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pultneytooner
13-Sep-06, 13:32
About one week ago I was going to format my H'D and on trying to back-up my files and folders.
On trying to back-up said folders using nero everything went fine, data burned successfuly says nero, out pops the cd so I put it back in the drive to make sure everything was fine and found that there was nothing on the disc.
First I thought it must be a problem with nero so I tryed ashampoo burning studio which gave the same result, blank disc.
The drive will burn music no problem, won't burn .bin files to cd but will burn to dvd.
Won't burn a vcd to cd or dvd but will burn the extracted mpeg video to dvd as a data file.
Flashed the latest firmware to the dvd drive to see if that was the problem but still the same results.:confused
Unless the drive is knackered any ideas would be appreciated.

blueivy
13-Sep-06, 13:53
When burning a 'blank' CD how long does it take and are there any tracks burned on the disk?

I don't think the drive is knackered, I think it's a software problem but it is a strange one.

pultneytooner
13-Sep-06, 18:48
When burning a 'blank' CD how long does it take and are there any tracks burned on the disk?

I don't think the drive is knackered, I think it's a software problem but it is a strange one.
It takes about 3 mins to burn a music cd of 20 tracks this works with no problem. When trying to burn data to a cd it takes about a minute but there are no burn tracks on the cd, it's as if it was never burned, checked the so-called burnt disc in a mates pc with the same results, no data on the disc.

blueivy
13-Sep-06, 19:01
That is quite bizarre. In Start->Control Panel->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager Button->CD/DVD Drives does it show your drive correctly?

When did the problem start happening?
Is it XP Pro you're using?
Have you tried to burn a CD directly from Windows?
Have you checked what NERO is reporting the capabilities of the drive as (I'm assuming it has detected it can burn data CD's otherwise it wouldn't try)
Have you tried to just burn a file to a CD?
Is there anything in NERO to suggest it failed to burn the CD?

All these questions and more as this is unusual.

pultneytooner
13-Sep-06, 20:24
That is quite bizarre. In Start->Control Panel->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager Button->CD/DVD Drives does it show your drive correctly?

When did the problem start happening?
Is it XP Pro you're using?
Have you tried to burn a CD directly from Windows?
Have you checked what NERO is reporting the capabilities of the drive as (I'm assuming it has detected it can burn data CD's otherwise it wouldn't try)
Have you tried to just burn a file to a CD?
Is there anything in NERO to suggest it failed to burn the CD?

All these questions and more as this is unusual.
Drive shows up in device manager and says device working properly.
Problem started about 3 days ago, never any problems before that.
Installed nero 7 premium at that time so thought maybe that was the problem so I uninstalled nero 7 and went back to my old nero 6.6 then someone told me that nero 7 had stability issues.
Nero recognises the drive as being a sony DVD RW DRU-710A and that it is a cd that I have inserted, I have never had a problem with nero burning a data cd before.
I have tried burning just the one file with the same result, blank cd in, blank cd out.
Nero goes through all the normal writing lead in, burning data, writing lead out the data burned successfuly, click okay, out pops blank disc.
Also tried windows built in burning software, same result.

blueivy
13-Sep-06, 20:34
pultneytooner,

That is just bizarre. It's either a drive problem (which I didn't think and still can't fathom) or it's a Windows problem (ie. talking to the drive). Nero and other CD/DVD writing software use their own interface to write to the disks, however they still go through Windows if I understand it correctly now.

If Nero is not reporting any errors and is going through the motions of writing then that again points to the drive, however it could be some sort of bizarre Windows problem.

Have you tried updating the drive firmware? Something may have happened and flashing it again even with the same firmware may help. Sony also have a diagnostics tool (http://sony.storagesupport.com/cdrw/diagnostics.htm) that they stress is only for US customers but it may work for you (never used it so don't know if it's any use).

pultneytooner
13-Sep-06, 20:48
I downloaded the diagnostic tool, ran the tests using a dvd+r which consisted of a writing to disc test and a reading disc test, the drive passed both tests and it said my drive is working perfectly.
Tried it with a cd-rw passed the write test but failed the read test.

