Lite on LTR-52327s Driver Trouble

Hi. I'm new here and read the posting rules. I looked around the forum and then searched on my topic. I did not see anything so I'm now posting my first question. I'll try to give as much detail as I can on my problem.

I have a LITE ON LTR-52327s CD/CD-R drive in my home computer. In the past two months, I have updated the drivers on it because every time I put a cd in to record some information, it wouldn't read the disk. The first time I updated the driver, it worked for a few days backing up and reading cd's. The second time, last weekend, it hasn't seemed to work. The drive title sometimes says it's a CD-R drive, sometimes it says it's a CD-RW drive. I went to burn a cd via Windows cd burning ability and it went through the whole process. After windows ejected the cd, I put the cd back in to check it. The drive that was called "CD Drive (D" became "CD-RW Drive (D" even though the cd was the CD-R I had just burned info onto. I ejected the cd again and put it back in just to make sure it wouldn't open it for me to verify the contents. This time, the drive started out acting like it was going to open the disk but instead, not only did the drive name remain "CD Drive (D ", it just stopped moving after what sounded like a couple of times, it trying to open and read the cd.

I really need to be able to use this drive as it's my only back up currently for my photography. I thought I was pretty computer savvy but this is one issue that continues to come up with my computer. It always seems to do with the cd-rw drive. Below is a list of information on the driver files that are currently installed for this drive and I am running Windows XP Pro. I hope this information is helpful and I hope I can learn something from everyone here that will keep this from happening over and over again. I don't get why something that seems so small is giving me such a time.

CD Drive: LITE ON LTR-52327s
Driver Version: 5.1.2535.0 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

My driver files are located in the directory: C:/WINDOWS/system32/DRIVERS and have the following names:

1. cdrom.sys
2. impai.sys
3. InCDPass.sys
4. incdrm.sys
5. PxHelp20.sys
6. redbook.sys

There is one other driver that is located in the directory: C:/WINDOWS/system32 but is called:

7. storprop.dll

Driver Provider: Microsoft Corporation
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Publisher

Also, when I looked at the drive properties, even when there wasn't a CD in the drive, it showed a completely filled drive.

I also tried to run the "driver update" in the properties but like always, it never found a new one. I was wondering, in addition to my driver issue question, how come the Hardware Update option never looks online for updated drivers? I don't understand what the point of having it is if it doesn't do that. I mean, I don't see why it would think a new driver would be located on a floppy (which is where it always looks first) or on my computer.

WOW...this is so long for my first post. I apologize. I wanted to make sure I posted evertything that I had tried and everything that I was having trouble with.

 

Try uninstalling (Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs) Ahead Nero and InCD. Test it like that (reboot several times and use the Windows CD burning utility in between).

Reinstall Nero if you use it, but don't reinstall InCD if you don't need it (it is a program for running a CD-RW disk the same way as a floppy disk).

I would expect that you have an old version of Ahead (Nero and InCD) installed. Go to the Ahead website and see if you can update your version. If you have an OEM version of Nero and InCD installed, it only works with the burner you have, try to find any updates for your version.

Check at the Ahead website for FAQs that sound similar to your problem.

PxHelp20.sys is a Sonic file (another burning program).

I would suggest that you have a lot of different burning programs installed (Windows burner is based on the Roxio/Adaptec program).

You can "reset" the drivers by uninstalling the IDE controller. If there seems to be any problem when it reinstalls at reboot, find updated chipset drivers.

Problems with optical drives are usually caused by burning software.

Matt

 

Thanks Matt. Some of what you said towards the end seems a bit over my head but for now, I'm going to check and see if I can find the Nero and the InCD and take them off. Then I'll do the reinstall for Nero because I do use it and it works well for me. It just seems like one day, it's working fine and then all of a sudden it starts acting (prepare for very technical term) "retarded ". I've had a HUGE time trying to find an updated driver for it and going to LITE-ON's website is no help because when I click on the .zip file for the driver to download to my computer...it kicks me right back to the home page. I just wonder why it's so difficult to find other sites that offer the same drivers.

