I had a pair of DVD burners, both of which have stopped writing (they can still read them though). They were IDE drives, and they were connected to each other on the same cable. One of them had started to spew out random errors in the event log, but the other one was fine. Then all of a sudden I noticed that the random errors had stopped. This would've been good if it meant that everything is working again. But after I tried to burn a disk it didn't seem to work in either drive. I tried removing the drive that had previously been shown as giving the errors, but it didn't help, the other drive still won't write either.
Is it possible that one drive could've damaged the other drive by being connected to the same wire as the other? The software I'm using ImgBurn, shows a lot of diagnostics messages, and all it shows when I try to start a burn on the drive is that there is no medium inserted, and the drive is not ready. The drive can detect other types of disks just fine though, just not blank disks.
Yousuf Khan wrote:
> I had a pair of DVD burners, both of which have stopped writing (they
> can still read them though). They were IDE drives, and they were
> connected to each other on the same cable. One of them had started to
> spew out random errors in the event log, but the other one was fine.
> Then all of a sudden I noticed that the random errors had stopped.
> This would've been good if it meant that everything is working again.
> But after I tried to burn a disk it didn't seem to work in either drive. I tried removing the drive that had > previously been shown as giving the errors, but it didn't help, the other drive still won't write either.
> Is it possible that one drive could've damaged the other drive by being connected to the same wire as the other?
Not that so much as prevent the other drive from working properly.
The obvious test for that possibility is to have only one drive on
the cable at a time and see if you still cant burn with either drive.
If you cant, try a new cable.
If that doesnt help either, try a different IDE connector
on the motherboard if there is more than one. From
memory you do run pretty elderly systems, but maybe
that was Ant, not you.
> The software I'm using ImgBurn, shows a lot of diagnostics messages, and all it shows when I try to start a burn on > the drive is that there is no medium inserted,
> and the drive is not ready.
I'd also try burning with something else like Roxio EMC or Nero.
Yousuf Khan <bbb...@spammenot.yahoo.com> wrote:
> I had a pair of DVD burners, both of which have stopped writing (they > can still read them though). They were IDE drives, and they were > connected to each other on the same cable. One of them had started to > spew out random errors in the event log, but the other one was fine. > Then all of a sudden I noticed that the random errors had stopped. This > would've been good if it meant that everything is working again. But > after I tried to burn a disk it didn't seem to work in either drive. I > tried removing the drive that had previously been shown as giving the > errors, but it didn't help, the other drive still won't write either.
> Is it possible that one drive could've damaged the other drive by being > connected to the same wire as the other?
Not really, at least not without killing it completely. IDE
bus buffers are pretty robust.
> The software I'm using ImgBurn, > shows a lot of diagnostics messages, and all it shows when I try to > start a burn on the drive is that there is no medium inserted, and the > drive is not ready. The drive can detect other types of disks just fine > though, just not blank disks.
Have you tried these with a different computer? Also note
that dust and time kills writing-lasers, these may just have reached EOL. This may also be a software problem.
Arno
-- Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: a...@wagner.name
GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
----
Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans
>> I had a pair of DVD burners, both of which have stopped writing (they
>> can still read them though). They were IDE drives, and they were
>> connected to each other on the same cable. One of them had started to
>> spew out random errors in the event log, but the other one was fine.
>> Then all of a sudden I noticed that the random errors had stopped.
>> This would've been good if it meant that everything is working again.
>> But after I tried to burn a disk it didn't seem to work in either drive. I tried removing the drive that had
>> previously been shown as giving the errors, but it didn't help, the other drive still won't write either.
>> Is it possible that one drive could've damaged the other drive by being connected to the same wire as the other?
> Not that so much as prevent the other drive from working properly.
> The obvious test for that possibility is to have only one drive on
> the cable at a time and see if you still cant burn with either drive.
As I said above, I've already removed the troublesome drive. It still made no difference.
> If you cant, try a new cable.
