My DVD-RW 16X HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GWA-4166B Drive No longer recognizes my DVD-R media!

NCRobino · 31-07-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by ItalianJob

If I remember well, it's not so stupid. There's a huge amount of CD/DVD softwares that are known to cause such problems (maybe CloneCD/DVD, daemon tool...). Maybe with a fresh Windows XP, your problem will disappear.

I'll suggest to do a "Ghost" or "TrueImage" of your C: partition from time to time... that will prevent re-installation needs.

What exactly does this entail and what will this do?

Thanks
Rob

*karangguni* · 01-08-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by NCRobino

Yes, the mix of -R's are exactly what you mentioned. A mix of the 3 brands.. none of which recognize. I found, once, upon a fresh restart.. it recognized one disc.. but then after that, it never recognized another.

Any other suggestions regarding the -R recognition?

Ok, since it isn't practical to test the drive on another system, there is one more thing you can do to test if it is the drive or software problem, short of formatting the whole system. Take one of your -R Verbatims (because those are the only really decent quality media of the three) and find a friend with a broadband internet connection and a DVD writer. Ask him to download the ISO of Fedora Core 5 (specifically for i386) and burn it on that Verbatim for you :

http://fedora.redhat.com/Download/mirrors.html (list of mirror sites, pick one)

What this is is the bootable install DVD of Fedora Core Linux. It's freeware and legal. When he gives you back the DVD, all you have to do is to set your system's BIOS to boot to the DVD writer, then see if the system will boot to the disc. If it does, it obviously means the drive itself is capable of recognising DVD-R discs. If it cannot, then there is no question, the drive is screwy. Use your warranty coverage and send it in.

NCRobino · 01-08-2006

Thanks for the advice Karan!

I'll absolutely do that as soon as I can. Just out of curiousity though, since I've burned DVD movies with these in the past on this computer, would trying to play one of those burned DVD's on this computer now be an acurate test if the drive can recognize this media, or does it need to be done with the Fedora Core?

Thanks again

*karangguni* · 01-08-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by NCRobino

Thanks for the advice Karan!

I'll absolutely do that as soon as I can. Just out of curiousity though, since I've burned DVD movies with these in the past on this computer, would trying to play one of those burned DVD's on this computer now be an acurate test if the drive can recognize this media, or does it need to be done with the Fedora Core?

Thanks again

Sure it would be an accurate test but you mentioned that the drive doesn't recognise any DVD-R media now so I don't think that would work. If it does work, it makes everything even more confusing.

NCRobino · 01-08-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by karangguni

Sure it would be an accurate test but you mentioned that the drive doesn't recognise any DVD-R media now so I don't think that would work. If it does work, it makes everything even more confusing.

Get ready to be confused. Every DVD-R Movie I've burned with this drive still plays in this drive, but the drive doesn't recognize any of the 3 Brands of DVD-R's when I put them in to burn them. Roxio and IMG Burn, both attempt to read the DVD-R's when you input media, but eventually say that no media is present. Only the DVD+R's register as blank media in the drive.

Now what?

*ala42* · 01-08-2006

Try your drive in a different PC or setup a BartPE boot cd, boot this cd and use nero cdspeed to test your -R disks.

__________________
LiteOn/Benq/LG/NEC/Pioneer/Samsung/Toshiba stuff: MediaCodeSpeedEdit V 1.2.0.10, released October 3rd 2011

*karangguni* · 01-08-2006

I fully agree with ala42's idea to use BartPE. It's a much better idea than getting hold of Fedora Core to use to do a boot test with the drive. I read about BartPE before, but forgot all about it. It's a bootable CD that starts it's own contained version of Windows. So if you start BartPE, you should be able to run Nero CDSpeed and you can use that to test if the drive will recognise/burn DVD-R discs.

This will very nicely test if it is a software or hardware problem.

An excellent idea ala, I'll have to remember this. Thanks!

cRiMsOn_HeAd · 14-10-2006

Hey All,

I Just joined because I am pretty much experiencing the same situation. I did what was said to do (I downgraded my old DVDRRW GWA-4166B to the DVDRRW GSA Firware v 1.00) and then from there upgraded to 1.01 then to 1.02. It works now, well at least the drive reading part. My DVD-RW Drive was able to read, play and write CD-Rs and DVD-RWs before one day it just decided to crash and not read at all. Occassionally it will read once or twice but once the disc is ejected it won't read again.

