Windows does not recognize capability of my drive - help

[ErwinArgyle]

Hi. I replaced my internal TDK CD burner with a Mad Dog Dual Layer 8x +/-R and I have problems. With the TDK, if I placed a blank CD in the drive, Windows used to ask me how I wanted to burn it. I don't get any such popup with the DVD burner. However, it does play audio CDs and DVDs. It came with a Nero which I installed. Nero only lists my hardrive as a possible destination. It does however list the DVD drive as a possible source. Nothing changed after updating Nero with the latest posted patch. I think the problem lies in the driver but the Mad Dog website says that Windows driver is all I need. Any help would be much appreciated.

The following output from Belarc describes my system. One thing that surprised me is that under the hood, my Mad Dog is a Lite On and when I tried to install the latest firmware from Mad Dog, the flash utility failed with the message that it could not find a NEC ND2510A.

Thanks

Erwin

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Belarc Output
Operating System System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600) VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693/A
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
800 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Giga-Byte Technology Co., LTD 693A-596B-8671
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 4.51 PG 03/21/01
Drives Memory Modules c,d
61.48 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
1.19 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

JLMS XJ-HD166S [CD-ROM drive]
LITEON DVD-ROM LTD163 [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

Disk drive -- drive 1
eUSB SD-MS-SM USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2
IC35L060AVV207-0 [Hard drive] (61.49 GB) -- drive 0, s/n VNVB01G2R92DVG, rev V22OA63A, SMART Status: Healthy 512 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'BANK_0' has 256 MB
Slot 'BANK_1' has 256 MB
Slot 'BANK_2' is Empty
Local Drive Volumes

c: (on drive 0) 61.48 GB 1.19 GB free


Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
VIA Bus Master IDE Controller RADEON 7000 SERIES [Display adapter]
ViewSonic GS790 [Monitor] (17.7"vis, s/n MO01715414, April 2000)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller ESS 1969 PCI AudioDrive (WDM)
Standard Game Port

[dodecahedron]

Welcome to CDRLabs, ErwinArgyle

are you sure your Mad Dog drive is really a Lite-On, not really a NEC?
some drives sold by Mad Dog are made by NEC.
maybe you downloaded the wrong firmware, one meant for a NEC drive?

as for Windows not asking you how you want to burn the disc, this has to do with the AutoPlay feature of WinXP. it can be configured, i don't remember how right now (and not at home so can't check), but maybe My Computer -> Right click the drive -> Properties -> AutoPlay tab? or something similar to this.

[ErwinArgyle]

Thanks for a prompt response.

Really a Lite-On?
Yes I am sure the drive is a Lite-On. There is a Lite-On LTD 133 sticker on the drive and this is confirmed by my device manager. I was as surprised as you are that the Mad Dog firmware utility complained about the lack of a NEC drive. Right now though, I am not worried about upgrading the firmware. I would be really happy just to have the computer recognize the drive as a burner.

AutoPlay
I checked and I have autoplay enabled. If I insert an audio of movie, Autoplay asks me what application I would like to use to play it. If I insert a blank CD, I get nothing.

Other evidence that Windows does not see the drive as a burner is that when there is a blank CD in the drive and I right click on a file, the drive does not appear as a possible "SendTo" destination.

Any help anyone can give me is much appreciated.

Cheers

Erwin

[BoGMan1a]

I hate to tell you this but, that model number is to a DVD-ROM which can read CD's and DVD's but can burn to neither.

[BoGMan1a]

Check the store that you bought it from to make sure it wasn't a return. That or a screw up at the plant (not likely since they probably are packaged at the drive manufacturer) would seem to be the only likely causes for this.

[ErwinArgyle]

Thank you to those who replied. My problem has been solved!

Even though the box from the shop was sealed, it contained the wrong drive. I have no idea how that could have happened. I went back to the shop and they gave me the correct drive. It worked first time, I was able to upgrade the firmware and I am now happily burning.

I feel that I have wasted the resources of this forum and I am sorry for that. Maybe my next post will be more of a technical challenge.

I have never used this forum before and so do not know how to close the thread. Perhaps the moderator could do this for me?

Thanks again.

Erwin