I got a nice new Sony DRU-800A DVD/CD ReWriteable Drive for Christmas, and I can't get it to read any type of media properly. I haven't even tried to burn anything with it yet for fear of wasting valuable DVD's. Anyway, I sent an email to Sony's tech support, but seeing how it's just two days after Christmas, it could take weeks to get a response, so I was hoping someone here might know what the problem is. Here is what I sent tech support: Drive was installed without difficulty, and is recognized by Windows, but no media type reads properly. Access from My Computer is very slow and only shows the first level of files located on a CD; the files cannot be executed. The drive was installed as a replacement of an older CD-Rewrite drive, with the jumper selection set to master. It is the only drive on the IDE cable, and Device Manager shows the device to be working properly. A reboot into safe mode as the Administrator showed no nonexistant drives installed in device manager. Alcohol 120% was installed on this computer prior to the installation of this device. A complete uninstallation did not remedy the problem. I like to write technically, hehe... Anyway, I have since updated my bios as well, but that didn't fix anything. I'm trying to install this on a Compaq Presario if that helps, and I had the same problem with a Memorex drive before, but I returned it thinking the drive was the problem.
I finally figured out what the problem is so if anyone else ends up with this problem, here is what worked for me: The main issue was with my Via Bus Master Ultra ATA Controller driver. In it's original state, the driver wasn't capable of running a drive in DMA mode, which is pretty important for DVD burners. I downloaded and installed the IDE Accelerator from the Via website, and found out I was trying to run the drive with the wrong IDE cable. Apparently there are 40 pin and 80 pin IDE cables, and you need 80 pin for a DVD burner. I switched out the cables and now it works like a charm.