> If that doesnt help either, try a different IDE connector
> on the motherboard if there is more than one. From
> memory you do run pretty elderly systems, but maybe
> that was Ant, not you.
Nope, I'm fairly uptodate on my system. Only had the one IDE channel to work with. I could try another cable, but I'd have to look around for one, not much requirement for IDE cables anymore.
> Have you tried these with a different computer? Also note
> that dust and time kills writing-lasers, these may just have
> reached EOL. This may also be a software problem.
Don't have another desktop to try it with. Could maybe ask a friend to put it on their desktop, maybe.
The two drives are about a year apart in age, but they both went at the exact same time. Can't see them both reaching EOL at the same time.
Yousuf Khan <bbb...@spammenot.yahoo.com> wrote:
> On 07/02/2012 3:41 AM, Arno wrote:
>> Have you tried these with a different computer? Also note
>> that dust and time kills writing-lasers, these may just have
>> reached EOL. This may also be a software problem.
> Don't have another desktop to try it with. Could maybe ask a friend to > put it on their desktop, maybe.
> The two drives are about a year apart in age, but they both went at the > exact same time. Can't see them both reaching EOL at the same time.
If it was exactly the same time, than I agree. Maybe a power spike or
something like it that damaged them both.
I don't think one could have damaged the other. That would require
frying bus-drivers or the like, and these are permanently short-circuit
proof for IDE and something like that would also kill reading.
Arno
-- Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: a...@wagner.name
GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
----
Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans
> Arno wrote
>> Have you tried these with a different computer? Also note
>> that dust and time kills writing-lasers, these may just have
>> reached EOL. This may also be a software problem.
> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
> Could maybe ask a friend to put it on their desktop, maybe.
> The two drives are about a year apart in age, but they both went at the exact same time. Can't see them both reaching > EOL at the same time.
Yeah, much more likely to be a failure with something common to them.
Could very easily be the cable and thats cheap to try.
Could also be something like bad caps or power supply in the PC too.
In theory it could be just that the lense needs cleaning if you are a smoker,
but that wouldnt normally see both drive stop writing that the same time.
> Yousuf Khan <bbb...@spammenot.yahoo.com> wrote
>> I had a pair of DVD burners, both of which have stopped writing (they
>> can still read them though). They were IDE drives, and they were
>> connected to each other on the same cable. One of them had started to
>> spew out random errors in the event log, but the other one was fine.
>> Then all of a sudden I noticed that the random errors had stopped.
>> This would've been good if it meant that everything is working
>> again. But after I tried to burn a disk it didn't seem to work in
>> either drive. I tried removing the drive that had previously been
>> shown as giving the errors, but it didn't help, the other drive
>> still won't write either.
>> Is it possible that one drive could've damaged the other drive by
>> being connected to the same wire as the other? The software I'm
>> using ImgBurn, shows a lot of diagnostics messages, and all it shows
>> when I try to start a burn on the drive is that there is no medium
>> inserted, and the drive is not ready. The drive can detect other
>> types of disks just fine though, just not blank disks.
> CD & DVD burners have a limited life..
You hardly ever see both fail to write simultaneously and still read fine tho.
> Yousuf Khan wrote
>> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
> Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
No, my basic modus operandi is to keep upgrade an existing machine until it's bleeding edge modern again. I do it piece by piece though, disposing of individual pieces as needed.
> In theory it could be just that the lense needs cleaning if you are a smoker,
> but that wouldnt normally see both drive stop writing that the same time.
No, not a smoker, but I did have a friend who used to be, and I know what you mean about things getting cloudy inside. Also if lens that writes gets cloudy, you'd think that the read lens would too. There's not a lot of scenarios where only one function goes, but not the other.
> Rod Speed wrote
>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
>> Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
> No, my basic modus operandi is to keep upgrade an existing machine until it's bleeding edge modern again.
I do too, but with the significant changes in cases and power supplys
and motherboards, I still end up with obsolete machines that can be
used to test something like the problem with CD/DVD drives.
> I do it piece by piece though,
Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.
