Philips 8631...will NOT recognize some media

Question

I hope someone can help me.  I have a Dimension 4700 with a Samsung DVDROM SD-616G (works fine) and a Philips DVD+-RW (DVD8631) that used to work.  I was able to burn a music CD last week but now the drive won't recognize the CDR media.  In fact, it will not recognize regular (factory) audio CDs and my HP printer software CD.  It does recognize a factory purchased DVD movie as well as my Windows XP CD.  I've tried so many things I don't know whether it is the drive itself or something else.  Nothing has changed at all hardware or software wise.  I started with Windows Restore going back to March 17, but it did not change the functionality of the drive.  All diagnostic lights on back of PC are green (good).  I then removed the drive from Device Manager and rebooted.  It reinstalled the drive but still acts the same.  I also downloaded latest driver to find out I already have the latest.  I also removed both DVD drives from Device Manager and plugged in the Philips Drive in the master position leaving Samsung unplugged (Philips originally in slave position).  While it reinstalled the Philips drive, it still is not recognizing most media.  I reset NVRAM according to instructions I read on a previous thread and that did not work either.  I downloaded the DIAGFT32.exe file and created a boot floppy.  When I put it in along with my Windows CD in the drive, it recognized the drive and showed the files when I did the dir command at the D: prompt.  I made sure the transfer settings in Device Manager said DMA under IDE channels.  I also booted to the utility partition at startup.  Using my XP CD, all tests passed using this diagnostic test.  Using my DVD movie (which plays fine in Windows), I get an error on the Read Test:  Error Code 0F00:021D, Message Block 70744: illegal Request - Possible use of incorrect media.  It passed the seek test then on the Confidence Test, the error said 0F00-131D, Message Block 70744: illegal request - possible use of incorrect media.  Hopefully, I didn't leave out any other steps I took.  Of course, the PC went out of warranty on 3/16/06 because I did not purchase the extended warranty.  Otherwise PC works great.  Any ideas?  Any information is appreciated.  Thanks.   Lois

osprey4 · Answer

Lois:

You seem to have covered everything. The only thing I can think of regarding the diagnostic test is that maybe it wants a data CD, not a DVD.

I would pursue this with tech service since the warranty is so close. I suggest you use e-mail and explain that the problem pre-dates the expiration of the warranty. Polite persistence is what's needed.

Ok, so what if all is lost? A replacement drive, such as this NEC 16X DVD±R Model ND-3550A, will cost you less than $40. So you can guage the effort you want to put into a replacement.

hhhranch · Answer

Thanks Osprey for your reply. I will send Dell an email, hoping polite persistence will work. I just hope the drive is the cause because I wouldn't want to spend the money on a new drive and it doesn't resolve the problem. At least a replacement drive is not too costly.

Lois

osprey4 · Answer

One last thing to check. Make sure DLA is disabled. This has been known to cause conflicts with reading certain media.

hhhranch · Answer

Osprey, Thanks for info. I tried it disabling DLA, hoping it was the magic bullet (haha) to no avail. I wasn't persuasive enough with Dell due to PC being out of warranty. I'm going to buy another drive. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks so much for all your advice.

Lois

hhhranch · Answer

Hi Osprey, I ordered the NEC  drive you mentioned in your post and installed it today.  It works great!!  Thanks again.   Lois

osprey4 · Answer

Lois: That's great to hear. Sorry your original drive did not work, but good luck with the new one.

Storage, Drives & Media

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