DVD burner won't read

Just bought a new DVD+/-RW NEC ND-3550A for my daughters pc, and wondering if it's a bad one or not (it was cheap).

XP home sp2, athalon xp 1700+, 384 ram.

it will read regular dvd's.
it will read cd r,
it will read cd rw and dvd rw disks, but it won't read any dvd r (that plays fine on any other dvd player)
XP shows a blank disk with 0 space

TIA
I have removed it and the secondary IDE from xp device man. and let it reinstall, but no change.

 

Have you run Microsoft Update or Windows Update after the install?

Have you installed the latest firmware for that device?
NEC 355A Firmware

Is it an OEM or retail drive?

 

My first thought would be that it does not like the media. The suggestion of upgrading the firmware may fix that.

Matt

 

yes, windows xp did update itself a couple times since I put it in.

yes, it is an OEM.

no, I did not update the firmware, I thought since it was new it would already have the latest firmware, but I will try that.

Thanks!

 

I have now flashed the firmware from 1.05 to 1.06, still no change.

I tried a few more dvd+r's that I have burned, found one that it would play and one it started to play then stoped, all the same media.

all of these disks play fine on my NEC 3520A DVD+/-RW almost identicle drive.

 

I'm having (sort of) a similar problem with CD disks. I got a bulk pack of TDK disks and have finally almost finished them, they have worked fine throughout and even on old CDrom drives. I thought I might try better quality brand and got Verbatim, they are only being read by half the drives I put them in.

If you look around at NEC and there will probably be a site for the ND-3550A, there should be a recommendation for the brand of DVDrom media to use. I suggest getting one of those disks to test. If it does not run those disks, contact NEC (through their Support website) to get it RMA'd.

Matt

 

The one brand NEC recomended is RiData DL when I got my NEC 3520 a few months ago, so I got a six pack of those, burned a dvd with the NEC 3520,
and now the NEC 3550 won't read it.

I think you are right, it's time to get an RMA.
Thanks!