New E521 ghost burning DVD RW's

Question

New E521 with Vista Home Premium. I thought the problem was with the Sonic DLA driver but now, from reading the feeds in this forum, it would appear not to be. I have uninstalled the Drag to Disk Roxio piece..   I don't seem to be able to write to any RW media. I can write to R just fine. When I try to write to RW either using Explorer or MyDVD it looks as though it has done everything just fine but when I re-insert the disk there is no data on it and it starts asking me if I want to format the blank disk...   Could this fault be something to do with my media?  I am using Tuffdisk.  I believe that drive in the E521 is a Philips one.

osprey4 · Answer

If you are being prompted to format the disc, then you have some sort of packet writing program running. DLA or something.

osprey4 · Answer

Ok, locate the model number of the drive in drive properties. While there, check for a recording tab and/or a DLA tab. Tell me what you see and what setting is indicated on each.

E521DIMENSION · Answer

OK Osprey.  Look, I may have got it wrong in my original post and I am sorry.  There is no 'do yu want to format me' dialog.  It was an Autoplay 'what do you want to do now' box 'Burn this? Burn that?' etc.  I cannot find any packet writing software on the machine now (Apart from what comes with Windows which is UDF 2.x).

E521DIMENSION · Answer

Hi Osprey,   It is a Philips DVD+- RW DVD8881 SCSI.   Only a recording tab, no DLA.  Three options:- Default Recorder (Philips drive selected), Hard drive selected as the image cache, 'Automatically eject the disc after Mastered burn' check box selected.   In teh Global Settings section (new dialogue box) there is a 'Closing Sessions' section. The bit that says 'Automatically close the current UDF session when the disk is ejected' is checked ON.

E521DIMENSION · Answer

Thanks for your help anyway.  I did have a look at his site but it is a little out of my depth. I couldn't see anything there that seemed to be like my problem.  I have to ask the question as to why Dell are putting SCSI DVDRW burners into a £550 PC.  I thought SCSI was supposed to be expensive? I didn't realise it was widely used in home machines.  In your view what is the probability of my problem being a media one?

osprey4 · Answer

Oops, SATA drive. I'm immediately out of my league. Let me point you to Jeff's site, to his Windows Vista issues. Does anything there help?

osprey4 · Answer

It's not SCSI, it's SATA. What media are you using?

E521DIMENSION · Answer

The media is 1x Tuff Disc.  Can be found at www.tuffdisc.com.  This is the closest I can find to what I have only mine is 1x :-  http://www.e-netdistribution.co.uk/popup_disc_details.php?id=TUFFDIS016

osprey4 · Answer

I'm not sure why in the world anyone would use 1x media, but I'd suggest you try something else. This site is a good place to evaluate media. Keep in mind that all new media are 8-16x, with the exception of dual layer discs.

E521DIMENSION · Answer

OK, so I was a tight git.  I used some media that I had around from a couple of years ago. Anyway, I went to PC World yesterday (scorn scorn).  I bought some shiny new Philips media. It all woks fine now. Thanks for your help Osprey.   Russell

osprey4 · Answer

Thanks for the warning about 'Tuffdisc'.

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New E521 ghost burning DVD RW's

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