Should I try flashing the drive again.

pultneytooner
13-Sep-06, 21:18
here's the report from the cd-wr test:

702 MB Blank CD-RW
[09/14/2006 01:13:38 AM] 1 log - Media ID: 97.25.30
[09/14/2006 01:13:38 AM] 1 log - Testing drive: SONY DVD RW DRU-710A (BYX5)
[09/14/2006 01:13:38 AM] 1 log - Begining Test
[09/14/2006 01:13:38 AM] 1 log - Begining CD Write
[09/14/2006 01:13:56 AM] 1 log - 32768 bytes written to track (16 sectors)
[09/14/2006 01:13:59 AM] 1 log - Adjusting track 02 start from 6144 to 6296
[09/14/2006 01:14:00 AM] 1 log - Adjusting track 03 start from 173780 to 174084
[09/14/2006 01:14:09 AM] 1 log - 32768 bytes written to track (16 sectors)
[09/14/2006 01:14:12 AM] 1 log - Adjusting track 04 start from 179924 to 180380
[09/14/2006 01:14:13 AM] 1 log - Adjusting track 05 start from 347560 to 348168
[09/14/2006 01:14:23 AM] 1 log - 32768 bytes written to track (16 sectors)
[09/14/2006 01:14:27 AM] 1 log - CD Write complete
[09/14/2006 01:14:27 AM] 1 log - Begining data verification
[09/14/2006 01:14:32 AM] *** err - Failed to read data from track
[09/14/2006 01:14:32 AM] *** err - edwMmcRead10 returned the following error: SCSI Sense - Key:3 (Medium Error) ASC:11 ASCQ:05

blueivy
14-Sep-06, 12:09
I downloaded the diagnostic tool, ran the tests using a dvd+r which consisted of a writing to disc test and a reading disc test, the drive passed both tests and it said my drive is working perfectly.
Tried it with a cd-rw passed the write test but failed the read test.

Should I try flashing the drive again.

It's looking like the drive has failed (according to the logs) which I just don't quite get. I'm not up on the electronics of the CD/DVD drives but if it can read one kind of data, I'd imagine it could read the other kind. I know that the format of the disks are different which is maybe where it's going wrong.

As I said it's looking the drive itself has failed. If it has then flashing it can't do any harm at all. I'd give it a go and try the test again. You never know it might fix it.

As there are so many other things between the drive and the actual 'PC' itself that one of them could have failed - cable, controller, etc. - although it's unlikely as you'd see other problems.

The definitive test would be to try it in another, known working, machine that would be a big and definite YES or NO to whether it's working.

pultneytooner
14-Sep-06, 13:43
It's looking like the drive has failed (according to the logs) which I just don't quite get. I'm not up on the electronics of the CD/DVD drives but if it can read one kind of data, I'd imagine it could read the other kind. I know that the format of the disks are different which is maybe where it's going wrong.

As I said it's looking the drive itself has failed. If it has then flashing it can't do any harm at all. I'd give it a go and try the test again. You never know it might fix it.

As there are so many other things between the drive and the actual 'PC' itself that one of them could have failed - cable, controller, etc. - although it's unlikely as you'd see other problems.

The definitive test would be to try it in another, known working, machine that would be a big and definite YES or NO to whether it's working.
Thanks for your help, I will try the drive in another machine.

blueivy
14-Sep-06, 13:46
Hi pultneytooner,

If you're stuck give me a shout and I can supply a machine for you to test it in (you're in Golspie?). However please let me know how you get on.

pultneytooner
14-Sep-06, 19:32
Hi pultneytooner,

If you're stuck give me a shout and I can supply a machine for you to test it in (you're in Golspie?). However please let me know how you get on.

Tried the drive in a friends machine and it does seem that the drive is knackered.
This will be my last encounter with sony drives as I have had nothing but trouble with it since I got it. I bought a new sony digital video camera and when I tried to burn a dvd from the camera to the burner it said that the drive wasn't compatable with the video camera both were sony, what a rip-off when two pieces of sony equipment are incompatable with each other.
Beware of sony pc products.[disgust]

Once again thanks for all your help and I will be sure to give you a call if I have any more problems.

blueivy
14-Sep-06, 19:42
Hi pultneytooner,

I have to say I've never liked Sony products (although I have a Sony DVD writer here). They are always proprietary, overly expensive and just never seem to like other products when you try and connect them together. I'm talking specifically VCR's and DVD's (which I've had experience with).

I also hate the Sony Vaio's for exactly the same reasons. Before I started Blue Ivy I had to support one of the first Vaio's to be made, brought from Japan by a Japanese developer and it was running Japanese Windows 98. Supporting it wasn't fun as I don't read Japanese for starters! However the hardware was only exclusively for the Vaio, it wouldn't work with anything else and nothing else appeared to work with it. They're probably a lot better now but that kind of put me off.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings and back to your drive. Glad you got it resolved anyway. At least DVD drives are pretty cheap. I'd recommend the Lite-On drives. Always seem to get good press. I own a CDRW one and it's about 6/7 years old and still going (on the odd occassion I use the old machine).