Please help with LDW-411S. I think it is damaged

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers LiteOn / PLDS / Sony Writer
#1

Hey there. I was wondering if anyone could give his or her opinion about the following because I think my LDW-411S might be damaged… I am not sure though. Hopefully someone can help me out here.

I purchased the burner about 2 weeks ago and have burned quite some DVD’s sonce then. The brand name is Platinum and the manufacturer Ritek. Anyways, I hadn’t had one single problem until today. I burn the DVD’s on 4 speed and at least 40 of them all went perfectly ok without any problems at all.

However, today I tried to burn a DVD again when I noticed the percentage of completion was on 1% the whole time. (I use Nero 6 to burn my DVDs) So the time to burn the DVD was already at 0 but nothing had actually happened. I tried to quit Nero but it didn’t work, and even ending the burn process with the task manager gave no results. My PC didn’t react to anything anymore so I pressed the reset button…

I didn’t know what else to do, however I did notice that the red burning light on the LDW-411S was still burning when I pressed reset. But as you can see, I didn’t have any other choice.

OK, now the strangest part is that after this incident Nero failed to burn about 4 to 5 DVDs. So this of course was when I suspected something had been damaged.

Since then I noticed that every time when I burn a DVD the time in Nero elapses for about 4 to 5 minutes before the percentage goes above 1%. So normally you see the meter going 1%… 2%… gradually together with the elapsing time. But now it just stands there on 1% until there is about 8 minutes left. Then the percentage goes up. And when the time has reached 0, the DVD is about 70% finished, and just goes on till 100%.

Strangely enough about all DVDs burned in this way are ok. But still this can’t be right can it? I mean, it takes longer for the DVDs to be burned than I took at first. Very very strange. Is this typical for a damages laser or anythng? Can it have anything to do with resetting the PC when the burning process had freezed? Or could it be that this certain package of Platinum DVDs is just not as good as the last and that that causes the Lite-On to have troubles?

Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome. Questions also of course. Thanks!!!

#2

It does sound weird. I notice that nero sits at 1% for some time (usually the lead-in) and I hang around until it moves on to 2% etc, but have not experienced what you have, yet I have also had to reset my PC once or twice whilst burning DVD’s but without this consequence.

I would suggest uninstalling Nero, and then reinstalling it. I am having other problems with Nero and have been given this link by them to a general clean tool by Nero which sanitises your registry rather than the usual uninstall which still leaves residues hanging around (ie it completely removes all reference to your serial key - so note it before you use it!)

Here is the link :
ftp://ftp9.nero.com/attach/General-CleanTool.zip

Working on the basis that it must be either :
hardware - 411S, or
media - Platinum DVD, or
software - nero

then at least this removes one. Good luck.:slight_smile:

#3

Thanks for the link! I will certainly give it a try, though I have to say I already tried uninstalling and reinstalling Nero a couple of times, but without any improvements. Perhaps this cleaning tool will help. I’ll make sure to post the results here tomorrow. (Haven’t got time to do it right away)

In the meantime I have been burning even more DVDs and what occured when burning the last DVD is really weird… It kept the progress meter on 1% as usual, but this time it stayed on 1% until the time had ran out completely! (About 14 minutes or so)And after the time reached 0 it started burning.

Also, I have noticed that as long as the meter is on 1% the DVD burner makes this weird ticking sound as if the DVD is stuck or somthing. At least it’s a different sound than the soft “zooming” you hear when it actually starts to burn. And then when the 2% and 3% come along, you actually start seeing the buffer level being active.

Weird weird weird. And then to think I hadn’t had 1 single problem with over 40 DVDs just before this… Any more comments are welcome and I’ll make sure to do some more testing in the meantime. (As the DVDs don’t actually are errorous but just take an immense long time to burn)

#4

You should also flash the firmware to the latest version.:cool:

#5

Yes - good point. Your latest experiences don’t sound great - I am afraid I’m at a bit of a loss. All you can do is try the clean tool and also reflash to the latest firmware.

Last night I saw a 411S review here on CDFreaks and followed the links to the latest formware release. The 411S started with firmware FS02, then FS07 then onto FSOB and now FSOF.

It appears the latest FSOF improves something to do with games etc but certainly worth flashing onto using the liteon flasher asthere are bound to be some other improvements and if you have a problem with the drive again it’s worth trying. I am surprised this latest firmware isn’t publicized anywhere, but I dug out the link again - it’s here

http://www.liteonit.com.tw/ODD/webfw/LDW-411S/DR4FS0F.zip

Good luck:)

#6

Ok, I have to say thanks to all of you who helped me out here! The problem is finally solved. :slight_smile: I completely removed Nero with the cleaning tool I downloaded, then flashed the firmware of the LDW-411S to the latest available, and just to be sure I also removed the burner in the Device Manager and restarted my computer so it would recognize new hardware and install the drivers again. (after flashing the firmware it already saw the LDW-411S as new hardware but I removed it from the hardware list after that anyway to make Windows recognize it again, just to be sure)

I haven’t had a single problem since! Already burned about 12 DVDs without any problems with timing or percentages going all weird. Now it just takes the avarage 12-14 minutes to burn a DVD. Great! Thanks again.

#7

That’s great news - glad to be of assistance.:slight_smile:

#8

Glad our suggestions helped.

I have to say that I am very pleased with my LDW-411S.:bigsmile: