Resolved SATA DVDRW plays CD but no DVD

I have installed a SATA DVDRW and it plays cd music,read data files but no DVD playback or copy. I did install the software that came with it.

Please help

 

Hi mhlato,

What "player" came with the disk?

 

Hallo JP

Lite-On DVDRW LH - 20A1L

 

Is a DVD Player program included on the disk?

I think you only have a burning program.

If there isn't one (DVD Player), there's lots of free players available. Do a quick search on the Google for "free DVD players ".

 

The device is a:
Lite-On DVDRW LH - 20A1L

I make use of Windows Media Player11 to watch DVD'S

 

Download and install this.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm

 

Thanks Mark, i will do that

 

Good morning Mark, i have installed the codecs. Before i go further, this is how my setup looks like now:

Primary IDE = HDD as master and DVDRW IDE 16X as slave
Secondary IDE = Nothing
SATA = Lite-On DVDRW LH-20A1L

In "My Computer" windows detects the slave DVDRW as DVD-RW Drive (E)
and Lite-On as DVD-RAM Drive (H)

Now for the funny part, i insert a dvd disc in the slave drive and it opens and play in WMP11..then insert the same dvd disc in the Lite-On...nothing! Now i assume that the disc is fine but decide to try another dvd disk and what do you know..it opens and play in both drives! Both discs is in UDF/ISO 966 Mode 1 format.

Does this have something to do with the SATA drive beeing detected as a DVD-RAM drive?

 

Yes, you are probably correct.

How does it appear in the bios?

Check on line to see if there are any recent driver updates.

See if it will burn a disc, if it refuses then there may be a problem with the driver installation. Does your software disc include drivers for Windows XP, XP does not have any SATA drivers so these would have to be installed manually.

This is the place for your disc player driver.

http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=75

Just select Optical Storage in Category and select your model number in the drop down menu, on the download page there are instructions available by clicking on the link. Click on download and then save.

Uninstall the existing driver using Device Manager>right click on the device>select properties>driver tab>click uninstall, before installing the new driver.

Not sure about those discs you tried, see what a new driver installation does and go from there.

 

Hi Mark, thank's for the link, i have downloaded and install the XFLASH (it's a firmware upgrade) but nothing has change. I then bought a second SATA Lite-On, remove the slave DVDRW from the primary IDE and replaced it with my 2nd HDD.

Now the setup is:
SATA channel 1 = Atapi IHAS324 B
SATA channel 2 = Lite-On DVDRW LH-20A1L

Channel 1 does everything using Nero 8, play, copy, burn, save to HDD (dvd's and cd's)
Channel 2 acts just as a CDRW, if you insert a dvd disc nothing happens! I have swapped the devices around, same result.

So, i don't know if it is possible but it appears that my motherboard is not going to allow two DVDRW's. Like the secondary IDE channel, one master the other one slave??

A final comment from you would be appreciated?

 

As you now have two identical drives these should show up exactly the same in the bios so something is not quite right. How do they appear in Device Manager.

Did you install the firmware upgrade for both drives?

 

Mark, after reading your post last night when i tried to shut down to get into
BIOS something went wrong.

When i clicked on start the pc locked up and after about 30 sec the mouse came alive and when i moved it to shut down the same thing happened. When i managed to click on shut down it took about 10 minutes.

I waited a couple of minutes before starting again and then noticed that BIOS did not detect SATA channel 1. After pressing del it took a while to get into BIOS and it only detected SATA channel 2.

I shut down, remove SATA 1 cable, restart and everything was fine again. Except for the missing SATA 1 device.

Device manager reads as follows:

Genaral: "¢ Device type = DVD/CD-ROM DRIVES
"¢ Manufacturer = STANDARD CD-ROM DRIVES
"¢ Location = Locatio O [0]

Driver: "¢ Driver Provider = Microsoft
"¢ Driver Date = 7/1/2001
"¢ Driver Version = 5.1.2535.0

I then went into the Lite-On website in search for a driver and according
to them one must use the Windows driver (see below)

http://us.liteonit.com/us/APPS/problems_preview.php?problem_id=215 :

Problem: What driver do I need for my CD-ROM drive?

Solutions
The driver enclosed with the CD-ROM drive, or downloaded from website is for DOS operation ONLY. To operate the CD-ROM drive in a Windows environment, please use the default driver provided by Windows

Maybe i must follow my son's advice "The bigger the problem..the bigger the hammer"

 

Unfortunately this will not work because Window XP does not have any drivers for SATA devices and that is the route of the problem. How you have one of the SATA drives working is a bit of a mystery. Did this PC come preinstalled with the OS?

This is what I have found.

This is an example of a SATA to IDE converter.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139072

 

Hi mhlato,

Do you really need two drives? Your new one covers all aspects of CD\DVD burning, reading, playing, etc.

I have a GearHead SATA DVD\CD and I didn't install any SATA drivers — just plugged it in and it worked perfectly.

Have you tried hooking up the new drive solo?

 

Mark, i have done a clean install on my 2nd HDD about a month ago and is still in the process of installing my programs when i picked up a problem with what seems to be the secondary IDI connectors/controllers. See my thread of about 6 day's ago?

Thus, option 1 is not going to work for me, option 2 is the way i will have to go

Again, thank you for all the help to date Mark.


JP, the new drive that covered everything "awol" last night and yes i have swapped cables and channels around and tried solo!

I suppose your O/S must be Windows 7 then?

 

@mhlato

Chris' FYI OS is XP SP2 (I still wonder why he hasn't went to SP3 go figure)

You may have a rare incompatibility issue with your two drives (your specs show both are lite-on's but not the same model and as far as I know this is a badge and could easily have been made by two different manufacturers). The issue Mark was referring to was SATA drivers (for your board's controller not the optical drives themselves).

My advice would be to test with the bare minimum (1 WD HD drive and 1 DVDR drive) and go from there. It would also be helpful if we knew the model numbers of your 2 HD drives (specs are same but models may also be different).

 

Nope! XP, like you. Also, your original drive, Liteon 24X DVDRW works as it should, but the "new" drive is wonky "” correct?

It's possible the "new" drive is bad; it's not unheard of. In combo drives there's two read\write lasers: One for CD and one for DVD. If one of the lasers is even slightly out of calibration it can cause the drive to work partially or not at all. For example, I have a Pioneer DVD\CD drive that operates flawlessly "” except for writing DVDs.

 

Not quite Chris

 

Picky, picky, picky. It's still XP.

 

Mhlato, this may be a silly question but have you installed the motherboard chip set drivers?

I have discovered since my last post that Windows XP does include a very small number of SATA drivers so in some cases SATA devices will work OK under XP without needing the extra SATA driver installation.

When you are looking at the SATA setup in the bios was there an option for IDE mode (not available on all boards) if so try it out.