I did check at the Ahead web site and tried to get an updated (not upgraded to another version) which is a free update but I could only find updates for versions 6 & 7. I think my version is 5.5....(it has other numbers too but I don't have the cd where I am right now). They say you can do free updates to the software but you can't upgrade for free. Which makes sense. I'm just not buying more software to burn cd's that aren't dependable. Until I decide a new method, I am stuck with burning cd's. I'd love for my drive to be a bit more dependable in the mean time.

Maybe my best bet would be to dump the cd-rw drive, install a dvd w/ litescribe and then purchase an external Seagate hard drive. The more I think about the better this option sounds.

***edit for a revision***

I am now home and have uninstalled both Nero and InCD. I put a photo cd in that has a bunch of TIFF files on it and the drive started up like it was going to do something and then it stopped and the green light just blinked about every second steady until I finally took the cd out. The drive is still listed as "CD-RW Drive (D: )" Is that correct? I burned with Windows burning utility before I started all of this and it went through the process fine. It's when I put the cd back in that it just spins for a few seconds and then stops. This is getting more frustrating to me. I've always been able to fix things like this that just appear to be simple problems. It's not working so well right now......Grrr.

 

Here are the updates for older versions of Nero:
http://www.nero.com/nero6/eng/nero-up_vor.php

I spent many hours working on similar problems to yours in Nero 5.5 and earlier, later versions seem to work OK. Once the system was so bad I reformatted, but I read further and found out about ASPI layer drivers, I have success several times reinstalling those.

I don't think you will find actual drivers for the LiteOn, from my reading, optical drives run off those (Windows) ASPI layer drivers...so, for example, you could get any CD writer, connect it to a Win XP computer without loading drivers, software or anything else and you can burn CDs. Windows has it's own burning software. If you put an old version of Nero into the mix, that's when it is possible to have problems. Even if you uninstall Nero, the ASPI layer drivers may have already been corrupted.

What are your options?
I don't believe looking for drivers for the LiteOn will get you anywhere.

Another reset I thought of was to switch the configuration of the LiteOn to another position. So if it is set as master on the secondary IDE controller, set it as slave.

Nero 5.5 is old now and I might think that it may have trouble competing with newer versions of burning software (I haven't had apparent driver problems using version 6 or 7).

I have had success uninstalling an old version of Nero and using free versions of burning software (although they do individual tasks and are not a "burning suite" like Nero).

A new drive and updated software may fix the problem. I would do all in my power to uninstall all previous burning software before installing any new burning program though (particularly Nero 5.5, because it is not up-to-date). You can look at reinstalling the ASPI drivers...or let me know and I will point you to them. It depends on how much you want to "work backwards"

Matt

 

Oh man...you're like 'smart'. Thank you so much for trying to help me out on this too. I've tried everything I know to do...and some you have suggested for me to do. Just not the scary sounding stuff.

Can you tell me a little more about switching the configuration and ASPI drivers and what is entailed in reinstalling them?

I did uninstall Nero again after reinstalling it with no success last night. The drive, of course, still doesn't read my disks. It will read my husbands game disks but none of the back up photo disks (psd, jpeg, tiff & RAW files) I've put in the drive can be read.

If I go buy Nero 6...can I just install it and expect my drive to start working again? I just hoep to NOT have reload my whole computer so if there's a way to fix it without having to do that and you can possibly guide me through I would be sooooo thankful!!!!

 

The intermittent nature of your problem is something I haven't really come across before. One thing that can cause problems is using newer media in older drives, older drives cannot always read them, although you say updated the drivers, but I think would have been a firmware update, which should allow more modern media to be read, again, it will only be from the time the firmware update was produced. Just be careful that it isn't a problem reading the media (as you probably have seen, some burning media are not just silver, they might be green or blue, etc. and they are also speed rated [like 52X]).

You say it changes from being listed as CD-R to CD-RW. That seems a little strange. If it was between reboots, I might think the computer was miscommunicating with it at startup.

