Sony DRU 120C - Driver Problem

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

I am unable to install my Sony DRU-120C. The jumpers are correct. Windows XP incorrectly identifies my Sony DRU-120C as a Sony DVD RW DWG-120A. Then the drivers will not install which causes the system to identify the device as a CD Disc in Windows Explorer.

The Windows XP Add Hardware Wizard attempts to search for the driver for “DVD RW DWG-120A” and after failing returns the message “Cannot Install this Hardware. The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software.” I searched the web and couldn’t find the driver.

How can I force Windows XP to correctly identify this device and to install the correct drivers? If I can’t force it to correctly identify this device, where can I find a driver for DWG-120A that will force Windows XP to allow my DRU-120C to work properly? If this can’t be solved with drivers, what’s the work around?

#2

Hi & welcome to the Forums,

There’s no drivers needed for your Sony, other than what’s included in XP. You do need IDE-drivers however to ensure the communication between the drive and your mobo (shown under “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” in Device Manager). Mostly the generic Microsoft drivers (again as included in XP) work best with optical drives. Are you using dedicated drivers for your mobo-chipset (nVidia, Intel, VIA, etc.)?

First thing to check, after the jumper settings, is that you have an 80-wire ribbon cable connected to the drive.

#3

Cressida,
Thank you for your interest in helping me to solve the problem I have with installing my Sony DRU-120C. I provided a more detailed problem description in the numbered paragraphs below.
Regards,
Bill Murphy

  1. I did not have any device problems until last week when I plugged a Vonage VPhone USB device into a USB port. Windows XP identified the device but was unable to install it because of a reported inability to find the software. The device never showed up in Windows Explorer with a device letter. However, Vonage technical support indicated all of the necessary software was self-contained on the VPhone USB device – an indicator that the Windows XP software dialog box might be incorrectly reporting the problem with driver software installation. The Vonage VPhone USB device operated properly on another computer.

  2. I have an 80 wire cable with two optical devices.

  3. I’m not familiar with the term mobo-chipset. The detailed device information below may provide you with the information you need to determine if I am using dedicated drivers for my mobo-chipset (nVidia, Intel, VIA, etc.).

  4. Windows Device Manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers shows:

  • Intel 82801BA Bus Master IDE Controller, with a Microsoft Driver

  • Primary IDE Channel, with a Microsoft Driver

  • Secondary IDE Channel, with a Microsoft Driver

  1. Previously installed CD RW drive jumper is on slave:

  • Device is in the middle of cable

  • Device is labeled CD RW Drive ( E: ) in Windows Explorer

  • Device functions properly as CD

  1. The Sony DVD RW drive with the problematic installation has the jumper on master:

  • Device is at the end of the cable

  • Device is labeled as CD Drive ( D: ) in Windows Explorer

  • Device can read contents of CDs

  • Windows Device Manager under DVD/CD-ROM drives shows:
    o LITE-ON LTR-24102M, with a Microsoft driver
    o SONY DVD RW DW-G120A, with – Driver Provider: Unknown, Driver Date: Not Available, Driver Version: Not Available, Driver Signer: Not digitally signed

  • Every time I reboot:
    o Windows XP in the bottom right screen corner displays a dialog box indicating it discovered the “DVD RW DWG-120A” as new hardware.
    o The Add Hardware Wizard attempts to search for the driver for “DVD RW DWG-120A” and after failing returns the message “Cannot Install this Hardware. The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software.”

  1. Additional Information:

  • Subsequent to attempting to unsuccessfully install the Sony DRU-120C I also successfully installed a video display adapter that the Device Manager under Display Adapters correctly displays as Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead – that working properly. Below I describe an Unknown Device that is located on this display adapter that Device Manager reports is also functioning properly.

  • Subsequent to attempting to unsuccessfully install the Sony DRU-120C I also unsuccessfully installed a StarTech USB 2.0 PCI card with 4 USB ports. I have similar problems with the device drivers for the USB 2.0 device. I used the driver installation software that was provided with this device. Removing this USB 2.0 device does not resolve the DVD RW driver issue. Attempting to reinstall this device results in the software not found error message. Every time I reboot:
    o Windows XP in the bottom right screen corner displays a dialog box indicating it discovered a “Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller” as new hardware.
    o The Add Hardware Wizard attempts to search for the driver for “DVD RW DWG-120A” and after failing returns the message “Cannot Install this Hardware. The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software.”