> disposing of individual pieces as needed.
I dont bother to dispose of them myself. Handy for testing like now in your case.
>> In theory it could be just that the lens needs cleaning if you are a smoker, but that wouldnt normally see both drive >> stop writing that the same time.
> No, not a smoker, but I did have a friend who used to be, and I know what you mean about things getting cloudy inside.
And you can always pick a smokers PC when you open it, the stink alone is enough.
> Also if lens that writes gets cloudy, you'd think that the read lens would too.
They are different lasers, so the write one is usually affected first.
> There's not a lot of scenarios where only one function goes, but not the other.
There is with those, the write laser is quite different to the read one.
But you'd be VERY unlikely to lose the write function
on both drives at the same time even with a smoker.
Bet the problem is the cable or what the cable plugs into at the motherboard end.
> Rod Speed wrote
>> Frank Williams wrote
>>> CD& DVD burners have a limited life..
>> You hardly ever see both fail to write simultaneously and still read fine tho.
> I'd like to know if there's a test utility that sends ATAPI commands the drives and displays their results back?
Likely there is, I just use substitution myself, particularly
with that sort of fault where you lose the write function
on two drives at the same time and not the read fuction
so its unlikely that the problem was that both drives were
over voltaged at the same time by a power supply fault etc.
In article <9pis9lFae...@mid.individual.net>, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
>Yousuf Khan wrote
>> Rod Speed wrote
>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
>>> Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
>> No, my basic modus operandi is to keep upgrade an existing machine until it's
> bleeding edge modern again.
>I do too, but with the significant changes in cases and power supplys
>and motherboards, I still end up with obsolete machines that can be
>used to test something like the problem with CD/DVD drives.
>> I do it piece by piece though,
>Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.
>> disposing of individual pieces as needed.
>I dont bother to dispose of them myself. Handy for testing like now in your
> case.
>>> In theory it could be just that the lens needs cleaning if you are a smoker,
> but that wouldnt normally see both drive >>> stop writing that the same time.
>> No, not a smoker, but I did have a friend who used to be, and I know what you
> mean about things getting cloudy inside.
>And you can always pick a smokers PC when you open it, the stink alone is
> enough.
Usually , i can salvage the drives and stuff, but oh my god, the Power Supply is always the first to go.
> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote
>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>> Rod Speed wrote
>>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>>> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
>>>> Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
>>> No, my basic modus operandi is to keep upgrade an
>>> existing machine until it's bleeding edge modern again.
>> I do too, but with the significant changes in cases and power supplys
>> and motherboards, I still end up with obsolete machines that can be
>> used to test something like the problem with CD/DVD drives.
>>> I do it piece by piece though,
>> Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.
>>> disposing of individual pieces as needed.
>> I dont bother to dispose of them myself. Handy for testing like now in your case.
>>>> In theory it could be just that the lens needs cleaning
>>>> if you are a smoker, but that wouldnt normally see
>>>> both drive stop writing that the same time.
>>> No, not a smoker, but I did have a friend who used to be,
>>> and I know what you mean about things getting cloudy inside.
>> And you can always pick a smokers PC when you open it, the stink alone is enough.
> Usually , i can salvage the drives and stuff, but oh
> my god, the Power Supply is always the first to go.
I buy decent ones in the first place, so dont need to operate like that.
The format does change and the capacity does too over time and the power connectors too.
In article <9pjqh7Fiv...@mid.individual.net>, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
>GMAN wrote
>> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote
>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>> Rod Speed wrote
>>>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>>>> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
>>>>> Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
>>>> No, my basic modus operandi is to keep upgrade an
>>>> existing machine until it's bleeding edge modern again.
>>> I do too, but with the significant changes in cases and power supplys
>>> and motherboards, I still end up with obsolete machines that can be
>>> used to test something like the problem with CD/DVD drives.
>>>> I do it piece by piece though,
>>> Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.
>>>> disposing of individual pieces as needed.
>>> I dont bother to dispose of them myself. Handy for testing like now in your
> case.
