Help! My burner won't read or write anymore.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian Ferrell
  • Start date Start date
B

Brian Ferrell

New member
Suddenly, my Plextor 8X4X32 burner won't read or write discs, although a few weeks ago, it worked fine. The burner is recognized in Windows and when a disc is inserted, it spins it and the system seems like it's trying to recognize it, but then it stops spinning and nothing happens. If I try to burn a disc using either Clone CD or Plextor Manager's Disc Dupe, I keep getting a message saying, "Insert CD". I don't know what I could have done to mess it up. I've looked thru the Device Manager's settings, but can't find anything wrong. I've even tried different settings (making sure if they didn't work, to return to the previous settings) but that didn't work either. I've read the troubleshooting sections of the Plextor manuals, but that didn't help either. The drive is installed on the secondary IDE connection along with my Pioneer DVD drive. They are jumpered according to the manual with the Plextor as master and the Pioneer as slave. That shouldn't be the problem because, as I said, a few weeks ago everything was working fine. Anybody have any clues?

Brian
 
If Windows and the burner software recognizes the drive, then just as you said, the settings are probably right. It sounds like you have gone through most things to troubleshoot this already. It might just be that the drive has died. Is it under warranty? If so, then I'd call Plextor to see what could be done about replacing it. From the specs you gave I would bet it's close to a couple years old though, and I don't know what kinda warranty Plextor has. The laser might need to be calibrated or the thing might need cleaning since it's not reading any discs, but I don't know if that's possible with a CD-R like it is with a regular CD drive. Again, I'd talk to Plextor about that kind of stuff too.
 
I sure hope the burner hasn't died because it's only a month old and hardly been used. It's still under warranty. I just got thru sending a detailed letter to Plextor, so I hope to have an answer within a day or so. I might try disconnecting and reconnecting the IDE. That might help.
 
I suspect the drive is dead. See it all the time, drive available in windows, but can't read anything. Swap out with a new one, no problem. I don't know if this is the problem for sure, but have a feeling it is. The fact that it's only a month old makes it even more likely to be mechanical or electronic flaw. This electronic stuff either runs for a 100 years with no problems, or dies in a few months. If you've ruled out a driver or software issue (boot using a boot disk with cd-rom drivers, can you read disks?), return it.
 
Sorry for being so illiterate, but do you mean boot up with say, the emergency recovery disc I got with the PC? I don't know if there are CD-Rom drivers on it, but I guess there probably are. I got a reply from tech support at Plextor (not bad for a Sunday) that asked if I loaded any Creative software lately, because Creative's Disc Detector sometimes interferes with Plextor's and if I did, to disable the Disc Detector. I'm gonna try that first and if that doesn't work, I'll try what you suggested and let you know if it works.
 
Sorry for being so illiterate, but do you mean boot up with say, the emergency recovery disc I got with the PC? I don't know if there are CD-Rom drivers on it, but I guess there probably are. I got a reply from tech support at Plextor (not bad for a Sunday) that asked if I loaded any Creative software lately, because Creative's Disc Detector sometimes interferes with Plextor's and if I did, to disable the Disc Detector. I have a Creative Labs SB Live Platinum and a week ago I was messing with the Disc Detector (I can't remember why) so I'm gonna try Plextor's idea first and if that doesn't work, I'll try what you suggested and let you know if it works.
 
What Emeric means is to start your system using a floppy disk that has a CD driver on it. The easiest way to make such a boot disk is to go into

Control Panel/Add Remove Programs/Starup disk

Put in a blank floppy disk and Windows will make a "startup disk" for you. When finished shut down the system, put in your startup floppy disk, then restart. The system will boot up from the floppy in DOS mode and will load drivers so your CDR drive will operate in read-mode. Then put a CD into the drive (not one you value too highly, just in case). Then do a DIR command on whatever drive letter your CDR is, probably E: - DIR E: for example. If you can read the directory of the CD, you have hope that its just a Windows driver conflict of some sort. If you can't read it, the drive is probably mechanicly bad.
 
Thanks a lot, Emeric and RWhite and JonX. Because of Emeric's suggestion, I already had a tech support guy walk me thru the process RWhite just now described (it turns out, I already had the Windows boot-up floppy) and the techie agreed with Emeric and JonX --- the burner's fried. As soon as I get an RMA# from Plextor, it's going back.
 
I hate it when that happens .I've been thru 2 burners and 2 cdrom drives.luckily I have 3 years warranty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top