NEC DVD +RW ND-1100A not reading or recording DVD-R discs

Question

This spring I purchased a Dell OptiPlex GX260 which I bought with the NEC 1100A DVD/CD drive installed by Dell. I purchased Maxell DVD-R discs to use with this.  The drive works fine with CD's and CDRW's. It reads and writes the CD's fine and erases the RW's fine for both the audio and data CDs. However when I put in a DVD-R it will not recognize it or burn it. It will boot up and play commercial DVD's with no problem. I just cant burn a DVD. I have updated the BIOS with the current patches and also updated the NEC Drive with the flash patch (R59801 & R59997). I have also removed and reinstalled Easy CD Creator 5 and went to the Roxio webpage to install the upgrades as of yesterday. I read your 'read this first' posting and tried everything that applies. I am using Windows XP professional. I have tried several brand new DVD-Rs out of the box of 5 that I bought to make sure it wasn't a bad DVD-R, no luck. After all this I still cant get the DVD to record. What can I do next.  Bob

Skybird · Answer

Hi Bob,

There are different DVD standards. It is the Beta vs VHS all over again. Very likely
your NEC-1100A is functioning correctly. See here ............

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-229675.html?legacy=cnet

and ............

http://www.dvdcreation.com/2002/03_mar/features/dvd_standards.htm

Dell has lined up on the side of DVD+. Thus, your NEC-1100A is a DVD+R and DVD+RW writer.
It will read all the standards but will only write to the + standard. Obtain some DVD+R
or DVD+RW disks and you should have success writing DVDs.

Message Edited by Skybird on 12-09-2003 12:49 PM

Bon33 · Answer

Thanks, I will give that a shot.

xmlguy · Answer

I am having a similar problem. I have a NEC ND-1100A bought on a new box. It reads CDs fine. It writes CDs fine. It burns DVD+RWs ok - sometimes with errors. But it cannot write DVD+Rs at all. I have used various media (all DVD+R) and done all the patches mentioned by Bon33 - from Dell support. Firmware update to 10GE, Roxio reinstall, R59801, R67590 - you name it. I did everything the dell support email sent to me said to do. Still not go. I'll say that it used to burn something incorrectly. Early on I was able to burn DVD+Rs - but it never worked completely. It put corrupted files onto the DVD+R. Now, however, it won't even recognize the media to start burning anything! (Which is the reason I contacted Dell support). But all this has not done anything to improve the DVD+R burning one bit. I'm at wit's end here.

Any ideas guys?

Thanks in advance!

garjus · Answer

I too have the nec 1100a and my problem is inability to burn at speeds greater than 1.4x on various medias. Ive tried maxell and memorex. and various burning software to no avail. Some recomend using a firmware for the 1300a to enable the 1100a to burn -r as well as +r. But there seems to be no sure fix as some have worked some have not. I too am wits end to get the burn speed of 4x which is what I thought I was paying for.

AliCast · Answer

So based on the fact that my drive is the NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A - is it possible to convert a CD-R disk inorder to play whats on it on my Dell PC?...this is not something I can easily get re written in the other format really - its my wedding photos presentation created by a photo studio in Barbados!...

any ideas?

AliCast · Answer

A HA!...now this could also be the answer to my problems too. I have the same CD burner in my Dell Optiplex GX260 and am trying to a) read a presentation on a CD-R that fires up perfectly well on any other Compaq Pcs with NT O/S I've tried it on plus I cannot seem to complete the copying to CD Wizard on the Dell to copy over my digital photos to CD. I've just looked at the CDs I'm trying to use and they are all reading as CD-RW - so are you saying I need to get both the presentation on a CD+RW from who created it for me and also get some blank CD+RWs inorder to copy my photos??

Storage, Drives & Media

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