The Firmware Page

Hi All,

I am stumped with a problem and hope the group may have some answers. In short, the problem is that the 8x DVD+/-RW, CD-R, CD-RW (HL-DT-ST Model GWA-4080N, f/w REV 0C09) that was OEM installed in my HP ZD7000 laptop will not typically recognize blank media, making burning data files impossible. I am running XP SP2 and, according to Microsoft's Windows Update, all patches and fixes are installed. Further, accoriding to HP's wite, the firmware in the drive is also "current." All items in the Startup tab of MSCONFIG are unchecked and there are no unexpected "events" appearing in any portions of the Event Log. LowerFilters and UpperFilters keys have been removed from the registry although LowerFilters.BAK and UpperFilters.BAK remain in the registry as I did not know if I should delete them given postings I have seen in other forums.

Here are the symptoms:

(1) The drive is "visible" via File Manger. If no disk is in the drive, the device appears as a DVD/CD drive in the file manager and appears similarly in the window that opens if you click on My Computer where the empty drive capacity shopws 702MB available. The drive can read both DVD and CD without problem.

(2) If I have a piece of blank media in the drive and do a reboot, once the laptop has restarted, the drive is visible (as expected) and the drive shows that it contains a piece of blank media. If I try to write to that media using the Windws CD Writing wizard, I get an uninformative error box telling me that the drive cannot be written to. Once I close out of the XP CD burning wizard, I notice the drive, via cicking on My Computer, simply shows as a CD drive with no capacity details. If I check the properties of the CD, it shows 0 bytes of used space and zero bytes of free space.

(3) If I reboot the PC with this same CD in the drive, it will again be visible and will again show as "empty" with 702MB of available space. If I check this same CD on another PC, it is, indeed, empty.

(4) Without attempting to write to a CD and AFTER a boot cycle with the CD in the drive, if I then eject and reinsert the CD, the drive again shows 0 bytes free, 0 bytes available.

(5) The drive has been replaced and the problem continues with identical symptoms.

(6) The drive cannot be written to with either the basic XP CD burning wizard or with Roxio EasyCD V6

(7) I have made sure that the "make recordable" box in the drive properties "Recording" tab is checked.

(8) I have made sure the reg entries describing the drive also reflect that the drive is a writable device.

(9) HP diagnostics SW says the drive is fine

(10) There are no errors in the device manager for the drive (or any other devices for that matter)

(11) There are no other devices connected to the laptop - no USB, nor Firewire, no IR stuff at all

(12) I have unistalled and reinstalled drive device drivers. Further, I have unistalled and reinstalled the secondary IDE to which the DVD/CD drive was assigned.

(13) I have searched high and low to find a firmware upgrade from the current firmware REV 0C09.

Bottom line, the DVD/CD drive will read disks but I cannot write to them with either the Windows CD burning tools or with Roxio's EasyCD Creator V 6.

I do have ITunes installed and have not tried uninstalling. Since the drive appears to be recognized and functional as a "read" drive, I so not think the Error Code 41 discussions in another thread on this site are applicable.

I have scrubbed the registry and deleted all keys that contained Roxio, EasyCD or Sonic in any portion of the key.

Any ideas on where to go from here? The knuckleheads at HP simply say reinstall the OS.. that seems like the typical Tier Dumb support answer.


Thanks,
MECSFO

I think the main problem is a drive/config clash and probably related to the installed and enabled IMAPI Burn Engine and also Packet-Writing software like InCD and DLA... No firmware problem, I think.

1. Disable IMAPI Burn Engine.
2. Disable or uninstall Packet-Writing software.
3. SEARCH the m$ support pages for solutions, especially for IDE error code 41.
4. Clean the lens/drive.
5. Use and try again with good quality media.


In your case this suggestion from HP is CORRECT.

And not to forget - flashing a firmware cannot resolve hardware problems.

Hi _chef_

Thanks for the advice. I have double checked and I do not have InCD installed and, frankly, am not sure if I have packet writing software installed (I never recall having installed any) I have read the Microsoft tech bulletins on the CODE 41 stuff and deleted the LowerFilters and UpperFilters as they suggest (I HAVE NOT deleted the LowerFilters.BAK and UpperFilters.BAK as I was not instructed to do so)

The reason I was thinking "firmware" was because the only software changes that have been made to the machine since the burner stopped functioning were Windows system updates and I was thinking perhaps the OS changes expected to find a more current rev of the firmware.

Lastly, the problem continues with Maxell, Fuji, Toyo-Eden and Imation media.

There must be some subtle crack-up/conflict in the registry and I am pulling out my hair trying to find it.

Will EasyCD run w/o IMAPI services DISABLED?

Thanks,
MECSFO

It should but best would be to try it just out.

If you can, put the drive in another computer to test it out.

EasyCD also contains "DirectCD"/"Drag to CD", which IS a packet writing system!

yleclerc,

Thanks for clarifying that. When I have installed EasyCD before, I have done a custom installl and only loaded "classic" CD Copy and "Classic" CD writer. I do not use (nor install!) the DragtoDisc or DirectCD features as I need all my burned CD's to be compatible on both MAC and Windows systems.

I'll keep troubleshooting here in the meantime....there is NOTHING i dislike more than a registry/driver/conflict that refuses to reveal itself.

Cheers,
MECSFO

That's why it's always mentioned as problematic in combination with the IMAPI burn engine (see the m$ support pages).

I have had the same problem as the last message poster. i have a Matshita UJ840-D that came with my HP compaq nx6120 and have recently had a problem with burning onto blank media - particularly Printable imation DVD-R. I have emailed imation and they said i should look for firmware from my DVD-R recorder manufacturer. I have had trouble finding any but stumbled upon this forum. im wondering what i can do as i have received these DVDs for free and am unable to use them. I tried a couple and now they are unusable. I don't want to try again until i know that it will work as i hate wasting media as its also bad for the environment to dispose of them.
Any help would be extremely appreciated.
Sian

matSHITa burners are very picky about the media they want to burn to.
Besides, they are the nearly baddest choice if you want to go rpc1...

TY and Verbatim media should work with them fine, all others can easily go the coaster path.

Excuse the ignorance but what is TY? I have used several different types of media on my DVD/CD burner and they have all been fine up to this point.

I have used magmedia and sony and they have been fine. The IMATION ones i am attempting to use were a freebie. naturally i would like to make use of them.

I am in Australia and am not even sure that I can get verbatim media. I have read a lot today about Matshita not being good. Especially if you want to watch dvds from other regions.

Well thats fine - that's not my primary objective. I would like to know what i can do to use these imation dvds effectively so that they actually work.

Please if there is anything i can do, please let me know.

media id of the disc, as chef has said these drives are very erratic for media compatibility, maybe just they don't like the imation

TY is Taiyo Yuden. Best DVD

Never even heard of it. Pretty sure i can't get this brand in australia unless i buy it over the internet and thats not going to happen just for burnable dvds.

should be able to buy it anywhere

There are a lot of FAKEs in the market these days, but some shops are selling those genuine ones.
One is os-mediatrade.de for germans and around.
Some other manufacturers sell them under their own name, eg. Verbatim, Plextor, That's, Fuji(film) or Panasonic.
Again the warning, there are lots of FAKES around...
More info available here.