BenQ 1620 DVD RW drive - silly "Please insert a disk into drive" error

[Guy-Montag]

Hi. This is something that is no doubt simple, yet it has become very vexing. I have a BenQ 1620 DVD burner and it has started to fail to recognize disks. Now, I can remove the drivers, and when the OS reloads them when the computer is restarted, that seems to have fixed it in times past.

DVD or CD, it continues to insist that the drive is empty when it is not.

This usually seems to happen after Nero fails in the middle of burning a DVD and locks the drive until the computer is restarted.

I've updated to the latest firmware, and I'm using the generic ATAPI windows XP driver and the latest BenQ firmware driver. I'm running windows XP SP2 on an AMD 3200+.

Any ideas as to what the problem may be?

[Mr_Belvedere]

Probably two programs and/or processess trying to access the drive at the same time. Get rid of all programs before firing up your writer program and check again.

[chef]

Yup, nasty interfering software in the background, lurking to make you mad.

[Gordsnatcher]

I have been having the same problem. I am trying to make it pick up a disk as I type this. It is definitely a hardware problem because the drive does it before windows has even loaded drivers. The drive makes four apparent attempts to recognize the disk, then stops trying. It seems to be entirely random weather it recognizes a disk on any given attempt, and it has been getting progressively worse. I popped the drive open (it was already out of warantee) and took a look at the innards, and there was nothing wrong that I could see. No dust on or near the lens, no loose or stripped gears, no wear, nothing. I suspect that the drive motor is just trying to accelerate so fast that the disk cant keep up, and consequently is spinning a bit slower than the drive thinks it is, making it unrecognizable, but that’s just a guess.

If I were you, I would send it back to benq for a replacement if it is still in warantee. I am just going to get a new drive.