Audio Central -- "...appears To Be No Disc"

[alisana]

i'm probably repeating another post somewhere in here, but anyways, I have a gateway 504gr with a preinstalled cd/dvd writer, and i've had no problems with it before and suddenly it won't read any blank media. I've already reset the cables/plugs that connect the drives to the motherboard, unistalled and reinstalled the drive, installed the latest updates to roxio easy cd/dvd 6 plat. (after unistalling/reinstalling the program twice), and i'll get all the way to press okay to burn and it'll tell me there's no disc in the drive, although there is. It worked for a brief second last night, but it would only burn the table of contents, and then freeze. Now, it's right back to "there appears to be no disc." The drive reads DVDs just fine, but not any audio cd's. Could this be a roxio software problem or does it sound like hardware issue and should I just get a new drive (i've already updated the firmware too and that doesn't help)? any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lynn98109]

Did this happen when you started using a different kind of blank media, or a new package of the same kind of media? Most of the companies that sell media these days contract it out to the handful of factories that still actually manufacture it, so it is possible you have a mis-match between the drive and the media, or simply a bad batch. If this is the problem, try some different brands - get just one or two discs for experimenting before you buy a large quantity.

 

Lynn

[ogdens]

i'm probably repeating another post somewhere in here, but anyways, I have a gateway 504gr with a preinstalled cd/dvd writer, and i've had no problems with it before and suddenly it won't read any blank media. I've already reset the cables/plugs that connect the drives to the motherboard, unistalled and reinstalled the drive, installed the latest updates to roxio easy cd/dvd 6 plat. (after unistalling/reinstalling the program twice), and i'll get all the way to press okay to burn and it'll tell me there's no disc in the drive, although there is. It worked for a brief second last night, but it would only burn the table of contents, and then freeze. Now, it's right back to "there appears to be no disc." The drive reads DVDs just fine, but not any audio cd's. Could this be a roxio software problem or does it sound like hardware issue and should I just get a new drive (i've already updated the firmware too and that doesn't help)? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

If it does not play a Audio cd, it would appear your burner may be on its last legs.

[alisana]

MY BURNER ON ITS LAST LEGS?! I JUST BOUGHT THE COMPUTER FEB 2005! I'VE TRIED SONY AND MEMOREX CD-R'S AND I TRIED ABOUT 5 DIFFERENT CD-RS FROM EACH SPINDLE -- ALL WITH THE SAME PROBLEM. IF I LEAVE THE CD-R IN THE DRIVE, THE ENTIRE COMPUTER FREEZES AND ONLY GOES BACK TO NORMAL ONCE I TAKE IT OUT.

 

WELL THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP ANYWAYS!

[lynn98109]

If I might be so bold -

 

Which program within the suite are you trying to use?

 

If it is one of the reliable ones, that is, other than Drag2Disc (which is a Packet-Writing program), have you made the mistake of first formatting the disc with Drag2Disc?

 

What is the id string of your burner? Just a couple days ago someone with a different Version reported being unable to burn CDs, and it turned out that by changing the CD/DVD drive, they had only a CD-ROM and a CD/DVD-ROM drive - no burners.

 

For how to get the info on the id string, refer to FREQUENT ANSWERS, pinned to the top of hte board.

 

And yes, drives can die.

 

Lynn

[alisana]

If I might be so bold -

 

Which program within the suite are you trying to use?

 

If it is one of the reliable ones, that is, other than Drag2Disc (which is a Packet-Writing program), have you made the mistake of first formatting the disc with Drag2Disc?

 

What is the id string of your burner? Just a couple days ago someone with a different Version reported being unable to burn CDs, and it turned out that by changing the CD/DVD drive, they had only a CD-ROM and a CD/DVD-ROM drive - no burners.

 

For how to get the info on the id string, refer to FREQUENT ANSWERS, pinned to the top of hte board.

 

And yes, drives can die.

 

Lynn

 

*whew* okay, so here's the id -- TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552B

is that the id or is it the really long one? the firmware on it is up to date and i've burned A LOT of cd's and dvd's using the drive without ANY problems. This problem i've had started about 2 weeks ago, and i haven't downloaded any programs and i do a virus scan every night and always comes out clear.

 

I've also run the Roxio Assistant numerous times and I get the same message.

 

First, it says:

 

"Driver information for your recorder could not be detected. To ensure your recorder works optimally with Easy CD Creator, we recommend downloading this information from the ROxio website"

 

To which I press okay, and i get the response:

 

"download failed due to an internet service interruption. Please try again later"

 

I'm not sure whose internet its referring to -- connection from my end isn't bad at all. Okay so that window leads me to:

 

"Roxio Assistant ran successfully. Ret Code: UDDM"

 

i really don't see how it ran successfully. I've already contacted gateway and they tell me I need a new drive *booooooooo!!* but i don't trust email techs.

 

 

Oh and i NEVER use drag-to-disc, mainly because i find it annoying. I use only the Audio Central program.

[Brendon]

Alisana,

 

Hi, The ID you have, "TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552B" seems right, and is what I'd expect for that drive. It's a Samsung DL recorder.

 

You say it will read DVDs okay, but fairly recently is failing to recognise blank CDs. You also mention it won't read audio CDs, which I understand refers to pressed (not burned) silver commercial pre-recorded discs.

 

If this is the situation, I'm afraid you DO have a hardware problem with the drive. More specifically with the CD reader assembly I think.

 

If I can explain briefly there are TWO optical systems in a CD/DVD writer, one for CDs and a finer one for DVDs. It is possible for one to fail while the other stays working, and your DVD system still seems to be working while the CD side has failed. The two optical systems share a bunch of electronics. Since the electronics are still working for DVDs, it's likely your problem is in the CD optical system or pickup, not the electronics.

 

When you put a disc in the drive a command is sent to the drive to spin up to speed and read/identify the disc and then report back what it finds. If the reader has failed, your entire system can be locked up waiting for the report from the drive - which never comes. You have to restart the system to regain control of it. The symptoms you've reported seem to fit.

 

If the failure is a broken or loose connection it is possible for the assembly to work for a short period at irregular intervals. In a case like that it's quite possible for you to write a table of contents before the connection goes adrift again.

 

If your drive is still under warranty you should return it to Gateway for a warranty replacement. If it has just come out of warranty (I'd have to raise my hat to the Gateway people - how do they time their warranties so tightly!!) you will need to buy a new drive if you want to continue. I'm sorry.

[alisana]

HEY THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP ON THIS -- AND YUP, MY GATEWAY WARRANTY RAN OUT...THANK GOD I GOT THREE-YEAR PARTS AND LABOR COVERAGE UNDER BEST BUY. U ALL WERE VERY HELPFUL AND WITH WAY MORE EXPLANATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS THAN GATEWAY EMAIL TECHS. THANKS AGAIN!