NEC 3520AW 3.07 Vista64 Drive disappears with UDF DVDs

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers NEC / Optiarc Writer
#1

[qanda]This thread is about the NEC ND-3520A. Click here to see full specs[/qanda]I have the below:

Core2Duo e8400
4gb DDR2-800
Windows Vista 64 Ultimate
Ubuntu 8.10 x86-64
Nvidia 8800gt
Asus p5e-vm-hdmi
NEC 3520AW 3.07 firmware

The problem: I cannot read UDF formatted DVDs in this drive in Windows Vista. I can read them in Ubuntu.

In Vista, I used Imgburn to burn a Large 4.xGb file onto a Verbatim DVD+R media with UDF 1.02 selected. It burns successfully and it even verifies the burn successfully.

However after the DVD is ejected and put back in the drive. The DVD Drive mysteriously disappears. I have to goto device manager and re-detect it. At which point if there is no UDF dvd in the drive it will be detected and installed. But when I insert the UDF dvd in the drive it spins up and the Drive disappears.

I have nothing like Daemon tools installed.

When I boot into Ubuntu its a slightly better story. The DVD+r is readable.

I read somewhere about removing the upper and lower filters in the registry. I did that but as soon as I insert the UDF dvd it disappears still. Any takers?

#2

Well from my knowledge NEC drives (by the way yours is kind of old) had and has many problems with Windows OS.
the NEC/SONY/OPTIARC (all of them are SONY BRAND) bios design is very bad if you compare it to other manufactures as LG or PIONEER to work with windows OS.
i dont really know and understand why it even happen but almost any optical product of these brand has the almost the same problem so…

the problems with optical drive can be:

  1. hardware… physical or software(bios).
  2. media (defect media or incompatible with the drive)
  3. OS, driver, communication method/software.
    (correct me if im wrong)
    in your case that you can read on ubuntu and you have NEC drive.
    i can tell you for sure about this specific drive that it has problems communicating with windows OS.
    you can try to upgrade you drive firmware and then burn another DVD and see what’s going on.
    mmm damn this drive is old!!!
    replace it with a good pioneer!!! (just try it before you buy it…)