This is a month old Dell 8400. I've done a fresh install of Windows XP Home, and I"m not sure if this problem started fresh out of the box or when I got the new install done. Anyway. When I put any blank media in the DVD/Cd (E drive (Sony DRU 540A) the DRive changes its status in "My Computer" to CD Drive (E (Not even CD-RW Drive like the other one listed drive (D ). In properties the disk reads as full also. Cannot copy anything to the blank disk. WHen the blank media is ejected from the computer. The drive status changes back to DVD/CD drive. I can watch DVDs on the drive and run disks that have programs on them. I cannot write to the disks though. I have been able to write to the disks after formating with INCD by Nero. Thats it. I shouldn't have to format these disks though. Oh and when I had DVDX Copy installed I could backup DVD's. That is not installed right now though. The only thing I have installed for DVD is Nero. I even uninstalled REal Player. Maybe I should get rid of Windows Media Player also. ??? Troubleshooting I've already tried: I have tried 2 different DVD drives. Same results. I've uninstalled all DVD related software in case there was a conflict. I have uninstalled the IDE Secondary and the DEvices themselves in the Device manager then let the system reinstall them. I've tried changing the jumpers on the drives from CSEL to Master / Slave (DEll ships the drives factory CSEL). Tried updating drivers, and looked for other firmware. I"m outta juice.LOL!! Don't really have any more Ideas. I'm just a novice. Any ideas would be great. If I need to list this in another part of the forum let me know. It may not be hardware after all. Maybe Windows strangeness.
Are you sure you have a DVD Burner and not a DVD ROM/CD-RW Combo drive? If you have the latter, you will never be able to burn DVD's only CD's.
Yes its a burner. I just got another one to see if anything changed with the new drive. I got something to burn in Nero but now my computer will lock up when I try to use the burned RW DVD. It has the files on it but I can't get them off of the disc.
New Development. Uninstalled Norton Anti/Firewall, and this issue seems to have cleared up. I'm not sure why this would mess with my DVD drive. I thought Norton only delt with ingoing and outgoing traffic and such. I can now copy to RW and even copy the files from the DVD to my harddrive. Thats a bit of progress but now I have no firewall and antivirus running.
