i have 2 dead sony drives
one combo cx320 and the other is 830A , the 830A is reading original DVDs only, non original is discovered as DVD-RW, and does nothing
this happend after i erased for the first time on the drive, a DVD-RW Sony
i upgraded the firmware, still …
what should i do?>
why sony drives has many probelms? and what is the best , sony liteon samsung lg?
LESS PROBLEMS?
i still have a 10 years old TEAC!!!
and the 830A is less than one year old
please help m3
Welcome to the forum. Exchange the the Sony since its still under warranty. Unistall the other drives in the device manager and restart computer, might just help.
Hi and Welcome!
I suspect, there might be some system issue. Please go through this guide:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/troubleshooting-my-optical-drive-doesnt-recognize-discs-like-they-should-83984/
Also check device manager if there are errors indicated. If there are, then read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060
Also check if the drives are still running in DMA mode: http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/troubleshooting-enabling-checking-dma-windows-vista-xp-2000-me-9x-101616/
You Sony DRU-830A is a Samsung SH-S182D btw.
Sony doesn’t make their own drives, they just put their faceplate on drives from Samsung, NEC, Liteon and Benq.
Michael
i think i have an eeprom problem
because when i used the eeprom editor for liteon based rams
it says error reading eeprom
by the way i tested the drive on 2 computers, same problem,
and also i tried booting in dos
doesnt read!
only original discs
You don’t have an EEPROM problem. The EEPROM tool for LiteOn drives is just that–for LiteOn drives, not Samsung drives. 
You may just have a bad drive. I’d try to exchange the drive under warranty, as [B]THE C.[/B] suggested.
You say everything was fine until you tried to erase a DVD-RW, right? That’s the only thing you had done that could have caused the issue?
my drive is not covered by warranty anymore 6+ months, warranty 6 months
its a stupid drive, unlike its box!
i dont know, i tried everything, nothing works
the last thing i did is erasing an empty DVDRW disc
should i try the samsung EEprom?
i dont know its kinda strange, i mean it only reads original _(silver) DVDs
now if i will consider to buy
what is the best DVDRW DRIVE?
is the liteon good?
Sony has 1 year warranty on all the drives. Yes Lite-On drives are good, but you still have time to exchange the drive thru Sony!
believe me here its 6 months
anyways, sony is crap
i might buy the liteon
thanks for the help guys
biso911,
I have a Mad Dog 18xtfi which is also a rebadged Samsung SH-S182D (like your Sony DRU-830A) and it had problems similar to what you’re describing for your Sony.
I read up on the Samsung and it’s issues on the Samsung forum (there’s a lot of stuff on there about the inability to read -R media. Mine would burn but not read (and thus not verify either).
I crossflashed my drive to a Samsung hoping the updated SS firmware SB04_CFE would help…it didn’t.
What finally worked was adding a capacitor across the +5 and ground leads on the power cable. A search on the SS forum should turn up the thread with instructions. If you’re unable to find it, I can summarize it for you. $5 in parts and a bit of soldering and things seem to be working fine. I’m still shaking things down, and the only hitch so far is the SS drive is particular whether it’s set as master or slave.