LiteOn LVW 5005... Prepairing then invalid disk

Well i am very relieved to know that i am not the only person out there that is having problems with their LiteOn drive/burner!!!
i purchased a LVW 5005 "allwrite" in december and until about 2 or 3 weeks ago it was the best thing that i purchased in a LONG LONG time!!!

but to the point about 2 or 3 weeks ago i wanted to record some things off my DVR (tivo) so i put a blank dvd+r (out of a 1/2 used cake of sony dvd +r) something that i have been using for 3 months!! same brand everything...
put the dvd in the drive and sat down... 4 bars across the display of the liteon worried me a little. the "prepairing" that was on the screen worried me more... the "Invalid Disk" that showed on the screen and the blank display pissed me off.
so i tried another dvd... same thing
so i tried the rest of the 34 blank dvds and got the same results.
then i tried a dvd -R... well a little different... NO DISK...
ok... dvd-rw and it took about 5 mins or prepairing, but i acknowledged it...
and that is all that it will read a blank media...
have NO problems playing anything in the drive... just WILL NOT read -R or +R blank media...

does anyone have any suggestions or help for this??
i tried unplugging it... liteon tech support (level1) told me to install the new firmware which i did... still nothing
lvl2 tech support had me on hold for 1 hr and 34 mins before i got disconnected...
so....

What are the specs of your unit.

Which drive?

Which FW?

Has the FW been updated? Hacked?

This seems to be a growing problem that most people having are using the latest 1098 ES5 FW. I am beginning to suspect a FW bug of some sort. So please provide more info.

it began with the original fw that was in the system as of oct 2004... i then installed the "new" fw and there was no change...
i will open it up to get the drive id... but i have not yet attempted to hack it...
the sn is 0102-1140-****-****
tried to get the version using the 2730 on the setup screen... but nothing...
how do i get the other information???

oh a slight post script to this as well...
i have NO problems playing any form of media from the drive!!! i have played dvds (burned and movies), divx, vcds and cds and the dang thing WILL burn to any DVD RW that we have or to any blank CD media... it just will not acknowledge any BLANK dvd +/- r media....

Typically the last 4 digits will tell you the drive. If it is B205 or B208 it is the newer drive, DDW 813S. B205 has old drive FW and B208 has new drive FW. If they are F2SC then it is the older drive DDW 411S. At least this has held true in every case I have seen so far.

The second to last set of 4 digits tells you the FW. If it says 0098 it is FW 098.

I suspect you have the newer drive and have had a drive FW update. I think the new drive with the FW update has most of the problems you are experiencing. This is a guess. I'm trying to collect information to see if a pattern emerges.

It would be great if everyone took the top off of the unit to see the sticker on the top of the drive which has what drive it is. There are no warranty void stickers to worry about and then we will know for sure what drives they have. My 5005 has the 102 mother board and ddw-451s drive and my serial number is 0102-1840-0098-g2bd. The 0098 and g2bd has changed since f/w and system updates have come out (it started out as 0090-XXXX) and also the numbers in () change as to what hacks are in. I did the region free via the remote and the numbers in the () changed.

HEY ... the full sn is...

0102-1140-0098-f2SC (105-010b)

liteon's CS tells me to take it back to the dealer i got it from for repair...
told them i got it as a gift and that the dealer is out of state...
their reply is... take it to the deal you bought it from for repair
when asked for a list of dealers in my area, they said...
take it to the dealer you bought it from for repair.

what a real waste of time!!!! they know its f'd up but dont want to do
warranty work on it

go here and click on the email address for CE and make the email title Request for RMA and tell them CS said to take it back to the dealer but it was a gift and the dealer is out of state. You will have to pay the postage to get it back to LiteOn I have been told by others that have RMA'd their unit back to LiteOn.

jm... those are the same assholes that keep telling me to take it to the place of purchase for repair!!!

i have been trying to call their tech support 888 454 8366... but have been on hold for sooooo long its upsetting!!!

jm thanks... and to everyone else that has looked and responded to this thread!!!
i just got off the phone with level 2 tech support and they said the same thing that jm told me... "i think we need to RMA your unit" after only 6 mins on hold for lvl 2 and on the phone for 15 mins with lvl 1... we get them to move on this...
kind of weird how shit started to move faster when i told them about this website and how there are hundreds of people that are having similar problems with their units as i am with mine... "oh really... shoot i cant believe i cleared my screen let me put u on hold" 30 secs later, "i am going to transfer you to lvl 2"

here is the email reply I got when I described my problems and said something is definitely wrong. It took 2 trys but it worked.

