2. Unzip the zip file, and you can find the 'Sfdnwin.exe', sfdnw2k and 'P000 .BIN' 3. Run the 'Sfdnwin.exe(windows 95/98,ME) or sfdnw2k(win2000/XP) file on windows. 4. When there's pop-up menu, you choose SYSTEM. Press the OPEN, and take the file what you want to down. 5.If you press &quot;FLASH&quot;, download is started. 6. When the FIRMWARE DOWNLOAD is completed, power the PC off. Boot up the PC again.

 

[dcwtechmech]

real mode drivers are always best to use. Although windows have great drivers always download or install the realmode ones from the OEM. Let everything that have breath praise the Lord.

 

[mshirley001]

I finally got around to working on this again while waiting on parts to arrive for new system.

dcwtechmech, I did as you said and with some difficulty getting it to boot from the recovery cd it worked!

I put both HDD's on the primary controller (master= freshly formatted drive) and both cd drives on the secondary. inserted the recovery cd and restarted pc. I kept getting error message &quot;NTLDR is missing&quot; so I pulled out slave HDD & CD drives. Same error message. Restarted it again and inserted what I thought was a bootable dos disk with fdisk on it but quickly realized it was a win98 startup disk so I poped it out and when I look up there was my recovery screen asking if I wanted to restore xp. I dont understand what happened, that 98 disk was in there for maybe 2 seconds. do you think it was the diskette, or maybe it was just having problems reading the recovery cd and finally got it?

Anyway, after restoring the OS and installing all critical updates I was able to write to the cdrw with xp's native writing process. I guess it was the updates that made the difference because I did this exact process before (without the NTLDR error) and it wouldnt write to it but I didnt install updates on that attempt.