Bought this cendyne 4x DVD burner from Staples. I am running under Windows ME. I have not updated the firmware because of the posts in several forums warning that it will limit my media options. Current firmware version using Pioneer's check utility is 1.00. My problem is that Windows Explorer does not recognize any blank DVD I insert (Ritek 4x and the DVD RW that came with the burner) as a DVD. Instead, it shows the media has a capacity of 1.99 GB and a 1 KB windows audio (Track1.cda)file and lists the media as an Audio CD. I am able to play commercial DVDs on it just fine using WinDVD. The device manager shows the drive as a Pioneer A05 DVD r/rw. My Bios also recognizes the recorder. However, both Prassi PrimoDVD and the other software I have used fail to acknowledge it as a recordable. My buddies say that I need to upgrade to Windows XP; however, the cendyne people and hardcopy says it is compatible with Windows ME , windows 98se, windows 2000 pro and windows xp. I have tried altering the jumper setting (I have a cd-rw drive on the same IDE cable) from Master, to slave, to csa; my cd-rw drive is set to csa. No luck. I'm an admitted novice (albeit a desperate one) Somebody, tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Try RecordNowMax for burning software(best software for A-05), I also had problems with prassi it didn't recognize my burner. But I also suggest you to upgrade to Windows XP, because most DVD burning software will work well only on Windows XP.
