GSA-4081B unable to Read/Access problem

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers LG burner
#1

Hi all,

It’s my first post on this site and I really hope someone can help because I’m in face of a really strange but none than the less annoying problem with my GAS-4081B firmware A104.

First of all I think you should know what happened with my previous GSA-4081B since the problem I have now was the same.

About a month after the purchase of an LG GSA-4081B, my first ever DVD writer drive, my drive became unstable. Unable to access data on CDs or DVDs, copied or factory original. The way the drive acted was that I put a CD or DVD, close the tray and then he try to access it… but after his “routine”, the reading (green led) stop and nothing happens, no more lights on the drive and when I access the drive by Windows Explorer, it says “Please insert a CD/DVD…”.

It came back to life, don’t know how and why, a few days ago. Was able to read CD or DVD again but when I tried to burn, that didn’t work out and was unable to read CD/DVD again… after all this I took mesure with LG to replace the drive under waranty and I receive a new drive a week or so later.

Everything was working fine until last night… that damn DVD writer his having the same kind of problem again. The difference now that after a rebooted, he’s able to read DVDs but not CDs. I didn’t try to burn for now, only simulate a DVD-R copy and the simulation went well according to Nero6. I update the firmware to A104 this morning and nothing changed.

My analyse of what I’ve done just before it started to fuck up is that I was trying to acces information DATA on a DVD-R I’ve burned a while ago and it wasn’t able to read but trying hard… and windows XP was “shocking” because of that. I waited a few minutes so that the drive would stop trying to read but I lost patience and pushed on the eject button of the 4081B drive. It gave me back my DVD without any delays but after that, he didn’t want to recognize a CD or DVD until I rebooted.

Well that’s my story and I don’t want to go through the waranty exchange yet and that’s why I trying to find or get help here.

So can anyone help me on this?

Thanks

#2

Try the drive in another pc and see if it’s any different… I’m not sure what could cause this, but either it’s a bad drive or something’s wrong with your pc…

Adi

#3

Hi alexend,
I’m not solving your problem here, I’m just someone with exactly the same problem. So I don’t think you have anything wrong with pc. I flashed first to version 101 and then to version 104. That didn’t help.

My drive did this “unable to access” error already twice, it started working again afterwards. Now third time is going on and it won’t read any disks. Now when you mentioned it, I lost patience and did same thing with pushing eject button when Windows XP was frozen because of cd having reading problems. After that problems began.

Now rebooting won’t help. It takes CD/DVD of any kind and explorer recognizes is it CD or DVD, but it claims disk to be empty. Drive-name is DVD-RAM-drive or CD-drive depending the media inserted inside, but it won’t read the content of disk.

I tried to reboot from bootable Windows XP CD by changing booting order in BIOS, but boot bypasses the CD and boots from hard disk. So it is not depending on Windows XP.

My conclusion is that if you lose patience with LG GSA-4081B drive by pressing eject button while it is trying to read a disk, you may cause damage to drive. If someone has any hints how to get it back working, please let us know.

Thanks.

#4

Well, I have the same problem,… some day my LG, GSA-4081B drive stopped to read common CDs,… and there’s nothing to take him to live,… some day it read 'em again,… but now, it wont read 'em AGAIN…!! It really drive me nuts,… I’m watting the response of LG to make effective my guarranty… Any one have a solution?.. I have downloaded the firmware A101 that is on the LG site, but this does not help… HELP!!!
Greetings from Mexico.

#5

I have the same problem

Help me

greetings from italy

#6

UPPPPPP :cool:

#7

I have the same problem. The first time it happened it was (I think) because I was watching a DVD region 4 and the drive didn’t set itself back to region 1 after that (but it should!), so nothing worked but this region 4 DVD, and it didn’t recognize any cd/dvd/r/w or any other media, always giving the “please insert a disk” message.

