INTRO
Very strange problem - at least for some one with little burning experience.
I’ve been using a Benq EW1621 for months now without any issues - it will even burn disks my Mac’s superDrive can’t, or will run a few error prone installation disks that fail at cretin points on my Dell’s DVD / CD drive.
But something happened to it today - I think after trying to read an old disk.
PROBLEM:
Both my Mac and my PC recognize that the drive is there. But the player will not read / mount any data disks - even ones I just burned with it before it ‘broke’.
The real strange thing is that it will read installation type disks fine - that is, disks that open up a program or an install screen automatically when inserted. The Benq drive will even mount those type of PC disks on the Mac with out a problem. It opens regular audio store CD’s, but not movie DVD’s.
When I insert a data disk - the light flashes several times, the machine makes a bunch of clicking type sounds - and then just stops.
ATTEMPTED FIXES:
I tried the drive on three different computers - 2 Macs and a PC. It exhibited the same errant behavior on all 3 machines.
The drive does have the latest firmware - 47N9, but I flashed it anyway to see if that might "reset’ it.
Finally, I unscrewed the bottom screws in an attempt to open the case, but couldn’t manage to un-house it (probably just as well). I wanted to check to see if something foreign might be in there - like a pice of label that once fell off a previous disk (not on the BenQ though).
Any suggestions or guidance very much appreciated.