dvd reader/burner works but cds dont please read

Trumandrummer

ok , ive been having problems with my semi-new dvd r/rw/ cd r/rw drive. ive narrowed it down alot. ive been messing with it. it is a lite-on. heres the problem, the drive is reading /burning dvds fine without a problem. but it will not read DATA cds and wont read or burn music cds. it just says drive is empty. if i try to burn it says there is no disc in drive. ive uninstalled the drive and reinstalled it, but no luck. i went on the lite-on site and updates for the driver but they said i wont need them anyways. and they didnt work. im thinking it has to do with my old cd burner i had in place there. because if i go to device manager, there are 3 drives. the lite-on dvd/cd burner (thats the one im having probs with). and the regular dvd reader which is still on the computer. but the old cd burner is still showing up. so i uninstalled it and restarted my computer and it found the hardware and automatically installed, yet its not plugged into my computer? very weird. can anyone please help me? thanks alot


- trumandrummer

Armo

it will do that some times if you dont make sure to finalize the disk. alot of the times if your not paying attention it will create a multisession cd/dvd, all you should need to do is ( i use nero ) so open your software with the screwed up disk and just tell it to burn and finalize. that fixed my stuff when i used my dvd burner to backup some 15 dvd's of stuff, it didnt finalize any of them and when i went to get the data back the disks were empty and i freaked out. after a few minutes thought i tried finializing the disk and they work great.

Trumandrummer

well thanx alot man, but thats not my problem. it wont read or burn cds. ill put a blank in and it says "please inster cd" or "no disc in drive" and to be sure it was an empty disc, ive tried it with 4 different cds. and if i put a cd in to listen to music it wont read it. also it doesnt read data cds either. its making me so confused because it still reads and burns dvds.

Crypto

sadly, it may be a hardware problem, it seems to be fairly common, have a look at this link

Crypto

Trumandrummer

thanks alot man, thats sounds like the exact problem im having except of course i have a different brand of a driver. if this is a drive issue im going to take it back to circuit city and throw it in the guys face and tell him to go **** himself. the guy told me its the best they carry. and its only about a month old. the weird thing is , is that it used to read cds and stuff but now it only reads dvds. ugh.i was working on it with a freind and there really is nothing wronge, we even checked the bios. windows reconizes the drive. there is 1 issue that may be causing this besides the faulty drive. and that is about that other drive that i dont even have anymore but when i uninstall it windows reconizes it again. it was my old cd drive which i had tooken out. im thinking that maybe it could be causing complications for the cd part of the new drive. b4 i decide to go raise hell at circuit city does anyone have any other suggestions as to why this is doing this? and should i call lite-on support before taking it back to circuit city?

Trumandrummer

?

Donut

I'd try to take it back, I don't know what Circuit-Citys' policy is on returns, but start there. What have you got to lose?

I'm not sure how combo drives work, maybe 2 seperate lasers?

Trumandrummer

yea i dont know either. i think were gonna take it back and get a name brand like sony. any ideas on a good brand burner guys? the guy told me that was the best the had but it obviously sucked and it was anoying because it was plastic gears not rubber bands or w/e. it was really loud when you opened it.

profdlp

You can buy the "best" of anything and still end up with a dud. If you're sure that your computer is fine, I'd just exchange the drive for another one.

Trumandrummer

ok thanx alot man

ryko

best burner right now is the nec 3550a...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058

but the liteon one should be fine...they are a reputable manufacturer...make CC give you a replacement and you should be ok. btw, what burning software are you using?

Trumandrummer

yea, ill just get a replacment. mine was pretty good when it worked. its everything in one. dvd +, - R, RW . and Cd +, - r, RW. and it was alot faster than my old burner. im just hopeing circuit city will take it back. because if they dont i know my dads gonna go insane on the place lol. and im using nero 6 for burning. roxio came with my computer but it just plain out sucks.

Crypto

Trumandrummer,
if you read further on that site I linked you to, you'll find that Sony is a badged up Liteon!

My liteon is fine, I've modded the firmware as described elsewhere on that site and I have no problems at all.

I use mostly Nero 6.3.1.25 for burning.

Cheers

Crypto

Trumandrummer

yea, thats my problem. i tried updating the firmware. i tried everything man. it has to be faulty. sadly

airbornflght

what does the 3550 have over the 3540? i didnt notice much except for maybe a few speed increases.