NEC/Optiarc DVD-R Reading Problems

_chef_

Then this is a software/driver problem.

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montxinho

maybe, but I install windows again and cannot read the disc, and I try in a linux fedora and not work....but in DOS works ok!!

abrahkkan

Hi everybody!!!

I have a similar situation. I have a NEC 3550A DVDRW.

It was working perfectly.Very happy with the drive. Fast and reading almost all media (even cheap ones).

Someday strangely I inserted one DVD-R disc with stuff I burned there a long time ago, in fact a disc with things I normally use there and my surprise, the drive didn't read it. I placed the disc in my other drive, a Lite-On DVD-ROM and read it perfectly. I worried and tried reading in my DVD-RW almost all my DVDs and none of them worked, and all of them worked in the other drive. I found a new firmware version, installed it with no problems but the symptom prevailed.

Other strange things: If I insert a recorded DVD-R the drive stucks trying to read it. If I insert a recorded DVD+R or a DVD+RW the drive recognizes it as a blank DVD and the options to record it appears in Windows. Any actual blank DVD, no matter if it is -R, +R or +RW the drive recognizes very well and I can record it, but after the recording process it doesn't read it. Any CD, no matter if it is -R or an original factory CD or an original factory DVD (a movie or software silver DVD) is read perfectly.

The final test I made was to install the drive in another computer. I had for the test one system with a new fresh install of windows XP professional SP2 (same as I have on my primary system) with nothing but the OS and the latest drivers of everything installed. The unit worked perfectly there and read all the discs it didn't read on my primary computer.

Very strange situation and I'm almost sure that it was something that I installed or something like a virus that installed in the system and the problems began there, because it was from a moment to another without doing anything in special with the unit itself that the problem appeared.

_chef_

Test the drive in another computer, your only chance to find out.

__________________
Enable DMA with micrAp$0ft Enable DMA free at your will busTRACE => Upper/Lower Filters Util
DevCon ***HOW TO ... Delete the Upper & Lower Filters!***

If you expect help then please use the powerful SEARCH. Try ThreatFire
I am looking for DVD-R for Authoring & HD DVD media. Please PM me if you can help me.

Vamos Tribbles! V-a-m-o-s!!

bevills1

The twinkcentral experience in post #75 seems to indicate the problem is initiated when the drive can't read a particular disk after which it is unable to read -R recordings. This appears to indicate Windows is changing something perhaps in the registry or else where to cause the problem. This likely means the abrahkkan problem in post #78 will recur in the new system once a failure to read some disk occurs there. Basically abrahkkan seems to have repeated the twinkcentral test only by a different path but has not yet tried a disk that won't read, and abrahkkan problems should recur when a disk that can't be read is tried. How to figure out exactly what's transpiring or how to fix it is the big problem.

montxinho

I try to read this DVD-R in windows vista and It can read the dvd ok!! (the burner emit a strange sound 4 or 5 times, but can read the dvd) I'll try to burn a DVD-R in vista and probe if I can read them in XP.

bevills1

Reading in Vista is no surprise and simply confirms Kreten's post #29. Try it in Win98SE, and it should read too as it does for me.

engine

I also noticed my ND-4550A doesn´t read pressed DVD-ROM discs.

__________________
Lite-On SHW-16H5S
Optiarc AD-7201A

mark_twist

If I remember well it worked under linux... not very smoothly and fast.. but I saw content of few discs back then.

nemesis63

I have same problems with nec 3550a. Doesn't read dvd-rs which is recorded by itself. I'll try twinkcentral's method. Stupid Nec

_chef_

Burn with verify, then choose the next options.

__________________
Enable DMA with micrAp$0ft Enable DMA free at your will busTRACE => Upper/Lower Filters Util
DevCon ***HOW TO ... Delete the Upper & Lower Filters!***

If you expect help then please use the powerful SEARCH. Try ThreatFire
I am looking for DVD-R for Authoring & HD DVD media. Please PM me if you can help me.

Vamos Tribbles! V-a-m-o-s!!

bluecow

I think I have the same problem you all have. I have just tried using TDK DVD-R discs and noticed that my 4550A drive doesn't read them and starts showing in Explorer as "CD Drive"
If it helps, I also have an ancient NEC 2500A drive.
Guess what, it reads them fine.
Looks like I've just wasted 30 quid on 100 DVD-Rs

PS: The DVD-Rs burn and verify ok and I can read them with IsoBuster and my old drive etc, they just don't get recognised by my 4550A drive.

yescool2002

I am having the same problem.
It´s a 3550 that I crossflashed about a year ago to 4551. The problem started a few days ago....maybe some software I installed???

yescool2002

Today I bought some TDK 16x blanks (code: RITEKF1) and burned them at 4x and they can be read by the NEC drive (now a 4450 with 109bt firmware, I crossflashed back from 4551).
So maybe the problem is with some media and not with others.