Dear Sir,

It seems there is something wrong with the unit and you will have to send the unit back to us for
replacement.
For RMA(Replacement)
please provide us the following information
Name:
Address:
Telephone:

Model#
S/N# (from rear of the unit):
Reason for return:

Thank you for contacting Lite-On Tech Support. If you reply please include all previous emails.

Best Regards,
XXXXXXXX,Lite-On (USA) Tech Support, http://www.liteonamericas.com





XXXXXXX To: DCUS_Support@liteonit.com
com> cc:
Subject: 5005 Problem
05/16/2005
06:13 AM






I sent this email on 4-13-05 and have never received an answer. My 5005 was mfr'd in Sep '04 and I
purchased it in Nov 04 and it has the latest updates available on it from the LiteOn site.
Is there anyway to recover the data that was written to a DVD that the 5005 will not read now and
make it a usable DVD? As stated the DVD's were able to be recorded to and playback while still in
the 5005 but when ejected and reinserted my 5005 won't recognize them and they are not recognized in
either of my LiteOn PC based burners (832s and 1633s) because they are not finalized.

Thanks.
----- Original Message -----
From: XXXXX
To: DCUS_Support@liteonit.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: Firmware update mailing list 5005 and 5006

I was using the link for the 5005A because I have the 5005 at
http://www.liteonit.com/dc/english/disc_5005.htm but as I said they are hard to find. Tech support
has told me the same thing before any variable speed DVD should work but they don't.

Taiyo Yuden is the leading mfr of quality DVD's and that is why I bought these TYG02 and they will
not work consistently and they are variable speed 2x-8x. I just bought a spindle of 100 and have had
5 0f 8 DVD's turn out to be coasters after recording to them and watching what was recorded. After
the 5005 burns to it and as long as it stays in the recorder there is no problem. As I stated when
the DVD is inserted my 5005 sees it as new and prepares it, and writes to it. I can record and I can
watch what was recorded. The problem occurs when it is ejected and then reinserted, it looks like
the 5005 sees it as a new DVD and prepares it again, causing the recordings to be lost and the DVD
to be unusable. I have had to use the protection button on the edit screen. Sometimes it reads them
and sometimes it don't. Some of the things that pop up on the LCD screen are no disc, invalid disc
or fail after my 5005 has written to them and I have viewed what was recorded. As I said the problem
occurs when they tray is opened and then closed.
I also had the problem with ProdiscF01, CMC MAGE01, CMC MAG. AE1, +/- R's and RICOHJPNW1 +RW's

Maybe my unit is defective.

Thanks

----- Original Message -----
From: DCUS_Support@liteonit.com
To: XXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: Firmware update mailing list 5005 and 5006


Dear Sir,
Heres the link for recommended media list
http://www.liteonit.com/dc/english/disc_5006.htm
the 8x disc should work fine if its variable speed disc (1x-8x).

Thank you for contacting Liteon Technical Support. Please reply with history and send us all
correspondences in all emails you send to us.


Technical Support? www.liteonamericas.com






XXXXXXX
To: DCUS_Support@liteonit.com

com> cc:

Subject: Re: Firmware update mailing list 5005 and
5006
04/12/2005

09:50 PM







Is there a firmware update for the LVW-5005A for more media. The approved media list is outdated
and
needs updating. 4x DVD's are getting real hard to find. I am now having trouble with the unit using
Taiyo Yuden TG02 DVD's. The 5005A will accept the new DVD, prepare it and record to it. Everything
is fine until I eject the DVD and then the 5005 won't recognize it. I eject it again and it might
recognize it. I started to use the protection button on the edit screen because I was starting to
lose recordings.
Please do something about media.

PS. The firmware update for the green tint worked very well.

Thanks

Like many others my 5005 lacks the ability to recognise unfinalised discs and I considered returning it "for repair" but I reckoned that the supplier (Argos) would simply just give me another 5005.

Fortunately, I think I have a work-around for this problem. Always write to +RW discs (which don't seem to be affected by the unfinalised disk problem) and then copy them, on your pc, to a +R disc. This has worked ok for me so far but there may be circumstances when it won't.

I use Nero and the copying doesn't take too long. Give it a try.

I think it's the new drive firmware. I had my 5005 since Nov. and it was working fine. After I recently upgraded the drive firmware and the 5005 firmware the unit will not recognize the same media I had been using for 6 months. If your unit is working stay away from the drive update. Now i'm going to throw my 5005 into the garbage and get a panasonic or pioneer.

Let me know where you live and I'll come by on trash day :-)

It could be the drive FW, but don't give up on the 5005 just yet. Will your unit at least recognize and work with the RW media?

Maybe we should start a petition and send it to Liteon.

