Driver problems with a CD burner

September 14, 2004 12:45 PM

My CD burner died, my little buddy in copyright crime refuses to work lately. When I tell it to copy files it comes back with an error message saying that I need a different CD, yet they were all fine two weeks ago prior to installation of the new XP service pack. (More inside)

I have a Dell Dimension 8100, and the device manager claims that it's a NEC NR-7800A burner, which I'm not certain is correct, as the properties calls it a CD/DVD player, which it's not, it's a CD player/burner.

posted by Keith Talent to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I had the exact same problem with what I believe was the exact same burner. The good news is that I was able to get it to work again by scouring the internet fixes (I just kept putting NEC NR-7800A into Google, maybe with some text from the error message, and reading the resulting tech forum hits). The bad news is that I can't remember which tip from which forum actually fixed it.
posted by COBRA! at 1:19 PM on September 14, 2004

("scouring the internet for fixes")
posted by COBRA! at 1:20 PM on September 14, 2004

what burner software do you use? i know SP2 told me that my copy of nero wouldn't work correctly, but nero had a patch available and now it's fine.

might consider trying different burning software anyway, that ought to tell you if it's a software problem or a hardware incompatibility thing.

from what i've seen the burner software that ships with dells by default is crap. try the nero 6 demo, and if it works for you, buy a copy. (or whatever. c'mon, you pirate cds. you know what to do. not that i encourage software piracy. 'cause that's a crime. yeah.)
posted by caution live frogs at 1:46 PM on September 14, 2004

It won't work whether I'm burning music, I tried XP Media Player and Real Audio 10, nor data using XP, so I assume it's not software related, and I've tried various brands of CDr's
posted by Keith Talent at 2:00 PM on September 14, 2004

Unbelieveable.

Taking Cobra'a advice I began to re-scour google for bulletin board postings etc. One unrelated thread asked for where to find the drivers to reinstall, someone responded that XP installs the drivers and to rewrite them uninstall the machine and reboot. I did, and now everything works fine. Why I don't know.

Someone please pie Bill Gates again for me.
posted by Keith Talent at 2:20 PM on September 14, 2004