Read error with Liteon LH-20A1L, but not my NEC drive

Hi, I am using the latest 5.0.3.0 version of DVDFab HD Decrypter on Windows XP SP2.

Whenever I put a dvd into my Liteon LH-20A1L drive (using the latest BL06 firmware), I get a read error asking me to retry, abort, or ignore. My Liteon burner is a SATA drive. I tried to disable the read ahead cache and this does nothing.

If I put the same DVD in my older NEC drive all is well. This drive is too old to burn DVD's however, so I have to do the burning in the Liteon drive.

Can anyone tell me how to fix the read error for my SATA-based Liteon Burner?

thanks!

It almost sounds like the blank dvd isn't reading.

What brand of blank dvd are you using?

Hi schafirschafir and welcome to cdfreaks,

Is the litey failure to read confined only to Fab?
Based on your post, there's a good chance the driver (access layers) are corrupt. I'd suggest uninstalling the litey from device manager.
Reboot and let XP reinstall the drive and assign the appropriate driver.
On a rare occasion, you might have to physically unplug the drive...power up and off, and replug the drive and then power up again.

It does that with any and all DVDs? I just have 'Let Bios Select Transfer Mode' selected on both drives' controllers. None of the read/write caching or the command queueing boxes are checked, if that's what you're referring to regarding read ahead.

However, I just received that error when trying to back up Semi-Pro. I was just about to reboot my system (was playing a lot of games before running DVDFab), but checked for an update first. Problem was solved by upgrading 5.0.2.5 to 5.0.3.0. I just read in the update notes that pathplayer for Semi-Pro and other DVDs was fixed with this version. I'm thinking maybe try disabling pathplayer, see if that makes any difference.

I have two of the Lite-On drives you mentioned, and up until Semi-Pro I haven't had any issues with either drive. System specs are in my sig. Hopefully someone can be of greater help here for you.

Interesting that you received the same read error as the OP when inserting the "Semi-Pro" disc and thanks for the info...
I'm not sure what the OP meant by,
"...Whenever I put a dvd into my Liteon LH-20A1L drive (using the latest BL06 firmware), I get a read error asking me to retry, abort, or ignore..."
? blank media, ? pressed disc...
It sounds like he means "any" dvd, but we need clarification on this.

I have 4 burners...one a SATA Liteon LH-20A1S. I've rarely received this error and it's always been a bad disc.

First of all, thanks for all your help. At this point I am confused as to what the problem is. When I originally posted, I did think that the read error happened for any DVD I tried to decrypt. This was based on a sample size of 2 DVDs, one of which was, by chance, "Semi-Pro" and the other was an older movie called "Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte"

Based on suggestions from your replies, this is what I have done:

1) Uninstalled and reinstalled the Liteon drive using the unplug/poweroff, then power-on method suggested by maineman above.

2) Picked a random DVD out of my collection ("Almost Famous") and tried to rip it using DVDFAb 5.0.3.0 on the Liteon burner. This DVD passed the initial analysis, but when I started ripping, it came up with an read error message asking if I wanted to try to read again using PathPlayer. I check yes and it restarted DVDfab with Pathplayer invoked and then I got another read-error message with an Abort, Retry, Ignore options.

3) I aborted and removed the "Almost Famous" DVD and inserted it in my three-year old DVD burner and tried to rip again with DVDfab and it worked using the NEC burner.

At this point, I would conclude that the problem is not a bad disc since it burned with the NEC burner, but rather with either my Liteon burner, DVDfab or some configuration/controller settings.

However, then I took another DVD from my collection ("ELF") and it ripped with no errors using DVDfab with the Liteon burner.

Anyone have any clues at this point?

thanks for your help.

The best way to rule out the disc as being the problem is to do a "Scan Disc" using Nero CD Speed, it can also be that the lens on the liteon needs to be cleaned it may be having trouble reading a few/certain sectors on the disc.
Also check in device manager to see if the liteon drive is in PIO transfer mode if so reset DMA transfer mode, this has been known to cause such issues.
Have a nice day

drives can deffer on how they read. just so happens today i encountered a very similar problem. i was backing up all 6 episodes of Star Wars.

i use my lite-on 20a1p as reader and pioneer 115d as burner. episodes 1-5 went with out trouble. episode 6 stopped at 47%.

so i cleaned the dvd, uninstalled the ide controller and tried two other programs using the lite-on as source, and both failed at 47%.

so i popped the dvd into my pioneer drive and all went well using dvdfab.

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Last edited by troy512; 08-06-2008 at 08:35. Reason: editing

Hi again schafir,

In addition to everyone's suggestions, we really need some additional details...sorry.
Has this Liteon ever worked well in your current rig?
Did you flash it to SL06?
Frankly, I'd flash it back to SL05 once some other stuff is ruled out...or maybe before...?

