Sony DVD RW/CD RW Drive Not reading Discs

[keiramackenzie]

Hi

If anyone can help, i'd be most appreciative, as i've had this problem before, and think have narrowed it down to software installed, but, am still no closer to solving it..

I have a Sony DW D56A DVD/CD-RW Drive which is not reading any brand of blank disc at the moment.

I have upgraded the firmware to the latest version, checked the drivers, and reinstalled, so have to assume it is software I have manically installed, as one version of nero seemed to work at one point..

I have Nero Ultra Enhanced 7; Burnquick; Sonic Record Now all installed, but have no upper or lower class filters in my registry as think I may have deleted them before!

What should I try next? Am I going to have to unistall all programs?

Thanks for reading
Keira

[fritzi93]

I'm going to assume you're on XP. Most of the following should apply to Vista as well. At any rate, it may help someone who comes across this thread.

Nero and RecordNow have been known to cause conflicts. This may no longer be true, but I had the same problem a few years ago and discovered it was (is?) a common issue when doing a search. In the end, I had to uninstall both programs and manually delete references to Nero (Ahead) from the registry.

There is a tool available at the Ahead website site called NeroCleanTool. Probably developed as a response to complaints/support requests. Uninstall Nero and run the tool. Uninstall the others as well. Run CCleaner (free) on the registry and back up when prompted, Google for it. Then pick ONE program and re-install. Immediately update Nero or RN's PXEngine, whichever you chose. (Personally, I use RecordNow and shun Nero. The last version of Nero that was good was v.5.5, IMHO.)

There's a further complication. You probably installed Nero's InCD, a packet-writing soft which lets you use your burner like a floppy, drag & drop. Packet-writing software is problematic, some folks have no real difficulties, but it's a crapshoot. BTW, XP's inbuilt burning is Roxio-based. Roxio and Nero are also known to conflict. If you insist on using InCD, it would probably be wise to disable IMAPI CD Burning COM Service in Administrative Tools -> Services.

Good luck.

[keiramackenzie]

Hiya fritzi

I think I must have some ther problem,as have done suggested, but to no avail.

I am now about to install sonic record now deluxe, but after uninstalling, still won't read discs from my computer, so don't hold out much hope.

[fritzi93]

In that case, you could do the following:

1) Replace the IDE data (ribbon) cable.
2) Unplug/reseat molex power plug (4-pin).
3) Try a disc cleaner.

BTW, have you had a look at the drive in device manager?

Or, if that fails, it would seem the drive is a goner.

Good luck.