CD won't burn - not a hardware problem?

[aroostook]

Hi folks, I got a weird one here...

I have a CD burner that won't burn CDs. You can add files to be ready to be burned, but once you start the wizard and click Next, it tells you there is NO CD in the drive. This is not true. I've tried the CD burner in a different machine (XP SP 3, all machines) and it burned a CD. I've tried the CD in a different machine (after it failed) and it burned just fine, so it wasn't the CD. All attempts were as an administrator.

Any places I should be looking for clues? I didn't see anything in the Event Viewer, except for 3 Failure audits in the Security tab (Event ID 577, no service was named for the failure). I ran sysinternals process monitor during the whole attempt and saved the log. Anything in there I can look at that might give me a clue? There's a lot of data in there...

Thanks!

 

[aich69]

try the link below...I've seen this when there were issues with filter entries for the optical drive in the registry.

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cd_dvd_drive_problems

I used to have a handle on life... but it broke. Cpt. Red Bull

 

[mscallisto]

Same driver in all PC's?

For starters:

Is CD cable or USB?

If USB have you tried a different USB slot or tried another device like a flash drive to test the connect point?

If cable have you tried an alternate place to connect or have you tried another device at that same connect point?

Does the CD show up in device manager?

Same CD software and version in all PC's?

sam

 

[aich69]

Here it is as a manual fix so you know what's going on.

1) Close all open programs

2) Click on Start, Run, and type REGEDIT and press Enter

3) Expand the following folders by clicking the plus sign next to them.

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
* SYSTEM
* CurrentControlSet
* Control
* Class
* {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

4) The last folder is the DVD/CD-ROM Drive Class Description in the registry. Look for any of the following names in the right hand pane.

* UpperFilters
* LowerFilters
* UpperFilters.bak
* LowerFilters.bak

5) If any of the above keys exist, right-click on them and choose Delete

6) After deleting the keys, close the Registry Editor

7) Reboot
your computer



I used to have a handle on life... but it broke. Cpt. Red Bull

 

[aroostook]

Yes, same driver. Also, the burner used to work just fine in the trouble machine.

The CD is IDE (cable)

No, I have not moved the cable to a different slot. I suppose there might be a problem with one of the IDE channels...or even the cable itself.

Yes, the CD device shows up in the device manager. It even shows that there's a CD-R in the drive in My Computer. It just won't burn.

Yes, the CD software is the same on all computers.

Thanks!

@aich69: I'll look into that, thanks

 

[tcsbiz]

You need a CD-RW to burn to?

 

[mscallisto]

I believe RW simply means Re-Write able

 

[aich69]

If the drive works in another PC and it used to work in the original PC then it's something with the original PC.

It's going to be-
i. a cable issue - swap it out with a known good if you have one
ii. an IDE channel issue - swap them around and see if it writes on the secondary channel or put it on the same cable as the HDD (you'll need to make sure you master/slave settings are correct)
iii. registry as mentioned previously - (my money would be on this if I were a betting man)

let us know how you get on.

I used to have a handle on life... but it broke. Cpt. Red Bull

 

[kjv1611]

It could also be a software issue.

Do this on the pc with the burner issue:
1. Start - Run - type msconfig
2. Disable ALL startup items and reboot.
3. See if it'll burn. If so, you know it's one of the startup programs.

Typical culprits:
1. CD "quieter" software
2. Any sort of CD enhancement type software
3. Some CD burner apps can go flaky
4. Some security apps, particularly anything that is a firewall with built in "program guard"

If it does work, then begin narrowing down the application causing the issue by either selecting all of them to start up again, and hand-picking which to disable... or enable one at a time, reboot after each, and see if problem still exists.

Post back with your results.

 

[cdogg]

I'm with aich69 on this one. Most of the time when you encounter software operation issues, it's the Upper and Lower filter keys in the registry. Here's another link with more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461

In other rare cases, it could be a software conflict unrelated to the registry. For example, there's a popular drive-mounting software out there called Alcohol 120% that can cause issues. Try the solution above first, but post back if you continue to have issues after rebooting.

Carl

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test
a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln
[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[aroostook]

It was the cable.

I swapped the cable (both the original and new one) to the secondary channel and it didn't help. In fact, Windows (and the BIOS, for that matter) didn't even recognize the drive existed! Just a new cable in the primary channel worked fine.

I did the registry edit, too, just in case. Just the registry edit alone didn't do anything.

Thanks, guys!!

 

[cdogg]

Just curious, but did you reboot after making the registry edit before you tried replacing the cable?

 

[aroostook]

@cdogg: Yup. Made the edit and rebooted. Didn't help.

 

[kjv1611]

Glad to know it got resolved. Cables get overlooked quite often, but are simple to test, so long as you have replacements.