Do you have this connected directly to your motherboard?...mobo details please.
This is not configured for RAID correct?
PCI card?
Are you using nVidia controller and drivers...? MS drivers?
Please try the MS default drivers if not currently using them
Since this is a SATA drive, there is no DMA setting, per se, however, are any of your IDE controllers in PIO, for eg., one of your hdds, this can be a problem.

Hi maineman,

Interesting that you ask. This Liteon drive was recently delivered to me by Liteon after my previous LH-20A1L stopped burning to my Verbatim DL discs.
I assume that this burner is a remanufactured replacement. When it came, it was loaded with BL02 firmware and I upgraded it to BL06, the latest version.

My previous Liteon (same model) worked well on my system, but I was using the old dvddecrypter s/w. I don't think it has ever worked well with DVDfab.

This burner worked well with the older 3.5.4.0 version of dvddecrypter, which I have since uninstalled. Incidentally, I use Imageburn to make my ISOs and to burn to my Verbatim DL's with no problem on the Liteon.

Here are the answers to your questions:

- My liteon is plugged directly into my motherboard which is a Dell 0GC068 motherboard in a Dell XPS Gen5 system. No PCI card to the burner.

- I have two 250GB drives running as a mirrored raid. 'They are also directly connected to the motherboard using the Intel(R) 82801GB Ultra ATA Storage Controller which I assume is also controlling the Liteon burner

- No Nvidia controller except for the Nvidia GeForce 6800 graphics.

- I only have a Primary IDE Channel and it is set for Device 0 (DMA if available) with mode Ultra DMA Mode 2. Device 1 is also set to DMA if available, but current transfer mode is "not applicable"

Regarding the Liteon firmware, are there problems with the BL06 firmware that would send me back to BL05?

thanks again.

Quite the conundrum...
It's my understanding that SATA OODs don't work with RAID, or at least not reliably, but I have no experience with this...never having run a RAID set up.
I can't get my brain around why your previous SATA LH-20A1L worked well in this set up with the old dvddecrypter and older versions of dvdfabdecrypter, but this one will not work now. However, it'll burn just fine with Img.
I just can't connect the dots...sorry.

I mentioned flashing back to SL05 simply because I noted complaints about SL06 when I did a search. Basically, a shot in the dark, but with liteys, typically you can flash 'em foward and back 'til the cows come home.

Since your other Liteon worked well though, you have to wonder about this one, particularly as it's probably a refurb.
Are you able to put another IDE burner in your rig? If so, I'd return this one and tell 'em you've had 2 bad ones and you want an IDE replacement. My bet is that you'll have no problem with an PATA ODD. You could also try a PCI/SATA card, but again, I'm not sure about this with a RAID set up.

Let us know what you find...
I'll keep looking around and see if I can find anything to help you out.
I can't seem to locate specs or a manual for your mobo.
Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Thanks maineman.

I'll try to go back to firmware rev 05 and see if that helps. I'll post here if I find a solution.

At ~$50 for a burner, I may just go out and purchase another higher quality/recommended burner (perhaps IDE). It was a pain in the ass to get Liteon to fix my drive under warranty the first time. It's not worth the effort.

thanks again.

OK, I tried to install BL05 firmware, but the executable doesn't recognize the Liteon drive, presumably because it is running the higher version BL06 firmware.

Anyone know how to roll back the firmware to BL05?

thanks.

Hey again schafir,

Shouldn't be a problem. Have a look here:
Flash Utility for LiteOn Based Optical Drives .

There's a ton of info here: F.A.Q. for LiteOn Optical Drives

and on the cdf Liteon subform.

and also
EEPROM Utility for LiteOn/Sony CD/DVD-Writers

Hey maineman,

Thank you for all your help. At this point, I give up with DVDfabHD 5.0.3.0.

I moved my Liteon firmware back to BL05. I tried yet another DVD (Ocean's Eleven) and I still get the read error with DVDfabHD.

However, the same DVD in the same Liteon drive decrypts just fine with the
older DVDdecrypter 3.5.4.0 and also with DVDshrink 3.2.

My conclusion at this point is that it is not a problem with the burner or my system settings, but rather some problem with DvdFab 5.0.3.0 or its related settings.

Perhaps when a new version fo DVDfab comes out, I'll try that one.

thanks again for all your help.

Hey again schafir,

Geesh, can't say I blame you. I'm sure, given anywhere from a few hours to a few months, we could figure this out, but hey, I'm with you.
I don't recall if you've done this, but I'd do a complete uninstall of Fab before installing the next version. If you need help with this, just look in StormJumper's sig (above). He's got a great guide on "how to".

Best of luck on the next version.