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cd rewriter not formatting cd-rws 1

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jpcw

Technical User
Jun 20, 2002
34
GB
Hi,
I've got a Philips PCRW4816K internal drive, approx 14 months old, running on a Windows 2000 PC. The drive works fine for all burning operations apart from formatting CD-RWs for packet writing. It will read and write to UDF formatted CD-RWs that have been formatted on another machine. I've tried three different types of packet writing software and four different makes of CD-RW. The software that came with the drive and supposedly supports it is Ahead InCD 4, and is currently installed. When a blank unformatted CD-RW is inserted, InCD pops up to attempt to format the disk, but when you click OK to let it, the software freezes for a while and the write light on the drive does not light up, but the drive door is locked. Then, the software bombs out saying there was a problem, and Windows then brings up a warning about unsafe removal of peripherals, and loses access to the drive (and the second drive which is a DVD reader). A similar scenario occurs with other software. I've tried killing all non-essential background processes and services (incl. antivirus), still no joy. I've tried Philips tech support, but they're useless. I've tried hunting newsgroups, but there isn't much help their either. Is this a hardware or software/OS fault? If I can fix this issue I would rather do that than calling in the warranty, but if not, I guess I have no choice. Please help if you can - thanks in advance.
 
It's mostlikely a Software issue...

I mean you can write to and change things on CD RW discs formatted on other PCs... this leads me to think that you possibly don't have the correct ASPI layers installed or are using the ones that come with W2k... go to the Adaptec website and download the latest ASPI layers and install them and see if that changes anything...

Ben

PS - also recommended are the latest CHIPSET drivers...
 
Thanks for the advice - I checked my system and bizarrely I didn't appear to have the ASPI drivers installed at all. So I followed your advice and downloaded and installed them (with some excitement, hoping this may solve the problem), but to no avail. I have already updated the drive's firmware and the mainboard chipset drivers. Any other ideas?
 
Have you tried reinstalling or repairing the writing software as well as trying a different type of RW disk?

"Sometimes I do not know but I try hard"- R.F. Haughty 1923
 
kippy13 - thanks, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling a variety of different software including DirectCD and InCD, but no good, the same problem occurs which makes me suspect a system problem.
 
Hi,
Yes after all the points you have mentioed above and the exhaustive troubleshooting steps I would return the drive before the warrenty runs out and try another one.

"Sometimes I do not know but I try hard"- R.F. Haughty 1923
 
Just downloaded an update to InCD (v4.1.0.0) and now it appears to be working, though whether it was just the update or the combination of the update with the installation of the ASPI driver I don't know, but thanks for the tips anyway folks.
 
JPCW - glad you got it to work... an update to the InCD would've been my next suggestion... Cheers...

Ben

 
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