Verbatim DVD+R DL 2.4x (burned at 2.4x) is also read fine by the NEC

My problem is with some Taiyo Yuden 8x media (TYG02) that I bought from shop4tech.com and burned at 2x.
It now shows as empty disc when I try to make a copy using Decrypter for example. Windows Explorer doesn´t recognize a DVD-R is inside the tray.

I will check some other media I burned many months ago.

yescool2002

Here is my original message from another thread:

Hello,
I am having some trouble with my NEC 3550 drive.
I updated firmware to 1-Z2 and the drive is now a NEC 4551a.
It worked fine for several months, almost a year I think.

I recently bought a 100 pack of Taiyo Yuden 8x media from Shop4tech.com. (TYG02 code)

I burned about 30 of those with no problems.
I now need to make copies of some of these discs for friends and I am having trouble because the NEC does not recognize them most of the time.

I use DVDDecrypter for 1:1 copies. The drive tries to read the disc for a long time, something like 30 seconds and then stops.
When I launch Decrypter 3.5.4.0 it recognizes the disc as a an empty disc. (TYG02, disc is empty)
But it´s not! It´s a disc I burned on that very same drive 3 days ago!!!

However if I open Power DVD the discs play fine. (only tried two or three so far and am very worried..)

The discs is not visible using Windows Explorer.
What´s going on here?

I usually burn at 2X. Could it be the media?

Thanks in advance for your help

Best Regards,
Alex

dexxxa

I'm having the same exact issue as abrahkkan the nec 3550a with Dee's ND3550 1.Y6 firmware can't read any burned dvd disks. im running windows xp with sp2. the drive reads store bought dvds, store bought cds, and burned cds. it doesnt read or recognize any burned dvds that i had copied in the past year. when the disks were originally burned they read and played fine. i still am able to burn disks and can play them in other computers fine but once i insert it in my system it takes a while for it to recognize and then the drive says its blank. i have tried two nec 3550a burners in this machine and they both have the same problem. when i move the burner to another machine it works fine.

im assuming its a problem with windows and some sort of configuration/registry thing that has changed since the drives work on other computers. the OS was installed april 2006 and i have done a lot of adding and removing programs since then (a normal amount) and can't exactly pinpoint when the problem started or what program was installed that might have affected this.

I've tried uninstalling the ide drivers in device manager, uninstalling the cdrom drives in device manager, re-installing the amd motherboard chipset ide drivers, running the autofix.exe tool microsoft provides, and uninstalling all dvd/cd burning programs, also tried to change drive letters in computer management to no avail. also went as far as removing the upper and lower filters:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314060

i have also successfully flashed the drive back to the original nec drivers with no change.

one thing i want to try which i haven't is trying another dvdrw drive in this machine to see if the problem persists. abrahkkan states above that his lite-on drive works fine so i might just try to get a different branded drive. i also assume..although i haven't tried that the drives would work if i reinstalled the OS which i do not want to do right now. can someone with a similar problem try swapping the drive with a different branded dvd-rw drive and see if the problem persists?

yescool2002

Same problem here.
Could you name what software you have installed in your computer?
I recently installed a new version of EAC.
Other than that, I haven´t installed any new audio related software.
I could doa system restore but only go back about a month and a half I think

yescool2002

Some here says the proble is caused by busmaster driver.

http://www.cdr-zone.com/forum/about4066.html


I have a VIA chipset on my ASUS P3V4X pentium 3 system.

bevills1

That's not the solution either at least not for all. I have 1 VIA system and 1 Nvidia system both of which are running the Windows IDE controller drivers, and both systems exhibit the same problem with the NEC 3520 I have. Note at least 1 poster at the http://www.cdr-zone.com/forum/about4066.html link also had the problem persist after change to Windows drivers.

dexxxa, the problem does not exist with LiteOn SHM-165P6S, Sony DRU-120C, Pioneer 107D or Pioneer 111L I've tried connected to same 2 systems of mine; they all read every disk tried including the many my NEC 3520 can't read except when booted to Win98SE where the NEC 3520 reads all disks with no problems. The problem seems to reside with certain NEC drives on certain systems with Win2k and WinXP.

yescool2002

I have a SATA/ATA disk controller installed on my system but unfortunatelly I cannot make the ATA part work. (I boot XP sp2 with that SATA controller, using a Seagate 250 MB SATA drive)

So I have to stick to the motherboard IDE controllers.

