# DVD Writer unable to read DVDs ,reads only CDs



## blacklight (Apr 24, 2009)

I am having a really wierd problem !! My Liteon DVD (18X) writer has started acting fussy all of a sudden and refuses to read DVDs.The surprising part is that it reads CDs (all kinds including RWs ) just fine.

For a bit of a background,yesterday evening i noticed that my DVD drive was being recognized as a SCSI Rom drive.After lots of driver installations/uninstallations i ended up reinstalling my OS.But still no luck so far.Whenever i insert a DVD, the explorer slows down for some time and finally ignores the disk..clicking the drive on My computer it says "insert disk"
Initially i thought it could be a problem with the lens...but then how is it that it reads CDs.

So anybody who can advise me on this ??


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 24, 2009)

Nothing new. Windows released some updates but it has some conflicts between PIO and DMA. The writer that you have- is it IDE or Sata. Also mentioned your OS with the sp.


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## blacklight (Apr 24, 2009)

I have a Liteon ( 18x )IDE DVD Writer .My M/b is Asus P5b Dlx . OS : WinXP with SP2 only (No new Win XP updates/hotfixes ) and i have windows automatic updates turned OFF


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 24, 2009)

Go to your bios and change the dvd driver settings to DMA mode. After that, go to device manager and change IDE/ATAPI controller's advance settings to DMA mode.


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## blacklight (Apr 24, 2009)

Thanks for the fast response sorcerer. In bios, its set in Auto mode ,but not sure about windows device manager settings.Since i am at work right now,will check those when i reach home. But what puzzles me is how are CDs being read ? Do reading CDs and DVDs use different circuitry or something ?


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 24, 2009)

No. There are 2 possibility- DMA/PIO conflict is the most common one which not many people bother to check. Second could be the dvd drive, though its reading cds, I dont think it could be a problem. There are times that DMA mode option doesnt work for many odd reasons. In this scenario you will have to try by checking out if other mode work in your case. The another best option is to move to sata dvd drive.


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## comp@ddict (Apr 24, 2009)

> I am having a really wierd problem !! My Liteon DVD (18X) writer has started acting fussy all of a sudden and refuses to read DVDs.The surprising part is that it reads CDs (all kinds including RWs ) just fine.
> 
> For a bit of a background,yesterday evening i noticed that my DVD drive was being recognized as a SCSI Rom drive.After lots of driver installations/uninstallations i ended up reinstalling my OS.But still no luck so far.Whenever i insert a DVD, the explorer slows down for some time and finally ignores the disk..clicking the drive on My computer it says "insert disk"
> Initially i thought it could be a problem with the lens...but then how is it that it reads CDs.
> ...


LOL, I can't imagine.

I have the SAME F***** problem since the last 6 months, I thought the lens was dirty. 
The DVD Writer SIMPLY REFUSES to read ANY CD, only DVDs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTH!!! is going on?? I can't read CDs even on uBuntu.


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## blacklight (Apr 24, 2009)

@Sorcerer
If DMA settings was the issue,the drive should atleast detect the DVDs.even if copy,read may be slow.

Yes,a new SATA drive would be a nice option,but i want to be completely sure that my DVD drive is screwed before i buy a new one.If the problem was due to some drive settings/OS related which could be solved , it would be a total waste of cash.

@comp addict: looks like we have two different ends of a problem and if these are solved, we both would end up with a complete  drive 

so did u make any progress in searching for a solution ?Did u say that while u were running a different OS(Ubuntu) ,u could not read CD's ??


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 24, 2009)

blacklight said:


> @Sorcerer
> If DMA settings was the issue,the drive should atleast detect the DVDs.even if copy,read may be slow.


No its random. That's why I also said if the troubleshoot advice I have given doesnt work, you would have to play around with different types of DMA settings on the bios. Sometimes doing exactly the opposite of an advice does work strangely. As for comp@ddict's issue it could be something else (either that or there must be something in linux but I am not into linux at all) since it is not working in linux.


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## comp@ddict (Apr 24, 2009)

I reckon it's the lens then..


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## blacklight (Apr 24, 2009)

hmm if its a lens problem..does it mean that DVDs and CDs use different lens for read/write ?


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## comp@ddict (Apr 25, 2009)

I think yes


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 25, 2009)

Doubted.


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## blacklight (Apr 25, 2009)

i tried playing around with DMA settings - both in bios and Windows..but no change.
and my search on this behavior on the net was also not encouraging!!
*club.cdfreaks.com/f61/dvd-writer-reads-only-cds-226256/
*forums.techarena.in/hardware-peripherals/1094549.htm

finally decided to end this and get a new one !!
got a new LG 22X SATA drive for Rs 1090 

thanks sorcerer for all the advice .


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## pimpom (Apr 25, 2009)

Kind of late with my input, but here goes. Although the basic principles of CDs and DVDs are the same, they differ in detail. Data is much more densely packed in DVDs and requires a much higher degree of precision in writing and reading. Your problem is a common one with DVD drives. If the focus and alignment gets out of whack even slightly, it can no longer deal with DVDs but can still cope with the less demanding requirements of a CD. Same reasoning with a dirty lens.


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 25, 2009)

^^ Its PIO/DMA conflict dude . Sometime it works, sometime it doesnt. IDE is as good as gone so its pretty obvious one ditches IDE for good.


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## pimpom (Apr 25, 2009)

Just because some problems are caused by a PIO/DMA issue, it doesn't mean that all read-write problems are caused by it. Just as they are not all caused by lens alignment, but the vast majority of cases where it can read CDs but not DVDs are caused by the lens/laser assembly. I've dealt with plenty of such problems with other people's drives.


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 25, 2009)

If lens were misaligned, the CDs wouldn't have worked. I work dell as a tech support. We see many problems like this these days.


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## pimpom (Apr 26, 2009)

It depends on the degree of misalignment/misfocus. I think I explained that clearly enough in my earlier post. (I won't bother citing my own technical background).


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## The Sorcerer (Apr 26, 2009)

^^ Your wish .


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## blacklight (Apr 28, 2009)

@pimpom 
If it was indeed caused due to improperly aligned lens , is it possible to restore the alignment back to original state?


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## rhitwick (Apr 28, 2009)

Hi guys, me facing the same problem now.
I've two DVD writers (Ya, I don't believe any single company so bought two)
First: Samsung 203B SATA
2nd LiteOn IDE (model no. don't know)

Now, both of them have decided to betray me at d same time.
Samsung one Reads DVds but doesn't write and LiteOn writes DVds but doesn't read.

Sometimes both of them stop reading/writing DVDs.

I've cleaned the lense with lense cleaner. but it didn't work.
Oh, both of them reads CDs.


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## prateek007391 (Apr 28, 2009)

I had similar problem some months ago, its a lens problem

My DVD R/w is working with DVDs only, it does not senses any CD at all


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