>>>>> In theory it could be just that the lens needs cleaning
>>>>> if you are a smoker, but that wouldnt normally see
>>>>> both drive stop writing that the same time.
>>>> No, not a smoker, but I did have a friend who used to be,
>>>> and I know what you mean about things getting cloudy inside.
>>> And you can always pick a smokers PC when you open it, the stink alone is
> enough.
>> Usually , i can salvage the drives and stuff, but oh
>> my god, the Power Supply is always the first to go.
>I buy decent ones in the first place, so dont need to operate like that.
>The format does change and the capacity does too over time and the power
> connectors too.
>And I keep a spare on hand too.
No, i meant when i work on someone elses PC to repair , i usually cant stand working on it with their power supply attached. I usually hook one up temporarily while i repair their pc.
> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote
>> GMAN wrote
>>> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote
>>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>>> Rod Speed wrote
>>>>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>>>>> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
>>>>>> Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
>>>>> No, my basic modus operandi is to keep upgrade an
>>>>> existing machine until it's bleeding edge modern again.
>>>> I do too, but with the significant changes in cases and power supplys
>>>> and motherboards, I still end up with obsolete machines that can be
>>>> used to test something like the problem with CD/DVD drives.
>>>>> I do it piece by piece though,
>>>> Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.
>>>>> disposing of individual pieces as needed.
>>>> I dont bother to dispose of them myself. Handy for testing like now in your case.
>>>>>> In theory it could be just that the lens needs cleaning
>>>>>> if you are a smoker, but that wouldnt normally see
>>>>>> both drive stop writing that the same time.
>>>>> No, not a smoker, but I did have a friend who used to be,
>>>>> and I know what you mean about things getting cloudy inside.
>>>> And you can always pick a smokers PC when you open it, the stink alone is enough.
>>> Usually , i can salvage the drives and stuff, but oh
>>> my god, the Power Supply is always the first to go.
>> I buy decent ones in the first place, so dont need to operate like that.
>> The format does change and the capacity does too over time and the power connectors too.
>> And I keep a spare on hand too.
> No, i meant when i work on someone elses PC to repair , i usually
> cant stand working on it with their power supply attached.
Why ?
> I usually hook one up temporarily while i repair their pc.
In article <9pnhq2Fqp...@mid.individual.net>, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
>GMAN wrote
>> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote
>>> GMAN wrote
>>>> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote
>>>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>>>> Rod Speed wrote
>>>>>>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>>>>>>> Don't have another desktop to try it with.
>>>>>>> Do you dispose of your previous machines ?
>>>>>> No, my basic modus operandi is to keep upgrade an
>>>>>> existing machine until it's bleeding edge modern again.
>>>>> I do too, but with the significant changes in cases and power supplys
>>>>> and motherboards, I still end up with obsolete machines that can be
>>>>> used to test something like the problem with CD/DVD drives.
>>>>>> I do it piece by piece though,
>>>>> Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.
>>>>>> disposing of individual pieces as needed.
>>>>> I dont bother to dispose of them myself. Handy for testing like now in
> your case.
>>>>>>> In theory it could be just that the lens needs cleaning
>>>>>>> if you are a smoker, but that wouldnt normally see
>>>>>>> both drive stop writing that the same time.
>>>>>> No, not a smoker, but I did have a friend who used to be,
>>>>>> and I know what you mean about things getting cloudy inside.
>>>>> And you can always pick a smokers PC when you open it, the stink alone is
> enough.
>>>> Usually , i can salvage the drives and stuff, but oh
>>>> my god, the Power Supply is always the first to go.
>>> I buy decent ones in the first place, so dont need to operate like that.
>>> The format does change and the capacity does too over time and the power
> connectors too.
>>> And I keep a spare on hand too.
>> No, i meant when i work on someone elses PC to repair , i usually
>> cant stand working on it with their power supply attached.
>Why ?
I dont want my basement smelling like ass.
>> I usually hook one up temporarily while i repair their pc.
