EMC8 burns CDs but not DVDs! Please help me!

[MadSammyboy]

Hello! I'm trying to copy a (non-protected) DVD, but every time I put in a blank DVD-R or DVD+R (my drive is supposed to read either), it pops back out and I'm told to insert a DVD... like it's not recognizing it. I went through 5 DVDs (from two different manufacturers) that SHOULD be compatible with my drive. Finally, I burned an audio CD to see if it was the drive itself, and that worked fine. Any suggestions or guidance will be MUCH appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[grandpabruce]

Hello! I'm trying to copy a (non-protected) DVD, but every time I put in a blank DVD-R or DVD+R (my drive is supposed to read either), it pops back out and I'm told to insert a DVD... like it's not recognizing it. I went through 5 DVDs (from two different manufacturers) that SHOULD be compatible with my drive. Finally, I burned an audio CD to see if it was the drive itself, and that worked fine. Any suggestions or guidance will be MUCH appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

 

The first thing to do is update the firmware for your burner. You get that from the manufacturer's website.

[MadSammyboy]

Well, I went to the Optiarc website (the drive is an Optiarc AD-5540A), and couldn't find firmware on it anywhere. I found firmware for this drive here (http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/Optiarc-AD-5540A/) but should I trust it? And will it make a difference? Thanks in advance for your help, my friend...

[grandpabruce]

Well, I went to the Optiarc website (the drive is an Optiarc AD-5540A), and couldn't find firmware on it anywhere. I found firmware for this drive here (http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/Optiarc-AD-5540A/) but should I trust it? And will it make a difference? Thanks in advance for your help, my friend...

 

It might, but I have never heard of that burner. What country are you in, and where did you get that burner?

[gi7omy]

Check this website for details on how to obtain support for the Optiarc drives

 

http://support.necam.com/Optical/

[MadSammyboy]

It might, but I have never heard of that burner. What country are you in, and where did you get that burner?

 

In the US. The drive came on my new Dell XPS1210.

 

Check this website for details on how to obtain support for the Optiarc drives

 

http://support.necam.com/Optical/

 

I'm going to email them now. Thanks! I'll update as soon as I get something back from them.

[rich86]

In the US. The drive came on my new Dell XPS1210.

I'm going to email them now. Thanks! I'll update as soon as I get something back from them.

 

If Dell doesn't resolve your problem for you and you come back in here - please tell us exactly the steps you took to try to burn a dvd.

I'm assuming you are using EMC8 - and are in the Disc Copier section of the program suite?

Did you select your 5540 drive as both the source and destination drives?

What exactly is the source dvd you inserted into the 5540 and were trying to copy?

Did the source box correctly describe the dvd you put in the drive? (click advanced in the lower left if you haven't already)

Is it a copy of something? What media is it (a commercially pressed dvd-rom, a dvd+r, a dvd-r? a rw?)

When you click copy - does it read the entire contents of your source dvd and then ask for a blank?

What if you tell it to create an image file as the destination - does that work correctly?

In this way we can help you determine if somehow the steps you are following are part of the problem.

[MadSammyboy]

If Dell doesn't resolve your problem for you and you come back in here - please tell us exactly the steps you took to try to burn a dvd.

I'm assuming you are using EMC8 - and are in the Disc Copier section of the program suite?

Did you select your 5540 drive as both the source and destination drives?

What exactly is the source dvd you inserted into the 5540 and were trying to copy?

Did the source box correctly describe the dvd you put in the drive? (click advanced in the lower left if you haven't already)

Is it a copy of something? What media is it (a commercially pressed dvd-rom, a dvd+r, a dvd-r? a rw?)

When you click copy - does it read the entire contents of your source dvd and then ask for a blank?

What if you tell it to create an image file as the destination - does that work correctly?

In this way we can help you determine if somehow the steps you are following are part of the problem.

 

Okay, I was able to correspond via email with someone from NEC or Sony who does tech support for the Optiarc drive. They told me Dell provides firmware updates for these drives since Dell assumes responsibility for them once they install them into their machines. But I knew contacting Dell would be futile, so I decided to just roll the system back to its factory image, since I was having some other seemingly unrelated problems with antivirus software (DO NOT BUY MCAFEE PRODUCTS. EVER.) After doing so, EMC 8 seems to be firing on all cylinders. However, where I was using the 'Copy Disc' option from the Roxio main menu, this time I'm using 'Roxio Disc Copier'. I hope this helps someone. I wish I could identify the original problem, but at any rate, it's resolved now. Thanks to everyone who offered some help!

[gi7omy]

A bit drastic, but at least you have it working.

 

If it's any help here, I use a program called Ashampoo Winoptimizer instead of Norton Systemworks - does the same stuff (but no A/V) and actually does it better than Norton

 

I have a dedicated A/V program that a friend brought me back from the US - Symantec Corporate and that doesn't give me any problems (well apart from flagging an EMC9 patch as a Trojan, but a lot of the A/V programs do that anyway because it's meant to edity a registry entry)