SONY AW G170 Will not read DVDs

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

Hi,

Having a problem i hope you can help me with.

I’ve replace my old dvd re-writer with a SONY AWG170A DVD Re-Writer. I’ve installed it with the same jumper setting as the previous one, which was the Cable setting. The computer recognizes it, but if I place a dvd, either a written disc or an actual dvd movie, in the drive, it takes a while to read and just shows it as being a blank disk. However, CDs work fine in the drive.

I have another DVD drive (just a reader) in the machine which also has the jumper setting to cable. I have tried disconnecting this and only connecting the new DVD RW, but still the same problem.

Can anyone help me figure out whether it’s something I’ve done or not done, or whether the drive is faulty.

Thanks in advance.

#2

Hi and Welcome!

Please set the jumpers of your optical drives to Master and Slave, depending on their position on the cable. Also, it is a good idea to use an 80wired IDE cable with modern drives, as some start supporting UDMA-4 modes.

Also check, if the drive is running in UDMA mode, there is a sticky about that, so I don’t need to get into details :wink:

Michael

#3

Thanks for the reply.

It is an 80 wired IDE cable i’m using.
I set the regular DVD drive to Master as it’s at the end of the cable, and the Re-Writer to Slave as it’s in the middle.
When I look at the device manager I have two primary IDE channels. I gather the first one is for the Hard Drive, and the second is for the DVD Drives, as the second is the only one that uses Devices 0 and 1.
On the second Primary IDE channel, Device 0 is using Ultra DMA Mode 2 and Device 1 is using Ultra DMA Mode 4.

Still doesn’t work.

I have however noticed something else quite strange. When there is nothing in the Re-Writer drive and I click on the drive in Windows Explorer, it doesn’t tell me to insert a disk, it just acts like there’s a blank disk in there.

#4

So…nobody else know how I can get this working?

Would like to know soon so I can try and send it back if everything else fails.

#5

Sounds like the drive is faulty. Make one final test with the drive as a SINGLE Master (no Slave attached and jumpered as Master). If you are using nVidia IDE-drivers or the Intel Application Accelerator on your system, uninstall them.

#6

I tried having it as the only drive and jumpered to master but still no joy.

What’s the verdict?

#7

Thought Id join to mention I have a similar problem with the same drive.
Ive just built a Pentium Duo PC and included the Sony drive in my spec. However, I cannot record CDs with it, Windows does not even think its a CDRW/DVDRW drive. Even though it says so in device manager.

I found a registry setting that forces Windows to add the Recording tab to the CD ROM properties. This still hasnt solved the problem!
I can play DVD`s OK and CDs, but just cant record. Device manager mentions SCSI in the device description which I find odd, as it is an IDE drive.

Any thoughts before I return the drive for a different model? Did the original poster ever find a solution?

Thanks
Ade

#8

Having same problem - changed cables / jumpers positions every thing does not make this drive work properly - you will probably find that it will read discs burnt on any other machines perfectly!! but it will not read discs it burns itself --windows reports them as blank discs – BUT you may find that urdvd progs will still read them directly – have had same prolem with new samsung drive --S182D — I suspect that they have embedded soma sort of copyright algorythm into the firmware of these new drives - inthe meantime lets all return the*** things

#9

i got the same problem with my nec dvd rw 4550a i deleted any image program reinstalled drivers(nvidia) tried to delete the ide driver nothing works i can burn dvd read normal cd and burn normal cd but when i put a dvd in it(nwn 2 :frowning: dont work) and i got the nec on a diffrent computer and work perfectly so whats going on …

#10

Hey,

Ive decided to start again… Im going to buy another DVD burner and a new IDE cable.

I could do with your advice… Can you please tell me which drive & IDE cable will give me best reliablilty and performance (off the following pages) you would reccomend me buy ? (as i can quickly nip down to the shop now and get it ?)

Kinda important that its a DL drive. Cant say im too bothered about it being a DVD RAM drive tho.

DVD Writers:

http://www.cclonline.com/product-categories.asp?category_id=121

IDE Cables :

http://www.cclonline.com/product-categories.asp?category_id=177

Cheers

CJ

#11

Mine is also the same problem for me when i put dvd in SONY AW G170 drive it detects as a blank cd where cd works fine … i am currently using windows xp service pack 2, and when i installed trial version of windows 7 month back the dvd drive was working fine and i was able to read the data from dvd without any problem.Also i flashed my drive with .bin file even after that i am unable to use my dvd… pls help

Thanks in advance