I tried several firmware changes (back and forth, from the original to 104) but it never fixed anything, until I decided to change the region in the drive properties back to 1, then it worked again (sort of, lots of errors since)… but worked until one day when I was erasing a RW but it would take too much time and I cancelled the erasing… and the drive died again.

This was about a month or so ago. Today when I was about to remove the drive for real (I was almost buying a new one - and idea not discarded yet) when I decided to make something different. I disconnected the drive off the motherboard, booted, disabled any dvd accessories like the Region Killer software (which I started to use since the last “death” to avoid having to change regions ever again), turned pc off again, reconnected the drive, rebooted and surprisingly it worked again - maybe it was just the BIOS change that made it work??

But there’s more… When it was recovered in the first episode, I could make a few DVDs after that, and these worked perfectly in my computer and in the regular player, despite their burning jobs finished with an error message… for a while. I let one of these inside my DVD player after watching it, and when I was trying to watch it a few days later, it wasn’t recognized - by the player, not the pc drive. When the drive was “relived” for the second time today, I also did a new burn, and it worked (no error message this time at the end) and it also worked in the main DVD player. But as soon as I played one of these DVDs made after the first crash of the drive again, things came back to the previous state: nothing works anymore. Or works, when it wants. The DVD I burned today is recognized, but nothing else is.

I really really give up. I’m going to buy a new drive soon, and hopefully NOT a LG.

#8

hmmm very interesting. I have a LG GSA-4081B, firmware A104 but i haven’t had any problems like the ones you guys have.

#9

similar problem. drive is about 6 mnths old. was using DVDShrink–>Nero a week ago and Nero could burn the DVD because the blank disk wasn’t recognised by the writer. Mucked around & finally realised the drive wasn’t recognising any type of media … except for some commercial DVD movie disks … what the!! For everything else it just says ‘please insert a Disk’ Very strange though that it will recognise the commercial DVD movie?
Upgraded the firware to A104 but no difference. Reinstalled the writer & all CD/DVD related software but no difference. Where to now?

#10

The problem is that the grease on the runners that the laser is guided along dries out because of the heat generated by the drive. Re grease these with high melting point grease and you should have no further problems. I’ve done it and its stopped the odd read write errors.

The laser cannot move freely without the runners being greased, therefore the laser cannot target the sectors on the disk accurately. Its a bit like you poking someone in the eye and hitting their nose instead. You can readjust your aim but the laser can’t and returns an error.

I hope that makes some sense and helps.

If you are unable or do not feel confident enough to do this, let me know and I will send detailed instructions on how to do it.

Best wishes.

#11

Oh. Was that why you chose the account name greaser99? :slight_smile:

#12

Hi guys,

this thread is already quite old. However, a solution of a problem may never be too late. Hopefully.

I encountered the same problem as many of you did, too. By chance, I discovered that the IDE controllers of not-high-end mainboards are (at least Part of) the problem. Try connecting the drive via a high-speed IDE cable with 80 instead of 40 lines. In my case, this did increase drive reliability a lot and drive worked perfect.

The other possibiity is the buy a new mainboard. When I replaced my Elitegroup K7VTA333 by an MS-6712 (of MSI make) a lot of other problems disappeared as well. :wink:

Hope this helps. Cheers, der Hanseat

#13

Hi greaser99,
please post instructions how to regrease runners. My drive is GSA 4081b, and its an absolute dog!, having same problems as everyone else. hope you can help.

#14

Hi guys i have the 4082 with a206 and i have the exact problem. Wont reognize dvdr/rw nada! then restart sometimes it does recognize then blam i wasted a good dvd-r. mine is still under warratny ne one else try the greasing suggestion. details pls .

#15

Return it and hope for a 4163!

#16

Thanks, did the job.
neilane

#17

Thanks, greasing did the job.
neilane

#18

Worked for me too !

A spray shot on the trail of laser (put a kleenex over the head) and that’is !! :clap:

Thx to greaser99 and neilane

#19

Can anyone post the greasing instructions?

#20

Plese, Would you give the greasing instructions? thanks.