External DVD Burner won't 'Burn'

Hi I am deborak and living in Japan,

Even though I am new I have being reading most of the threads with interest and was really helpful.
So now I too as has got some problems with my external DVD burner and looking for your help to resolve it. I will write down the full story what I did
and any help will be very thankful.

My computer:
*Fujitsu, Pentium III Processor 60GB HD, 512KB RAM, System Bus clock 133MHz,2 PCI slots,(, one slot is occupied by the TV tuner card, and the other
is a display card. I have an additional display connected to my home computer)

*CD/DVD : CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. The CD/DVD drive can read and write CD's but DVDs-only read. Basically it is not a DVD burner, but a CD burner.
(I was longing for a DVD burner and O.K, bought one.An external USB 2.0.)

*3 No's of 1.1 USB ports (spec sheet says USB 1.1 and I guess it is. Because in the device manager there is no "Enhanced USB2 controller appears ")

This is what I did:
0. I had win 2K installed and wanted to go for Win XP, because I thought it is the best for my computer, and Vista is too heavy to my 7 year old computer.
When WIN 2K was there I had the following peripherals and didn't come across a single problem. Everything was smooth and fine.

* The peripherals: Epson Printer, Epson Scanner, External HD (120GB), , 3 flash drives, Sony Hi-MD Walkman, Toshiba Mobile Phone, additinal Dispaly.
In fact I have connected two displays to the computer. I wanted to connect the DVD burner once I install Win XP. So did not connect the NEW DVD burner
when WIN 2K was there.

Bought WinXP, and did the necessary backup etc, removed all the peripherals mentioned above including the internet connection.
1.Installed winXP professional SP2 with mouse and keyboard connected only-- No problems. everything was smooth.
Reinstalled/Connected the peripherals mentioned above except the Mobile Phone (MP)
For some reason I forget to install the mobile phone anyhow that doesn't matter, could be installed later no harm. This was my thinking.

Connected the External DVD burner, USB 2.0 (PIONEER 112L) with external Power supply.
I got the Media Creator 9 (Japanese Language) from Roxy along with the DVD burner when I bought it.
Connected to one of the the USB ports, in the back of the computer and the system identified as a New device connected and that's all.
The NEW DVD BURNER TOOK the DRIVE LETTER as "F ". The built in CD/DVD drive is :E now. Fine I was very happy. Simple short and sweet.

Then Installed ROXY's media creator even though I didn't want to, just to check I installed it. Everything was fine but did the mistake by not
checking wether the burner is really burning DVD's. Sorry I am so busy at work and all these I can do, only when I return home late in the night. But I was in the impression that "O.K DVD burner is working ". Since I bought this from Japan, the DVD copy software was Japanese. I wanted an English Language
DVD burning software Since I know Nero and have got 5.5.6.9, I installed the Nero but did not identify the new pioneer DVD burner, therefore I though it is best
to go for the latest version Nero 8. Installed the trial version, while still media creator is there. Yes, Nero identified the NEW DVD drive. So how stupid I am
again I made the mistake by not checking a real burn of a DVD-R or anything.

Now comes the trouble + shooting. Connected the Toshiba Mobile Phone and the relevant music transfer software plus the USB driver..
Soon after I installed the phone, strangly the mobile phone over wrote the NEW BURNER Drive letter :F and it (MP) took the DRIVE LETTER F.
Now there is no DVD burner drive, in the My Computer. Instead MP is showing as :F and as removable drive. Of course a removeable drive.
Then I Shutdown the computer, removed the NEW dvd Burner, power+usb connection. Power ON the computer and activated the Disk management tool,
changed the drive letter of the MP as V:/. then Connected the NEW DVD burner and after the New device identification by XP, assigned the Drive letter
as :F again. Now my proble is Device manager shows the correct appearence, but cannot read any CD's DVD's etc. Even a Audio Music CD's or a data disc.
Nothing is happening. This happened after I installed the MP. Any one has got any idea about this. Because I am running out of ideas and
completely in a mess. Read lot of threads, but none seems to have come up with a real solution.

Deborak

 

Hi deborak, and welcome to the windowsbbs.

I think the best action is to un-install all recent programs and drivers and start over, checking the DVD as you go.

 

External DVD Burner

Sparrow,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I will do that. Anyhow yesterday I did remove the ExVD, uninstalled Nero and roxio and also wants to uninstall the Mobile Phone soft too. By the way there was a update for the Firmware and did run the update from the folder where I down loaded to. I am not sure whether update worked. There is one other thing which I am skeptical. Why did the MP took the external DVD's drive letter, when actually the External DVD was assigened a drive letter.

Finally thanks for reading my long explanation.

Let you know the results.

 

Hi deborak

All USB stick/pen drives have issues/trouble detecting available drive letters and become confused with shared network drives, CD and SD drives like a camera or phone etc.

Most people with only a CD/DVD installed never notice this but it shows up when you have multiple network, SD and other USB drives or memory drives as you have with your phone.

About the only drives they can detect accurately are physical Hard drives.

You can move your drives around with Disk Manager but sooner or later they will scramble again and perhaps try to occupy an already used drive letter.

Use the following program to lock your USB drive in place. It will allow you to assign it to a letter to always use and also specify drive letters never to used.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html

Mike

 

External DVD Burner

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I still could not check it. Your advice is greatly appreciated. By the way doesn't the "diskmgmt.msc" do the same thing. You run the diskmgmt form the command promt, and there you see the graphical represantation of each disk drive, whether it is a Hard, CD/DVD or a flash. Form there you can change the drive letter, isn't it so? I did this and now I have assigned V:/ to the mobile phone. MP works fine and I can transfer music files without any problem. After that the External DVD is given as F:/ but nothing is happening, It won't read a data disk nor a audio disk. Somewhere in the corner of my mind says that the win registry has to do something or the device driver has got corrupted? What is your opinion in this regard.

Deborak

 

Reread carefully my last post!

Yes diskmgmt does this, but USB devices can loose this in some cases when they are removed and then put back later.

This is what happens, there is something else using drive F: already, it is taking the same drive letter and therefore can not work!

Try this!

In the System tray on bottom right. Click Unplug or eject hardware. Then disconnect and then unplug all USB memory devices then reboot your computer.

Now connect the USB DVD drive and confiem it works now. The drive may now be F: or something else.

The USBDLM is the answer. Use it to lock in the drive you choose in diskmgmt.

After this put back your other USB devices you disconnected!

Mike