Severe Problems with NEC 2500A

AcidMonkey 2005-01-12 15:26:42 UTC #1

Here are my system specs:
1 Ghz AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) Processor
256MB RAM
60% system resources free (Explorer and Systray open only.)
Microsoft Windows 98 4.10.2222 A
Geforce 2 64 MB Video Card
27 Gig Maxtor Hard Drive.
No overclocking.
Brand of DVD rom: "_NEC DVD+-R/RW 2500A 1.07" (Firmware upgraded to most current official version - 1.07)
No other CdROM/DVDROMS connected.
Brand of Media: "4.7 Gig Maxell DVD-R", and also "Sony 4.7 Gig DVD+RW"
Burning Program: NTI CD Maker 5 (Came with my DVD Burner - bought from NCIX)

Maxell DVD's burn with corrupt data. Sony DVD burnt without corrupt data. Burnt DVD's with NTI CD Maker 6 Gold. Normal CD-R's burn with corrupt data. Tried burning CD's with Nero, CloneCD, Alcohol 120%, NTI CD Maker 6 Gold. All corrupt.

Here are some symptons resulting from my DVD-Drive being evil:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/AcidMonkey/confuddled.png
One of the DVD's I burnt (Some of the data corrupt of course). Right Click -> Properties. Thinks it's a 1.99 Gig CD-Rom, when in fact it is a 4.7 Gig DVD-R.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/AcidMonkey/confuddled2.png
Device manager also lists it as a CD-ROM, not a DVD-ROM.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/AcidMonkey/confuddled4.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/AcidMonkey/confuddled5.png
Info about my drive from the device manager, and DVDInfoPro.

Also, I'm not even sure I hooked my DVD-Drive up properly in the first place, would that be causing all these errors on all my burnt media (Well, not all. My Sony DVD+RW are the only things that work) and the misinterpretation of what my dvd-drive really is?
Can anybody help me? If you need any more information, I'd be glad to provide it.

Thanks in advance.

keytotime 2005-01-12 18:03:46 UTC #2

Do you have dma enabled in both bios and windows?

AcidMonkey 2005-01-12 18:32:43 UTC #3

Thanks for the reply.

Well, in confuddled5.png in my first post, in the device manager when looking at the properties of my drive DMA is checked. I assume that enables it in windows. I don't know how to check if I have it enabled in my bios.

Also, my motherboard is pretty old (5+ years). Would upgrading my BIOS or something help fix this problem? It seems like my computer only recognizes my DVD-Writer as a CDROM, even though it burns DVD+RW (And only DVD+RW's) correctly, and everything else incorrectly. If so, how would I even go about doing that? O_o