My Hitachi/LG HL-DT-ST-DVD+RW GWA-4040N Burner has problems with DVD's.....

Question

Someone please help me. This burner installed in my Inspiron 9100 with Windows XP Pro will no longer burn to DVD+R's and will only burn to DVD+RW's on occasion. The Burn process is either a no-go at start or it fails to finalize at the end. I have the latest Nero software and have tried all the firmware and suggestions made by Dell techs in some of the other posts I found Re: this subject....Please bear in mind that the disks that I am using are of the same brand, type and batch that I was using successfully a few weeks ago!....and I have tried others since. DVD reading, CD reading and burning are fine....I suspect that this drive is faulty....does anyone else know anything else to try? It's just a shame.....this drive is very important to my work...

DELL-Corey · Answer

brianscott2a, Thank you for using Dell's Community Forum. I too think the problem my lie with the drive.

enigma-2 · Answer

Just a thought.  Have you tried (gently) cleaning cleaning the laser to see if you may have inadvertently touched it?

brianscott2a · Answer

I had parts of Sonic MyDVD still installed and I just cleaned it off and out the registry. (thinking it might be in conflict with Nero)......re-installed Nero.....still to no avail. I am pretty sure the unit is still under warranty.....My employer purchased this I9100 for me back in the late spring or early summer...How would I proceed from here?   Also, could you definitively direct me to the latest and greatest Dell-approved firmware for this drive? I can try this again if I have not already.....I am finding a lot of conflicting viewpoints here and elsewhere on the internet.   Brian Message Edited by brianscott2a on 02-11-2005 02:28 PM

brianscott2a · Answer

OK, I have tried 'cleaning' the laser, I have uninstalled with device manager and re-installed the drive with Windows from scratch and the drive continues to play everything DVD and CD, it writes to all cd's...It still will not write to or erase ANYTHING DVD! The system locks up and the function or disk access request cannot be closed even with Task manger....I have to do a manual shutdown of system to open drive and remove disk. I notice there is a faint 'fluttering' sound with odd ringing character when it first attempts formatting or writing any DVD+R or DVD+RW disk...perhaps it is a new sound?? Maybe......Diagnostics with CD have been OK.....Cannot run the DVD diagnostics.....it locks up with the blank disks....   bad drive?? It would seem so to me considering all of the other drive's functions are fine and there are no error messages anywhere....I have also removed any and all possible software conflicts I can locate....anyone have any other ideas??   Thanks     Message Edited by brianscott2a on 02-11-2005 07:37 PM

egoneo · Answer

i had exactly the same problem with my HL-DT-ST GCA 4040N with nero. everytime i wanted to burn a dvd it just locked up and the only way to resolve was a hard shutdown. when i used other software like sonic it worked though. have you tried using sonic or other dvd burning software?

brianscott2a · Answer

I have the Dell-supplied version of Sonic on CD and can re-install it....but Nero was working fine for me until recently......I have problems with the drive though in Windows Explorer without any software open...I will keep your idea in mind however, Sonic did work for me what little bit I used it when the PC was new....I'm not sure if I did any DVD burns with it however. DVD X COPY used to work fine as well and it no longer works.

brianscott2a · Answer

Yes, sure enough the problem was with Nero! Thanks for your entry....it saved me a lot of time even though I have put a lot in already....The burner will now burn, read, erase, format any DVD + R or +RW disk I throw at it...Using SONIC with Nero completely removed. Neither Sonic or Nero would work as long as Nero was installed. My fix was to Uninstall all burning software and just Re-install the Sonic that came with the machine (drive)....   I am very happy to have 'solved' this but I am not happy without Nero...This version of SONIC works without flaw but it lacks many features...It is pretty much 'Dell-ware' OEM...I believe it was a $29.99 add-on when we bought the computer....   The distressing thing about the Nero was that I paid $69.99 out of my own pocket and now I don't have a machine to use it on + I will be hesitant to try any other burning software with this drive as long as I have it...The Sonic upgrades are too expensive so I doubt I will go that route...this drive may only work with Sonic for now and I have not seen any new firmware updates for it....Dell: please fix this issue...Not my favorite piece of hardware! We deserve better on a $3,000.00 machine...A good firmware upgrade could bring this drive into the present....   Nero worked great up until about three weeks ago and I had used it for at least 6 months before...My theory here is that one of the last few Updates supplied by Nero caused a compatibility issue with this drive... Is anyone interested in buying a license for Nero (Full-version)-cheap? I checked their EULA and it is legal to transfer it to another user...The software is loved and appreciated by virtually everyone I know.   Hopefully this post will help many others solve this problem with these drives....I was ready to give up on the hardware......It was almost a done-deal.

Storage, Drives & Media

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