greets just picked up a pioneer dvr-104 /2 it will read some media but seems really loud, will not read the princo media that i have always used on these same drives... it just tries to detect it in nero and other programs then says drive could not initialize, possible defective media what do you think would be the problem, i have tried switching up firmwares up to 1.4 2x for all and still no luck, won't detect them... very slow to browse any other media possible laser problem? i got this drive at a really cheap price and now thinking the guy already knew about this prob so thats why he sold it so cheap... thanks for your help.
The princo media isnt very good anyway. Before ruling it as a Hardware related proble, why not try some 2x Ritek media for testing.
My bet would be that the media is not good. But to rule out drive issues try playing a DVD or a music CD. IF the disc is reconized and plays, then mostly likly the media you were using is junk.
i've used about 80 of these discs from this batch before on an exact same drive, will also read already burnt ones from that same batch, also tried ritek and white label, datasafe and princo blank dvd-rws now, won't read any of them... has a very hard time reading ANYTHING that i put in it, takes around 20-30 seconds just to pick up a retail dvd, and spins up very loud, it will eventually read anything i throw at it but blank dvds, and burns cds easy, i found a similar drive on ebay that said it had the same problem... but didn't burn blank media. so guessing this drive has the same prob...oh well, back out today, getting refund
does sound like a drive problem, do these drives have the motor head come out with the Drive or is it a tray loader? I find that with my drive that has the head pop out with the tray that if all 3 ball bearings are not fully enclosed around the disc, it will spin really loud and not reconize most discs.
Tosca, Why the Fugg. That was so funny, i have to remeber that one. Yes the simple things do really amose me. For him I would have assumed cost and availabilty. I got a HP 8020e instead of the higher model as it was cheaper and I know would be reconized on my old P 200Mz computer. Some times older is better. But I don't think that's the case with DVD writers.
yes, cost and availability (80.00), plus discs are cheaper with 104 with the 2x hack i've got multiple burners don't really need a 105, or 106 for that matter have been using the 104 for bout a few years now and have no probs