Now that I have update it, it seems to be able to read any non retail disc of any kind, given I havent tried any other discs but this weird brand my room mate gave me. If i try to burn anything It gives me the burn error that many have been experiencing and I do not know why. I stuck in even a DVD-RW that I had burned with my machine previosly arond 4 months ago that I knew worked but when I placed it in the drive it came up as "unread" and told me the drive was empty.

My thoughts are should I revert back to the GSA 4166B Firmware 1.00 and not upgrade at all or what? I just want my drive to work good as new so I can burn music and stuff.

My computer specs are:

HP 2.8Gghz Dual Core Processor
1 GB DDR2 RAM
Windows XP Media Center Edition SP2
Western Digital 250 GB HD
Western Digital 320 GB HD

If anyone cna help me out..it would greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch!

-cRiMsOn

NCRobino · 15-10-2006

After having all those problems, flashing around to different firmware's helped me minimally. I would say, if you found a firmware version that works for you and the media you have without errors.... stay put. Upgrading is what started my dilima to begin with.

Good luck
Rob

cRiMsOn_HeAd · 15-10-2006

haha thanks for the advice...you would think that when we "upgrade" things get better..I guess sometimes its just a bad idea...

appreciate the quick response!
cheers

- Usman

larryf · 08-08-2007

hi everybody!!!!!!!!!!!...yea yea yea...so what the hell kind of DVD recorder i got???...the piece of junk.....the front says HP dvd840..I think it's a 'b'......or is it a LG GSA-4166B?........I upgraded the firmware via the HP site......piece of junk still don't work right...just got it last month.....the first one they sent me was faulty............so I sent it back.......

this one's supposed to do ...+R and -R........doesn't want to........got some Taiyo Yuden..new standard 8x speed DVD-R.........they don't work.....I thought it might be the DVD media.........but it's gotta be this drive........it records CDs OK.......and I can't install the firmware ....for the LG-GSA-4166B...........

any ideas??

thanks!!!!

*ala42* · 08-08-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by larryf

this one's supposed to do ...+R and -R........doesn't want to........any ideas??

What about a detailed description of the application used, what you tried to do with it and an exact error message ?

__________________
LiteOn/Benq/LG/NEC/Pioneer/Samsung/Toshiba stuff: MediaCodeSpeedEdit V 1.2.0.10, released October 3rd 2011

m1ke66 · 14-10-2007

Hade same problem, my GWA-4166B didnt want to read any blank DVD-media what so ever whilst any blank CD-ROM media worked perfectly.

Open devicemanager and go into properties for the burning device, open the "volumes" tab and select "update" with a blank DVD media loaded in the burner device.

Exit and burn, good luck!

_chef_ · 14-10-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by m1ke66

Hade same problem, my GWA-4166B didnt want to read any blank DVD-media what so ever whilst any blank CD-ROM media worked perfectly.

Open devicemanager and go into properties for the burning device, open the "volumes" tab and select "update" with a blank DVD media loaded in the burner device.

Exit and burn, good luck!

Clearly spoken, no burner or drive can "read" a BLNAK media, because its blank.
A burner just needs to recognize a blank media, especialy dvd, to burn content onto it with the correct writestrategy that is backed up into the firmware.

192.168.1.1 · 12-01-2008

hey guys,

i'm experiencing the same problem as all of you guys! i have the same drive - i got the new version of NERO which tells you which DVD media it can read/burn and it says it cant burn DVD-R but it can burn DVD+R but this DVD writer can burn both - now i read through the posts and are you guys able to burn DVD-R w/ GSA but now GWA firmware?

which one worked best for you? i'm probably going to try flashing tmrw - i'm fed up i have 100 blank DVD-R laying around and half of my Artia - Ritek dvds dont burn properly.

THANKS GUYS!

_chef_ · 12-01-2008

GWA is OEM, GSA is retail LG firmware.
Youmay have the same drive, but the firmware is also important, and in case of burning, the media too.

JiggyNS · 12-01-2008

Hey guys, im new to the forum and had to join because of having this same problem w my new LG GSA H55N writer.

I tried m1ke66's idea but that wouldn't work for me.

So I'm stuck with a 100 DVD-R discs and can't use them.

There has to be a solution to this problem.

My DVD-RW 16X HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GWA-4166B Drive No longer recognizes my DVD-R media!

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