Sony DRU-530A unable to detect any type of disk

yborokhov,
Read my post. It may help if you can get your hands on PowerDVD 3.0

 

I know for sure it's sony media because I tested it with two burners and both of them don't even recongnize them!

I tried memorex and works well my my burner and DVD player.

 

I'm having the same problems webmal had.. My writer doesnt seem to read and burn cd's, but can read/burn dvd's. I updated the firmware and stuff but dont know how to disable the dma. I looked in the bios but couldnt find any options to turn this off. I have found the options in the Device manager of windows xp (IDE ATA-ATAPI-controllers) By switching from dma to pio and restarted my pc but that didnt help.. can you explain how you disable dma webmal?

thnks

 

Ok.. Ive finally found a solution to 'my' problem.

My DVD player was able to:
1) See the DVDs in Explorer
2) Execute Programs on it
3) Burn DVDs

But it was UNABLE to play a DVD. It would crash shortly after.

I found that 'MY' problem was that I had my DVD player wired to a EIDE PCI Card (to give me additional devices on my system). The PCI card was rated at ATA-66 (it was an older card), so I put all my cd-roms and DVD players on that, and kept my Harddrives on all the ATA-133 slots.

I found that once I moved my DVD-Rom to the ATA-133 slot, it worked PERFECTLY.

I'm guessing ATA-66 is too slow for playing DVDs? or maybe there was a hardware conflict between the my DVD-Rom and my Promise ATA-66 PCI Card?

Hope this helps someone else.

_X_X_X_X_X_[small]DryiceX~
"The Coldest of the Cool"[/small]

 

I really need some help. for $#$# sake, I've had this drive for 3 days and all of a sudden my drive just stops working (as mentioned above). I tried turning off DMA, I un-installed all the programs I had installed right before it ceased working, I did a virus-check & spyware check, I even did a system restore. No luck. What is the deal with these burners?? If anybody has found a working solution, please let me know as I'm about to punch a hole in all of my Sony products.

Thanks in advance

 

haha, well I thought I would try one more thing before I finally gave up..lo and belold it worked! I switched the drive to my secondary IDE slot, re-booted, then switched back to the primary slot & re-booted again. It works!

 

My .02 worth..
I have a 530 external drive, bought it about 4 weeks ago. I upgraded to the newest firmware ver 2.0C. While upgrading to the new version I followed the instructions to a letter. The instructions say that before the upgrade to disable DMA ONLY if it is an internal unit. Well, since mine is external, I left the DMA enabled.

Bad move, it started to upgraded, looked OK, then it said it would need to reboot to apply the upgrade, then it kept going thru the same loop, after a reboot it kept saying to reboot, again, and again, and again....
After about ten reboots it finally upgraded to the new firmware ver.
The the fun started. All of a sudden it was no longer recognized anymore by the system.
Well, since I had just bought it, I took it back, got an even exchange from the store (major retail store) for a new one.

This time I upgraded again to ver 2.0C but this time I went to my Primary and Secondary IDE controllers and disabled DMA first. Then I performed the upgrade and it went thru without a hitch on the first pass. Then I went back and re-enabled DMA on both controllers.

That was two weeks ago and now it has been working flawlessly since.

I did some research (should have done that first) seems that even tho they say for an external drive you do not have to disable DMA it seems that the Hard Drive is reading too fast when in DMA mode(especially on P4 processors with the fast front side bus) that it doesn't read the firmware upgrade correctly.

Some other tidbits, I have also discovered that if you have an internal drive, ANY DVD ROM or burner should be set as the Master on the channel it is on (usually secondary as the HD should be on Primary) and if you have any kind of a secondary drive that contains a DVD-ROM or DVD burner (any kind of DVD drive) that it will cause conflicts.

I have tested that with the freeware utility DVDInfo Pro and true enough, when I tried to install a DVD Rom to use just for reading disc purposes to save the wear on the burner, all kinds of slowdowns and problems started happening. I reomoved the second drive and all went back to OK. I have a SONY digital tower with an internal DVD burner and it had a CD Rom as a secondary drive. I tried to replace the CD-ROM with a DVD-ROM and thats where I found out about problems when you try to set up more than one DVD device on the same channel.
Well, hope this may shed some light on some of your problems....

 

I am experiencing the same problem with my BUSLink CDWriter. I just upgraded to Windows2000, and all of a sudden my CDWriter stopped recognizing blank CDs. I'll see if I can find the DMA settings in Win2K, but things seem a little different from Win98.

