Resolved DVD Drive won't burn CD's

Hi all,

I'm having the devil's own time trying to dope out what the problem is.

I have a Pioneer DVD-RW\CD-RW drive: DVR-108 (DVR-A08XLC1). I can play any and all DVD's and CD's; I can write\burn anything to a DVD. However, I can't write\burn anything to a CD.

I've tried different disks (Memorex, Verbatim, Fuji) and I keep getting errors from the 4 different burners I've tried saying there's something wrong with the disk. Even when I do drag-'n-drop from within Explorer, I get an error message.

Any ideas as to why this thing will do everything under the sun except write a CD?

p.s. I just tried a CD-RW disk and it worked. Now I know the problem is with writing CD-R disks. I still need help doping this out.

 

This is a long shot, but has worked before.

If your winXP check your registry under: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

if there is a string labeled either UpperFilters or LowerFilters. If either of these mention "PxHelp20.sys" remove it. You should see results almost instantly.
Another way to look for this is to go into device manager and look at the properties for the drive in question. In the driver tab see if that file is mentioned.

If you have vista it might be the same, but if not try running a search in your registry for this file.

 

@Pete,

There's no problem with the health of the drive. I've burned CDs on a Memorex drive and the Pioneer had no trouble reading\playing them. And, I've got 2 computers (one's still brand new) and the drive works\write\reads in both. Except, of course, with CD-R disks. As far as all the burners I've got, I always test\try everything on my "BreakMe" drive first.

@Hawk,

There's no Upper or Lower filters for the drive; nor is there the "pxhelp20.sys" anywhere in the registry or anywhere else on my system.

The problem is limited to CD-R disks, only. I'll call tech support Monday and find out why it won't do CD-r's — even though it says on the box it will.

Thanks for the input, though.

 

OK, I found out what the problem is: There's a "calibration error" with the drive.

Pioneer will do nothing about it and there's no service center. The only option I have is to send the unit back to them, along with a check for $70 to diagnose the problem and who knows how much more to fix it (although I suspect they'll just put new guts in it).

Or, for less than $50, buy a new burner — which doesn't sit well with me at all — or ditch the 100+ CD-R disks I have and use only CD-RW disks: which also doesn't sit well because I can buy a stack of 100 CD-R disks for less than a spindle of 25 CD-RW disks.

What to do, what to do?

 

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the info — definitely worth looking into.

Now, since you own the drive, are you able to burn DVD-R; DVD-RW; CD-R and CD-RW disks? The specs says it does, but I've learned that that ain't necessarily so.

 

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the confirmation: And, please, don't do the RW thing. The specs of the drive say it will and I just needed to know for certain.

As far as the "+\-" goes, I was too lazy to add all the "+\-" info to my post. As I said, I'm only interested in CD-R disks because I've got a ton of them.

Thanks, again, Pete.