I would check the scary stuff first The data cable into the back of the drive should be pulled out and reseated. The other end of the cable at the motherboard should be reseated as well. It may actually be a problem with the cable.
Here some instructions for installing the drives:
http://www.smartcomputing.com/Edito...cle=articles/2004/w1510/08w02/08w02.asp&guid=
http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Cd-Rom-or-Dvd-Drive
There are 4 locations in a standard IDE setup.
Master on the primary controller (this will be where the main hard drive is located)
Slave on the primary controller.
Master on the secondary controller.
Slave on the secondary controller.
If the drive is now located/jumpered as master on the secondary controller, try setting it as slave on the secondary controller and you could try as slave on the primary controller. [Edit: Something that those instructions may not mention is that all the "poking around" inside may dislodge other cables, so just check they all firmly in place before restarting.]

Test that.
No change, here is the information about ASPI:
http://aspi.radified.com/
If you do the "dump ASPI" then your current drivers are backed up.
Something I found that is not mentioned there, is that after I ran Force ASPI, I needed to go to Device Manager, right-click on the CD-RW drive, then select Uninstall. It then worked perfectly after I rebooted.

Somehow, I knew you had an old version of Nero installed. When you said version 5.5 it would be my main suspect.
BTW, did you try the update for version 5.5?
There should be a trial of Nero Express version 7 at their website. Uninstall version 5.5 before you install the trial version though. That should pretty much tell you how it would run buying the full version.

I don't suppose you use all the different options in Nero. Have a look through the programs here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html
I have found some really good free programs there and when I installed one for my daughter when her burner was having problems, she loved it so much she said to not bother installing Nero again.

Matt
Smart...mmm...I like battles involving hardware though

 

man, I think I'm going to need to get a notebook and print all this smart sounding "techie" stuff in it so I can try some of it. I'm going to try the ASPI thing but before I do that...I read a couple different places about the ASPI stuff and a few many people said they had computer problems after using the Adaptec one. I read on the ForceASPI one too and that one didn't seem to have many bad comments. What exactly am I going to be changing when I do this ASPI updating? Is it just going to be related to my cd drivers or could it cause my 'puter to crash in the process? I have stuff on my computer that i hope to be able to get off before anything worse happens but I haven't purchased my external drive yet. Once I do get that thing...I don't think I'll ever use cd's except to burn photo cd's for clients. I'll still have to fix it then or just buy a new one. As cheap as they are...it might be much less of a headache to just go buy one and try to install it. I may be PM'ing you if I do that because I'll be TERRIFIED! LOL!

 

I came home this afternoon and read about ASPI drivers until my eyeballs are about to pop out of their head. I went to Nero after finding a link to get Nero's ASPI file and I replaced the current one with it and restarted. It of course didn't work. It couldn't ever be something that simple right? I'm thinking...I saw a nice Sony internal CD-R/DVD Rom for like $32.00. I'm thinking about that as I get more frustrated. I'm going to download the trial of Nero and see if that does anything. If not...how hard is taking this drive out and installing a new one? Do I have to do any DOS stuff or will windows recognize it after I've plugged it in while it's off and then turn it on?

I am so laughing at myself. I can't believe I'm having so much trouble with a stinkin' cd drive. I would understand if it was doing something like changing windows registry or trying to change the whole motherboard and stuff. Why the cd drive? LOL!!!!

Also, can I post a jpeg here of the screen shot when I did the ASPI check offered by adaptec? if not, can i host a screenshot on my own page and put a link to it in this thread? I want to see if anyone knows what the report means. It says "not installed" on all four of what I assume are the ASPI drivers.

 

"Not installed" can be expected, the Radified information says they may not be, but installing them can overcome the problem (it doesn't look like it did though).

Consider a new drive, you may go through this exercise and find that the drive was failing anyway. Consider a DVD burner, it will do all your CD burning as well and they are getting very cheap now.

No, no "stuff ". Everything should be automatic. Just make sure the Nero 5.5 was uninstalled before you shut down. I might just cross my fingers though, in the hope that Windows itself is functioning correctly.