 

i've tried most of the solutions with limited success. if i change from dma to pio, i can read dvd's. i can also burn, but because of pio mode, it only burns at 1.0x or 1.1x. the resulted dvd-r cannot be read in my dvd player. they do work in my pc. also, i can't format or erase a dvd-rw. using sonic dla, i get format error : General failure. any ideas?

using windows xp, updated firmware of dvd burner, un-installed all programs that have to do with the dvd burner and re-installed.

 

I've never had as many problems as I've had with the DRU 530A. Although I've never had a DVD burner before I have had CD drives. I have the same problem currently as the above post "General failure" when trying to DLA format a disk. Maybe it's the demo version of Nero I've installed causing a conflict? I'll remove that and see what happen as it was working for a brief moment before. Before I installed nero I tried to burn a disk with record now and it gave me an error. Of course I used a DVD+R and not a DVD+RW . I hate taking things back without trying all options but most of my installs go flawlessly and this was cursed from the get go. I would hate to lose my 14 day return window and be stuck with something that won't perform.
I have the drive set as a master on secondary ide and my TDK CD burner as slave. DMA is enabled and flash was done with DMA disabled. I had no problem doing the flash. I'll give a few things a try and if they don't work it's going back........Any other drive(s) people can suggest?

 

Sounds like you have two UDF packet writing programs installed. You cannot have both, either keep the Sonic DLA and get rid of the NERO InCD or keep InCD and get rid of the DLA (use the Add\Remove Programs in Control Panel)

Make sure the one you keep is loading in the start up section and that the UDF program has been enabled and set as the drive preference for recording and not the Microsoft default from Media Player. (Check the properties tab of the drive)

Also, you didn't mention but what specific errors are you having, what kind of system do you have, ie which OS, processor, RAM etc....

 

Help! Good grief! I had no idea I'd run into so many problems with this dvd burner. I just bought the Sony DRU-530A a couple weeks ago and have not been able to burn one disc successfully at all!

The burning program that came with the burner was of course Sonic RecordNow! (which is precisely what it WON'T do)... I go to create a dvd, select my video file from the "Get Movies", and get an error message saying "Could not complete the last command because: Could not make a thumbnail. Make sure you have the appropriate decoder installed. (DVDErr, -47010)" This applies to any file I attempt to add. It won't even RECOGNIZE my files! And since I can't get any further than that, then I can't say if the program will burn or not. In any case, it does look like a very cheap and primitive program.

So, next I decided to download the latest Nero 6 Ultra Edition trial version after hearing so much praise for it. However, Nero gives me its own set of problems. For almost all of the functions on there (including even basic things such as burning a data cd), I get an error message saying "Need WINDOWS original WNASPI32.DLL" followed by another message saying "Could not open driver. Trying system aspi." and following that is your typical Microsoft report error message. This has happened so many times that I practically have "WNASPI32.DLL" engraved in my mind forever. One of the few things that SEEMED to be working fine was burning a dvd. After bringing my cursor across to the "Photo and Video" option, I selected "Make or Modify DVD+VR", set everything up to burn according to instruction... and clicked to burn. It told me that the process would take just under 6 HOURS!!! Unusually long, don't you think?! From what I've heard, burning a dvd shouldn't take longer than 10-15 minutes. Then after about 15 minutes, there is an error message and burning aborts. Upon inspection of the dvd+r disc, something is clearly burned on the disc, even if it's partial (about a half centimeter burn rim) and of course, this incomplete burn will not play on anything. I've tried this burning process three times now with the exact same results and I am frustrated beyond belief.

Since, I've tried two other versions of Nero with no success. The above attempts were without InCD and I've tried both with and without InCD on my computer. Since then, I've uninstalled all the Nero stuff I could find on my computer (including InCD) and reinstalled the Nero trial version I downloaded to begin with and still have no luck. This time, even in "Expert Mode", when I bring my cursor over the "Photo and Video" section, instead of these listed options:

Capture Video, Play Video, Make Your Own DVD-Video, Make or Modify DVD+VR, Make DVD Slide Show, Recode DVD-Video, Convert DVD-Video Movies to Nero Digital (tm)

I now get a slightly different list:

Capture Video, Play Video, Recode DVD-Video, Convert DVD-Video Movies to Nero Digital (tm), Record TV Show, Make Movie, Record Directly to Disc, Burn DVD-Video Files

I don't know if this is simply just some sort of setting option I am overlooking, but I can't get it back to how it was before and the "standard" and "expert" modes don't bring back the options I had before, nor explain where these new options magically appeared from. Notice how the "Make or Modify DVD+VR" option I used before is mysteriously missing... and I currently only have DVD+R discs...

I've read most, if not all of the threads in this post in detail and some of you experience the same problems as me and some of you don't... Many of you mention something called a DMA setting in Windows but do not mention how I can access it to disable it. Also, how can I access this firmware update that's mentioned?

