DVD burner stopped working

[paqman]

I bought a new Lite-On DVD burner a good 6 months back, and it has worked great for the longes time. Now, without any notice, or any significant hardward or software changes to my machine, the drive won't recognize blank discs.

I can read CD's and DVD's in the drive, it's only when it comes to burning. I have tried with a number of different applications. As soon as it comes time to burn the disc, it will tell me to put in a blank disc. So I put in a blanc disc and nothing ever happens. It's like it won't recognize the discs. I can read from discs, but it's like it won't recognize blank discs when it's ready to burn.

My machine is a Dell Poweredge SC420, with 1GB DDR2 RAM. BIOS revision A01.
Thanks.

[fritzi93]

Have you by chance gone to a different brand of blank disc? If it's a new MID (media I.D.), your burner may require a firmware flash to even recognize the media.

If the above supposition is incorrect, it's still possible a firmware flash may solve your problem. Check out the Lite-On burner subforum at cdfreaks.

Other things to try to rule in or rule out possible problems: Try different, preferably older, MID. Clean the laser lens.

And there's always the chance your burner is simply worn out. Good luck.

[paqman]

Thanks for the tips. I haven't changed discs, the ones I'm using have worked fine in the past. However, maybe a firmware upgrade would do the trick. I'll give that a try. I sure hope the thing ain't worn out. I've used Lite-On drives for a lot longer than 6 months! Thanks again.

[fritzi93]

Your best bet is a visit to cdfreaks. Good luck.

[yoni5002]

Hi, Have you tried uninstalling the DVD drivers and rebooting?

If you haven't done it yet I think that could fix the problem

[paqman]

Thanks for the suggestion, but sadly, yes, I have already tried uninstalling the drive and rebooting, and it installed when it came up like it should have, and still didn't work. Then I upgraded the firmware, and still no luck. Now, I just noticed today, it won't even read discs! I put a disc in that I KNOW has data on it, and it just opens up as a blank disc! So anyway, I think it would be a good idea to get on to CDFREAKS, and see what help I can get there. I'll be so pissed if it's busted, it's like 6 months old! Anyway, thanks for all your help!

[scouse]

Sadly hardware life spans can be limited when infact they should last longer, it does sound like your drive has broke and time (to early i know) to buy a new one.

let us know if you got it resolved.

[paqman]

Thanks. I'm afraid you might be right. But I'll let you know if I find a resolution.