I don´t have a second machine to test the NEC but it seems it would work on other operating systems

yescool2002

I managed to make my ALI SATA/ATA controller work, and the problem is still there.
So it´s not only a problem with the onboard IDE controller. It also happens with an ATA PCI controller card.
Did anybody ever contact NEC about this problem???

yescool2002

Today I went to a friend´s and his Sony Q120 drive (Win XP system) is able to read the TY TYG02 dvd-rs I burned at 2x with my NEC 4551.

Please note I am able to read with my NEC 4551 a TDK (RitekF1) DVD-R I burned (at 4x) using the same 4551 burner.

So it seems some DVD-R discs are read without any problems on the 4551.

At my friend´s I burned a TDK (RitekF1) disc and it plays fine on my NEC.

Unfortunately I couldn´t burn a TY on his SONY Q120 as he was in a hurry but I will do it next week.

All discs I burn on the NEC (only have TYG02 and RitekF1 blanks at the moment) play fine on any standalone DVD player.

SFreak

The same thing here.
Can burn DVD-R, but not read. It shows "CD Drive" with 0 KB. My other drive an old AOpen 1640Pro in the same rig, on the same IDE cable can read the very same DVD-R disk.

Just upgraded to firmware version 1.02. - Nothing.

Weird. Frustrating.

Isn't there any answer from the guys at the SONY-NEC techlab for this product failure?

__________________
System specs.

yescool2002

Checked some of my DVD-R discs tonight:

--------------------------------------------------------------
TDK 16x (TTH02 code) burned with a Panasonic/Matsushita LF-D521 (2x drive manufactured in early 2003) by a friend.
Plays fine on my NEC 4550
-----------------------------------------------------------------
RITEK G05 burned by myself on the NEC 4511 in February 2006.
Plays fine on the 4550
------------------------------------------------------------------
TTG02 burned by myself on the 3550 (that I crossflashed to 4551 a month later) in January 2006.
Plays fine on the 4550
-------------------------------------------------------------------
TYG02 (inkjet printable) burned by myself on the NEC 4511 in Nov 2006.
Plays fine on the 4550
----------------------------------------------------------------
TYG02 (inkjet printable) burned by myself on the NEC 4511 in May 2007
Plays fine on the 4550
----------------------------------------------------------------
TYG02 (silver top) burned by myself on the 4551 in May 2007.
Doesn´t play on the 4550 (disc is empty)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
All 25 TYG02 (silver top) discs burned by myself at 2x on the 4551 in May/June 2007 don´t play (disc empty). All from the same spindle, bought from shop4tech.com

However all these problematic discs play fine on standalones, and a friend´s SONY Q120 drive (XP PRO with NO service packs)

If I burn a RITEKF1 disc, it plays fine. I don´t have any other blanks other than the RITEKF1 and TYGO2 (silver top) to burn.

So from these experiences I can only conclude my problem is with a specific batch of TY TYG02 (silver top). For some reason those discs won´t play on the same drive that I burned them with, under Win XP Pro SP2.

However if I start the machine with a DOS(Win98) floppy, all the problematic discs can be read. (I see the contents when doing a DIR)

I will buy some assorted DVD-R blanks on Monday and will post my findings.

Note about my drive: I bought the NEC 3550 in early 2006, crossflashed it to 4551 (Liggy´s 1-Z2 firmware) a few weeks later, and crossflashed it to 4550 (Liggy´s bt109 firmware) two days ago.

Other tests: Back to XP PRO SP2, I switched the NEC from master on IDE secondary controller to master on the primary IDE controller. No luck.
Same problem as before: Disc Empty

Does anybody know of a good DOS writing program???

Thanks.

PD: A few Verbatim DVD+R DL 2.4x discs that I burned 10 days ago play fine too

yescool2002

Just made a copy of a DVD-R I got from a friend (using the 4550 as source and target drive) using the same problematic TYG02 (silver top) blanks and using DVD Decrypter at 8x and I get the same "Disc is Empty" message.

So it doesn´t matter if I use NERO 6.6.1.4 or Decrypter 3.5.4.0, the result is the same.