Burning me up!

October 28, 2005 8:57 PM

Help make my DVD burner burn.

I have a laptop, (generic), that I purchased just over a year ago and haven't been able to burn DVD's with Nero. The drive is an DVD+RW RW8165 and it seems I'm not alone. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find answers.

I am running Windows XP SP2 with 512 RAM. Nero version 6.6.0.16b. The log file is here and the error is Illegal Disc. I am using actual Maxell discs purchased in the States, (I am in China), as well as some SanTeC discs purchased here.

I've considered switching applications but have had no luck with Alcohol 120%. The log file lists SCSIVAX DVD/CD-ROM that is a virtual drive that was added by Alcohol 120%.

The drive works great for burning CD's but I'd really like to be able to perform larger backups.

posted by geekyguy to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

This (Comments by woosa halfway down) suggests that only certain media will work. I assume that since the drive is made by Ricoh, RiData discs should work as well since they are made by Ricoh. It appears the Sony discs woosa mentions were also made by Ricoh. Try finding 4x discs specifically, or look for some indication they were made by Ricoh.
posted by Yorrick at 10:11 PM on October 28, 2005

Sorry if this is too obvious: are your Maxell discs DVD+R or DVD-R?

RiData are excellent discs, I've gone through 250+ of them and haven't burnt a lemon, yet.

Note: many standalone DVD players will choke on DVD+R discs while most standalones will read DVD-Rs.

Alcohol will make a virtual drive, but you can still use it to burn data to the physical drive. Copying/"burning" data to the virtual drive = your software will think that the virtual drive is an actual physical drive.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 12:35 PM on October 29, 2005

Response by poster: The Maxell discs are DVD+R as are the SanTeC.

I currently live in a fairly remote location in China and can't buy any DVD blanks here. My next trip to Chengdu I'll look around for alternative discs.

The DVD+RW RW8165 is an internal drive.

If I try to copy or place anything on the virtual drive it complains that there is no media. When using the Alcohol 120% Image Making Wizard the [Next] button never becomes available.
posted by geekyguy at 4:36 PM on October 29, 2005

That's really wierd. It could be a driver issue.

Download DVD Decrypter (it's free - as in both speech and beer).

Place an empty (or anything, really) disc into the drive, load up Decryptor.

The right hand panel should give you info about the disc. If nothing shows up, I'd hazard that it may be a driver issue. This will also allow you to confirm that your drive, indeed, has writing capability.

I'm assuming that the drive functions normally, just not burning?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 4:53 PM on October 29, 2005

Response by poster: It functions normally in all ways except burning DVD's. I can watch DVD's, I can write to CD's. I can burn to the cheapo Chinese CD's with the cartoon cat or mouse on them. Y'know, the good ones.

DVD Decrypter shows nothing on the right if the DVD is empty but as soon as I put a movie in it shows the appropriate .vob, .bup and .ifo files.

The laptop has been rebuilt in the last two months with no change in the DVD writing capabilities.
posted by geekyguy at 5:46 PM on October 29, 2005

Some DVD writers require a certain amount of speed & RAM.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:26 AM on October 30, 2005

What happens when you put a blank DVD into the drive - if Decrypter shows disc information (and empty status - if not, then you might have a bum batch of blank DVDs), then there might be something physically wrong with the burner rather than a software/driver issue.

Oh, I just looked at your log file. That's really wierd.

I googled the Sense Key: 0x05 (KEY_ILLEGAL_REQUEST) error from your log. It's looking increasingly likely that you either got a bad batch of media or your burner is finicky with this particular manufacturer.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 10:11 AM on October 30, 2005

The only other thing that I can think of is to update the firmware for your drive - Decryptor should be able to tell you which manufacturer and model number your burner is and you can google that + firmware update download.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 10:21 AM on October 30, 2005

Response by poster: I think I am left with what Yorrick suggests and am unfortunately unable to buy the proper media in China. At least not yet, I'm still looking.

Thanks to everyone who answered especially PurplePorpoise for all of your efforts. Even with the correct tool I haven't been able to update the firmware so that remains a possibility.
posted by geekyguy at 3:03 AM on December 1, 2005