  • Windows Device Manager under Other Device shows the following unresolved devices with question marks to indicate problems. Every time I uninstall these devices from Device Manager the show back up after I reboot. Every time I attempt to reinstall the drivers I get the unable failure message indicating the Wizard was unable to find the software.
    o Ali USB2.0 EHCI Root Hub – Location: 0 – with unknown driver – that is not configured correctly and needs to have the drivers reinstalled. – Device Instance Id: PCI…
    o Monitor – Location: “on Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead” – that is working properly. Note: I mentioned the Matrox Millennium G450 above when I discussed installing this video graphics adapter device. – Device Instance Id: DISPLAY\DEFAULT_MONITOR…
    o Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller – – Location: in PCI Slot 4 (PCI bus 2, device 10, function 0) – with unknown driver – that is not configured correctly and needs to have the drivers reinstalled. – Device Instance Id: PCI…
    o Universal Serial Bus (USB) Contrtoller – Location: in PCI Slot 4 (PCI bus 2, device 10, function 1) – with unknown driver – that is not configured correctly and needs to have the drivers reinstalled
    o Unknown Device – Location: “on Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead” – that is working properly. Note: I mentioned the Matrox Millennium G450 above when I discussed installing this video graphics adapter device. – Device Instance Id: DISPLAY\HTCABC7…
    o Unknown Device – Location: 0 – with unknown driver – that is not configured correctly and needs to have the drivers reinstalled. – Device Instance Id: USB\ROOT_HUB…
    o Unknown Device – Location: 0 – with unknown driver – that is not configured correctly and needs to have the drivers reinstalled. – Device Instance Id: USB\ROOT_HUB…

#4

Hi,

this looks as if your Windows installation is seriously damaged. Consider formatting your harddrive and reinstalling Windows. Don’t forget to install Service Pack 2 directly after the initial installation.

To figure out if there is nothing wrong with your drive, try it in another computer. Maybe there is a friend, who can help.

Michael

#5

Hi [B]murphyw[/B],

Looks like you’re running a Pentium III [I]mobo[/I] (motherboard) with an Intel [I]chipset[/I] (the main two chips on the board) in your PC. I see the IDE drivers are standard Microsoft, so that’s okay for the optical drives. You may want to try disconnecting the CD-RW Slave unit, as two drives on one cable can sometimes interfere. Before doing this, “Uninstall” the Secondary IDE Channel in Device Manager en shut down (don’t restart) the PC to disconnect the cables on the Lite-On. Power up again and Windows will try to re-install the channel with the correct drivers for the Sony.

About the Matrox graphics card, did you download and install the driver for it from Matrox? The Windows graphics driver just allows you to see what you’re doing, but you will need the Matrox driver for it to work properly.

Finally, try installing the USB 2.0 card in a different PCI slot (preferably the first or second slot underneath the AGP video card slot. These cards with an ALi chip can be troublesome and refuse to work with some USB devices, so you may have no other solution here than to try a different card (with a NEC or VIA chip).

#6

Mciahel & Cressida,

Thanks for your useful comments and advice. The information and perspectives you provided proved valuable in helping me solve the problem.

Uninstalling the Secondary IDE Channel and disconnecting the CD-RW Slave unit exacerbated the magnitude of the problem by creating a situation whereby Windows XP was unable to find the software to install the IDE Channel and the DVD optical device. This result led me to believe I did have a serious problem with my Windows operating system. My thought was to advert the need for reformatting the hard drive by modifying file or two on my computer, but my online research was unable discover the existence of this type of solution. My next attempt at adverting a reformatting was to attempt to induce Windows to fix itself by uninstalling and reinstalling Service Pack 2, a time consuming process that did not fix the problem. (On the positive side, this Service Pack 2 uninstall effectively removed Internet Explorer 7 from my machine.) These unpleasant experiences provided additional information that eventually enabled me to ponder the possibility that the problem with my Windows XP operating system might not be as serious as once suspected and that the reason Windows XP couldn’t install the drivers was simply because the wizard could not find the necessary software, which is literally the problem that was consistently being reported in the Windows failure messages. This proved to be the case. The correct drivers were resident on my computer in the default “C:\Windows\INF” driver directory. I discovered that my Windows XP was damaged to the limited extent that it consistently failed to search the default driver location when it attempted to install new hardware. Drivers for each of my problem devices installed correctly on the first attempt when I instructed the wizard to search the “C:\Windows\INF” directory.

I didn’t download the driver for the Matrox graphics card yet, but it appears to be functioning properly with its current driver. The device is correctly identified in the “Advanced” section of the “Settings” tab “Display Property” dialog box. This advanced section appears to give me complete control of the Matrox card’s capabilities. I’ll investigate the Matrox site for an updated driver.

Regards,

Bill