>Mad.
Its not crazy. If i am working on a pc of a smoker friend , i dont want that smell permeatting the room for hours while i work on the pc. Maybe you like the smell, i dont.
Well, here's an update on this problem. I've now had a chance to test it out with different configurations. It's been suggested that I should test it with different IDE cables, I've now tried 3 different IDE cables, each one had the same problem with this drive. I then tested whether it was the motherboard IDE connection that was the problem here, so I remembered that my eSATA PCI-e adapter also had included its own IDE connector, so I moved the connection over to that connector. Same problem here as well, in fact, on this connector it can't even detect the DVD drive's model name!
So I'm thinking I've done sufficient due diligence and I can declare this drive dead. The only other thing I could possibly try is to put an IDE-SATA converter adapter on it, and try to run it through SATA. I've had success in the past with old IDE hard drives that looked like they were dying under native IDE, but after the SATA conversion they ran much better, but I think that may be getting little too pedantic at this point.
> I had a pair of DVD burners, both of which have stopped writing (they
> can still read them though). They were IDE drives, and they were
> connected to each other on the same cable. One of them had started to
> spew out random errors in the event log, but the other one was fine.
> Then all of a sudden I noticed that the random errors had stopped. This
> would've been good if it meant that everything is working again. But
> after I tried to burn a disk it didn't seem to work in either drive. I
> tried removing the drive that had previously been shown as giving the
> errors, but it didn't help, the other drive still won't write either.
> Is it possible that one drive could've damaged the other drive by being
> connected to the same wire as the other? The software I'm using ImgBurn,
> shows a lot of diagnostics messages, and all it shows when I try to
> start a burn on the drive is that there is no medium inserted, and the
> drive is not ready. The drive can detect other types of disks just fine
> though, just not blank disks.
Yousuf Khan wrote:
> Yousuf Khan wrote:
> Well, here's an update on this problem. I've now had a chance to test
> it out with different configurations. It's been suggested that I should test it with different IDE cables, I've now > tried 3 different IDE
> cables, each one had the same problem with this drive. I then tested
> whether it was the motherboard IDE connection that was the problem
> here, so I remembered that my eSATA PCI-e adapter also had included
> its own IDE connector, so I moved the connection over to that connector. Same problem here as well, in fact, on this > connector it can't even detect
> the DVD drive's model name!
> So I'm thinking I've done sufficient due diligence and I can declare this drive dead.
Yes, thats pretty convincing, tho you should really try the drive
in a completely different system.
I guess the most likely explaination for the simultaneous write
failure with two separate drives is either just coincidence, or
that you got a spike from the mains or from a faulty power
supply that killed just that function in two separate drives.
> The only other thing I could possibly try is to put an IDE-SATA converter adapter on it, and try to run it through > SATA. I've had success in the past with old IDE hard drives that looked like they were dying under native IDE, but > after the SATA conversion they ran much better,
Problem with that approach is that some of the converters
dont support ATAPI very well.
> but I think that may be getting little too pedantic at this point.
I'd personally try the drive in a completely different
system instead if you want to be that pedantic.
>> I had a pair of DVD burners, both of which have stopped writing (they
>> can still read them though). They were IDE drives, and they were
>> connected to each other on the same cable. One of them had started to
>> spew out random errors in the event log, but the other one was fine.
>> Then all of a sudden I noticed that the random errors had stopped.
>> This would've been good if it meant that everything is working
>> again. But after I tried to burn a disk it didn't seem to work in
>> either drive. I tried removing the drive that had previously been
>> shown as giving the errors, but it didn't help, the other drive
>> still won't write either.
>> Is it possible that one drive could've damaged the other drive by
>> being connected to the same wire as the other? The software I'm
>> using ImgBurn, shows a lot of diagnostics messages, and all it shows
>> when I try to start a burn on the drive is that there is no medium
>> inserted, and the drive is not ready. The drive can detect other
>> types of disks just fine though, just not blank disks.