I think a petition is a good idea. It seems that most of these units work fine for a couple of months (mine did) and then they develop a problem, mostly with unfinalized discs. I have had the old firmware and new firmware, and have found it makes no difference. RW + media is the only thing that "always" works for me, but that's only because it doesn't have to be finalized - so the machine is practically useless for most purposes and has many problems. Where do I sign the petition? :-) Surely $150-$200 times all the people in this forum has added up to a lot of money in their pockets for a bad product.

I to bought the 5005 Jan.3,2006.It worked great burning first 7 dvds.Today i went to use it,and it will not load a disc,no disc(invalid disc,or no disc).It will not play store bought dvds,or discs made by with the 5005.Bad unit maybe?Any help,suggestions.
Thanks,Dan

I'm having the same problem with the LVW5026 model - it also won't read disks finalised on it although they work fine in my other machine (a Sony portable). Anyone else had this problem? The petition sounds like a good idea to me...

I also have a 5005A and am experiencing the "Invalid Disk" issue with several different brands of +/- DVD R's. I have not tried a RW yet, but I will give it a shot when i get home!

I bought this about a year ago I believe when COMPUSA had the rebates for them and I just went to copy some programs from the PVR and all I get is Invalid Disk.

I did do the firmware hacks to it withing a day or two of getting it so i don't believe it's due to that as i would suspect it ould have malfunctioned soon after that hack was installed?

I will aslo open it up and post all the details of the unit here for anyone who would like to compare information. Has there been any luck fixing these short of sending them back to Liteon? If I do send it back and they fix/replace it, will it have unhackable firmware installed by them or will they put it back to the stock F/W?

Any info and help here would be greatly appreciated!!


Thanks to all!

VideoPro

Just to rule out bad media I'd run DVDInfoPro on PC drive. I had a string of 5 consecutive Ritek G05 that gave the invalid disk error on the 5005, and on every 1 of these DVDInfoPro showed blank disk but only 0.03 GB free capacity indicating bad media. Just to be sure I also tried burning same media on PC burner which not surpisingly failed to burn all 5 disks. It may not be the media, but it won't hurt to be sure.

You should also be able to back flash to earlier firmware which may fix the problem if firmware is the issue. I've done this and read where others have too with no problems.

hi
having the same problem my DVD recorder lvw5006 will not recognize dvd disk but plays cdr and records cdr disk?
tried updating from liteon website but no luck as my serial number is not recognized on the website and found it very confusing.

before you give up try a DVD cleaning disc

My issue is similar to some of the above so I hope this is the correct thread for it. I've had no problems recording/reading 8x DVD+R disks from any manufacturer since I bought the unit (LVW-5005) three years ago but I get "invalid disk" messages when trying 16x disks. Message on the slip cover of the spindle of disks I bought says "contact the manufacturer to upgrade the unit to recognize 16x disks". I've tried this but no response from LiteOn. I have 0090 FW now but am hesitant to upgrade because I don't know if this will fix the issue, and because of the problems people seem to be having after upgrading.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
Barrie

I just scanned this thread, so pardon me if this has been mentioned.

But the drives in the 5xxx liteons are crap and will go bad quickly. Check out the thread on 5xxxx replacement drives.

Like you, I loved my 5006. For $40, I restored all functions except VCD and SVCD recording.

Before, I was having the same invalid disc and non-recognition problems. It was maddening. Now I can record on all dvd types, and have had no problems at all.

Read the various posts in the replacement drive thread, and consider trying that to restore your recorder and end the frustration. First, you may want to try cleaning the laser lens - that has worked for some, but the crap drives will not last long, so I recommend a replacement.

Friday I actually received a reply from the LiteOn technical support people, as follows:

"Dear Barrie, thank you for contacting LiteON IT support. Kindly be informed, update firmware can`t improve the unit to handle up to 16X discs. In general, LVW-5005 can only record on certain max 8x DVD discs,but not record on max 16x DVDs. It can play max 16x DVDs. Sorry for the inconvenience.

More information,please kindly visit LiteON IT Corp. official website-www.liteonit.com.
If you reply do please include all previous emails.Thank you very much!
Best regards, Customer Service Division, DCBU"

Which upsets me but makes sense - I had already cleaned the lens and I have a friend with exactly the same unit who also can't record on the 16x DVDs so I discounted that as the problem.

I did ask them if there were any other benefits to upgrading FW from 0090 to 0098 or later but they haven't replied to that question.

Thanks for the reply - I'll check out the other thread you mentioned.

Barrie

Just happened to one of my 5005s. not only would it not prep any discs but would not even read the CD/DVD lens cleaning disc.
I had to take the drive out and clean the lens with alcohol and a Q-tip.
Now everything is back to normal.
Even preped the discs that were invalid before.

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Last edited by CCRomeo; 29-04-2007 at 17:22.