optical drive - DVD media recognition

Two most regularly used optical drives recently stopped recognizing data DVD's that were created on these machines. There is no issue with CD media. The affected machines still recognize commercial 'film' DVDs from the public library.

When attempting to recognize the media, the OS seems to completely bog down as explorer attempts to display the drive contents.

Once in a blue moon, explorer succeeds in displaying the inserted disk, or even a directory on the disk - but further attempts to access the drive result in explorer crashing.

Nero infotool and CDroller will also sometimes report presence and type of DVD - succesive running of tests usually report empty drives.

After disassembling and cleaning one drive, it allowed normal operation for a few minutes, but reverted to previous state after disk ejection and re-insertion.

They are both HT-LG brands, but are located in completely different PCs (PC-Chips homebrew and Lenovo ThinkCentre refurb), with different OS (W2K - W7pro)and different interconnection (IDE and SATA).

The Sony, TDK, Philips, Maxell DVD-R media , both blank and previously written, are recognizable on two other, less-frequently used machines in the lab, neither having HT-LG hardware.

Replacing the drives with similar types did not correct the problem.Replacement drives had other issues, which is why they were hanging around - sticky doors etc, but included one IDE drive purchased for this repair exercise)

All of the LG drives, original and replacements, have labels dated before 2010. The other PC's that still recognize the media have similar dates of manufacture, but are Sony or Matsushita branded.

Using the regular suggestions to manipulate the W7 operating system ( device manager, optical drivers, atapi drivers, disk management, registry upper/lower limits, sfc etc ) seem to have no effect.

I've not reinstalled Nero, and haven't (recently) reverted to a Windows restore point.'restoring' didn't work the first time, so I don't expect it to work a second time. That is a bit of a rabbit hole.

I have ordered (by snail delivery) some non-LG drive replacements as a last resort - but am still curious to know if this is a more widespread issue.

Using DVD media for physical data back-up or transport doesn't seem to be common these days - but I've had large USB memory go bad on me lately, too. I also back up the OS on a USB-connected HDD.

I'm discouraged by this experience with DVD media and hardware, for data.

RL

Reply to
legg
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You need to understand that the recording medium on an R or RW DVD and on a commercially printed DVD are entirely different. The one is a dye that is 'burnt' by the laser, the other is quite literally stamped. Over time, the dye will deteriorate even by playing - which is via the laser at a lower po wer than when burning - and become less contrasting. At which point it beco mes more difficult for the laser to read it. Not true of a stamped DVD. I h ave always taken the position that a DVD R or RW is a volatile storage medi um, not for the ages, as it is chemical in nature.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
peterwieck33

I would test the DVD player with a "stamped" DVD. If these also fail, I would suspect the optics that may be failing. DVDs will fail to read far sooner than CDs on the same player if the laser is starting to fail.

Reply to
abrsvc

I realize that these DVD-R media have a half-life, however - being unable to detect a blank DVD-R or DVD-R from multiple vendors probably indicates that the issue lies outside the media itself.

Don't you agree?

Strongly suspect a Windows issue - though how it could surface in both a W2K and a W7 system, simultaneously, is begging belief. I'm concentrating on the W7 system as priority, as the internet-isolated W2K system has limited and specific duties that only seldom requires reading from DVD data.

After 30 years, you'd think that a Disk Operating System could at least be reliable in operating disks and in logging/reporting its problems.

Second suspect is laser aging - but you'd think that would affect writing only, not reading. Seem a lot of internal DVD rewriters have still to be cleared from decade-old inventory. Do lasers age wwhen in the box?

RL

Reply to
legg

Commercial DVDs read fine.

I had an issue at one time with the W7 unit, where it stopped recognizing audio CDs. (CD and DVD data oK) Got out of that one, somehow.

RL

Reply to
legg

Laser aging- sure. But a laser ages in a non-linear way in most cases, and also the reading process is subject to "Cliff Effect". It is fine until it isn't. The process of burning a DVD is very slow to avoid corrupting the data. Thi s is somewhat tolerant of a weaker laser. Reading on the other hand is much faster, and so less tolerant. You may have a confluence of causes - weaker laser, aged DVDs conspiring to gether. As you suggest, it may also be a software issue, but that should be an easy and specific fix (patch).