If you decide on a new drive, you can look up the manual on the manufacturer's website and read through it. You could use that and the information in the Smartcomputing webpage to have a look inside the case and see where everything is (familiarise yourself). When the drive arrives, you can be a little more confident.
[If you are going to replace the old drive with the new one, it should be easy. Disconnect the cables to the old drive, unbolt it and take it out. Look at the jumper settings on the back of the old drive and set the jumper on the new drive the same way, MA, SL or CS, position it, bolt it up and connect the cables. Make sure the cables are well seated.] I suppose if you are still hesitant, if you know somebody that has done it before, take it around to them and they can show you, 5 - 10 minutes is all it will take, then you will be able to change all your future drives yourself.

Matt
PS MS's troubleshooter if you have not seen it. It may have something you have not considered:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314096

 

Thank you Matt for all of your advice and assistance. I'm going to look around for a dvd/cd-r drive and I may ask your advice on whether it's a decent drive or not. I found some on Best Buy but do you have anyone else that you would recommend me to? How much do I have to know about my motherboard to pick out a drive or are they all pretty much universal? I was looking at THIS one. Should I go look on TigerDirect or NewEgg for this drive instead?

*** Edit to add..

THIS one is pretty cool looking. Plus, I do photo cd's and it would be great to be able to put an image hologram on the top of the cd's for client photo cd's.

 

I always see good reports about Newegg. You should be able to return it if you are not satisfied.

That drive looks good, but only gets a 57% top rating. Drives with Nero and Lightscribe with a higher rating cost more.

The Lightscribe take a while to run, so don't expect rush jobs, also the lightscribe doesn't seem to be linked into Nero, you need to do it manually.

Read some of the reviews, but it up to you to find the one you want for what you want to pay.

As I mentioned, Newegg will probably take it back no questions asked.

If you pay more you may get more for your money, but as you know, price does not always indicate quality.

Matt

 

Okay..I gave up on the drive...and will never buy another LITE-ON brand one again.

This is what I'm replacing it with....

HERE

I was deciding between this Sony drive or a Samsung DVD with Lightscribe but the consumer reviews on Lightscribe were not very good. The two complaints that I kept running into were 1.) the drive doesn't come with software to work the lightscribe and 2.) the lightscribe is very light on the disk and hard to see. So...I figured, I'll get this...then get a box of cd labels (if I ever have a need for them) and just make them myself...when I recover from this purchase and can buy that nice Canon printer.

After I bought that drive, I decided to be double safe and got one of these too....

HERE

This has come down about $50 in price since I was looking at is 8 months ago. I've read a lot about Seagate and Western Digital and they seem to get pretty good consumer reviews. I can start taking more pictures....with a better piece of mind. I'm not to excited about installing the internal drive but I figure if I can install a hard drive, which I've done before, then I should be able to handle this. I did take my 'puter apart and unhooked the current one to make sure I could do it before I ordered the Sony. My computer came back on so I guess I did it right. Hardy har har!!!

 

You are doing some good investigation

I don't want to side-track you again, but maybe check into the software that comes with that Sony drive. It was just that I was looking at the review on that page, it talked about the software being "trial ". Note that you don't get Nero, it's a different burning program. This appears to be the software:
http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/downloads/dru120a/DRx120x_SOFTQSG.pdf
it's a pdf download.

Matt

 

Not all things last forever but I would take exception with your posture towards Lite-On. Yes, I've had Lite-On drives fail, but overall, I'd classify their CDRW and DVDRW drives as among the most reliably consistant drives available at any price and will continue to recommend them. I'm sorry to learn that your experience has not been favorable and am hopeful you have better success with whatever you decide upon.

 

I won't disagree with Rockster. I've had several LiteOns and I think my first LiteOn burner is still running in my sister's computer, but of the many I have installed for my family and friends, one or two have failed.

You will get failures in all brands (correct me if I'm wrong ). LiteOn appear to be a midrange brand. I do believe they offer good value for money and the one or two that only lasted several years will not put me off recommending them in the future.

If the LiteOn was purchased "pre-DVD" (before DVD readers), I think you may have had quite a good service life from it. LiteOn (from what I see) specialize quite a lot in optical drives, maybe more than some of the other brands.

Matt
Test : put the LiteOn into another computer and see how it perfoms there. As my probing was trying to discover, it may not be the drive, as the "enviroment ".