If anyone can help me at all, please do so. It would be very much appreciated. Thank you ever so much for taking the time to read this lengthy post of mine.

Oh... I'm using Windows XP and most of the files I'm attempting to burn are .avi files if that helps at all.

- Lynxy

 

Ok I havent made a comment lately but I use dvdxcopy to copy all the "backup movies" and i have a sony vaio computer. I installed the service pac 1 and I havent had any problem what so ever with burning movies I use the yahoo messenger and other places at same time. I have used dvd+rw by K hypermedia for my media.I havent had to uninstall any thing
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]apothzoo[/small]

 

Lynxy, to set DMA for your drive, you need to know which IDE channel it is on, and whether it is set up as the "master" or "slave" drive (it should be set to master!).

Armed with that information, go to your Control Panel in XP. Click on "System." Next, click on the "Hardware" tab. Click on the "Device Manager" button. A list of hardware families is displayed. Click on the plus sign ( + ) next to "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers."

Now you need the information from above. Double-click on either the Primary or Secondary IDE Channel (depending on which channel the DRU-530A is connected to). Click on the "Advanced Settings" tab at the top of the screen.

If the DRU-530A is the "Master" drive on this channel (which it should be, assuming you installed the drive according to SONY's instructions), it is "Device 0" on this screen. Set the "Transfer Mode:" to "DMA if available."

Click OK, then close the preceding two windows that you had opened. Reboot Windows, and see if that helps.

Also, another suggestion is to flash your firmware on the DRU-530A with the latest from SONY. The firmware can be found on http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/. You'll need to select the DRU530A from the drop-down list, then select the "Downloads" option. Download and install the latest firmware listed. NOTE: per SONY, BEFORE you upgrade the firmware on the drive, you MUST go back to the DMA settings as described above and set that drives transfer to "PIO Only" (I suggest rebooting any time you change transfer settings) and you MUST uninstall any packet writing software, such as DLA, InCD, DirectCD, etc. BEFORE flashing the firmware (again, I recommend a reboot after uninstalling such software and before flashing). From this point, you just need to execute the firmware file and follow the instructions.

After flashing the firmware, you need to set the transfer rate back to DMA, and reinstall the packet-writing software of choice (I prefer Nero's InCD, but to each their own).

Hope this helps!

 

Okay, first of all, I did not install the drive myself. Future Shop did the installation... so I'm not sure if the DRU-530A is connected to the Primary or Secondary IDE Channel. My computer is an eMachines H2482 and the D Drive was initially a dvd-rom drive. The E Drive was and still is a cd-rw drive. How can I tell which is the master drive? I've clicked on both the Primary and Secondary IDE channel options and under Advanced Settings and here is what it says:

[bold]Primary IDE Channel Properties[/bold]

Device 0
Device Type: Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 5

Device 1
Device Type: Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode: Not Applicable

[bold]Secondary IDE Channel Properties[/bold]

Device 0
Device Type: Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 2

Device 1
Device Type: Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 2

 

Hi guys, I just recently bought a Sony DRU530a too and I also am having problems with it. My situation is a bit different in that I can copy CDs and DVDs no problem. When I burn an ISO it works on a CD and plays in my XBOX but the same ISO won't burn on to a DVD. I have a game that works on my XBOX that is on Memorex DVD+R and thats why I bought the same DVDs. I have called tech support but they don't know much about ISO's etc. Any suggestions?

 

Lynxy, it appears that your drives are set up properly. Your Primary Ide channel only has your hard drive on it. That is what the DMA 5 tells you. When you see that, it means it is a hard drive.

Both your opticals are on the Secondary IDE channel and set to Ultra DMA Mode 2. This is good. I have one question. Did you remove the DVD Rom in your computer and install the new DVD burner in its place, and does the new burner show up as your Drive D?

 

Hey coolracer. Off the top of my head, all I can think of is maybe trying a different brand of media? When I first got my Sony, I bought 5 different brands of +Rs and +RW dvd media. For me, TDK works best. But I get good compatibility with Khypermedia (cheap!), Imation, and Teon (made by Khypermedia, but gold colored. But I've never tried burning an iso to dvd.

 

Thanks silimtao, but I think I will just return it and buy a different DVD writer. I spoke to Sony tech support and they have no clue what they are doing. It seems to me that this product is very particular as to how your system and software are configured. My friends have DVD writers and it was just plug-n-play.

 

Thanks silimtao, but I think I will just return it and buy a different DVD writer. I spoke to Sony tech support and they have no clue what they are doing. It seems to me that this product is very particular as to how your system and software are configured. My friends have DVD writers and it was just plug-n-play.