"Aging in the box" That would depend on what elements age. Lubricants (if a ny) - will age. Motor bearings will age, used or not. Anyone who has worked on clocks will tell you that if a clock sits for a very long time, it shou ld be cleaned and (VERY CAREFULLY) lubricated before re-starting. I doubt i f the electronics will age in any significant way, assuming proper wrapping and storage conditions. We are long past the days when capacitors had a de finite life whether in use or not. And I suspect that the same would apply to a solid-state laser.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
peterwieck33

I'd suggest this, to trouble-shoot: download a "live Linux" distribution (there are quite a few), write the .iso file to a USB stick, and boot it. All of them should be able to read a burned DVD and (usually) mount the filesystem on it. Most of them come with (or have the download capability to fetch) DVD-burning software such as Brasero.

This would let you test the same drives (with their firmware) and the same discs, without using any Windows software at all, thus eliminating this one factor completely. Whether you can read the discs or not, it'll give you a good idea as to whether Windows issues are involved.

You might be running into this problem for any of several reasons:

- Dye deterioration on the DVD discs. Some dye types, and some brands are less stable than others. Storage conditions (temperature, humidity, and exposure to light) may matter.

- Failing laser(s) in the DVD drives.

- Dirty (or smoke-coated) lenses in the optical systems. If anyone smokes tobacco or other herbs around those computers, this could be a real problem... tobacco "tar" coating the lenses is bad juju for the system.

All of these problems would affect "burned" DVDs more than pressed ones, as the relative reflectivity differences between "1" and "0" bits is lower, and the signal "seen" by the laser/photodiode system is weaker. Back in the Olde Days, many first-generation CD players/drives had trouble reading CD-R discs, and many couldn't read CD-RW, for this same reason.

Reply to
Dave Platt

Going through the usual business - reinstalling DVD drivers manually on W7 Lenovo desk machine. . . I find one blank Sony DVD+R that registers in the explorer window ( for LG HT burner disk)- slowly but not actually knobbling the system.

OK - I burn data to it (nero2015) at the slowest speed (4x). - Nero data verification fails, post burn 'too many errors'. - - The newly-written disk no longer displays in explorer without freezing out the system.

The defective disk loads and displays normally, with the newly- burned data on my laptop (mitsubishi dvdwriter). All 6200 files are in their proper directory structures.

CDroller, testing 6000 files in 40 minutes, identifies some files that are 'poorly defined'. These are mostly text files with file extensions used in database (.csv), CAD (gerber and drill), and simulation (LTSpice) software.

Seems a new drive is the only option. Anyone know of one that is a serious piece of equipment - noy intended to be replaced sooner than the media it handles?

RL

Reply to
legg

A trick I found useful sometimes is reading the bad DVDR with the bad drive upside down or on its side. It is very time consuming any way :-(

Reply to
bilou

Well, I know that works with floppies, but it's not really practical with internal drives.

I've got two towers that expect the optical drive to work sideways, which they mostly do, until they don't. It was one of those that developed the sticky door (before it was replaced). You could get it going temporarily with a slim jim pressed under a left 'bottom' edge, when restored to horizontal, later.

RL

Reply to
legg

A new (2009) DVD R/W had no issues recognizing the old DVD media. This was a Sony AD-7230S. With 2xHT/LG drives sitting on the shelf with the same DVD recognition issues, I changed mfrs with no real reason to do so.

There were a lot of these Sony drives on the market both new and second-hand, so they're obviously not either rare or particularly desirable. Seems that we're still cleaning out warehoused stock from 10yrs ago.

This was the W7 SATA drive failure.

Still waiting for the replacement for the older IDE system.

RL

Reply to
legg

Final replacement for the drive on IDE interface solved the last of the issues, on the older machine. This drive had been replaced with a similar 'new' HT/LG model once already, without results. The new Sony part is datecoded

2008, 'new in box', though it's obviously been rifled and reboxed some time ago.

The Sony DRU-190A had no issues, though it had me worried when explorer didn't seem to see a blank DVD. Installed software did see them and interrogated/tested. Labelled data DVDs were properly listed in explorer. Perhaps the older OS didn't normally list blank media - my memory fails me.

I'm staring ar 6 duff optical drives on the shelf - all HT/LG of the same vintage. 2008-2010. Half SATA, half IDE.

RL

Reply to
legg

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