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Hi there all

I'm just having hassles with this Sony drive it's really driving me up the wall!!!!

I've had it for about 7 months now.

Now yesterday I decided to watch some movies which I backed up on DVD+RW when I first got the drive, it doesn't work!!!
Some DVD'z just show that it's blank and some would just make my computer freeze till I eject the disk.

Last night I was writing an image with DVD Decrypter and it said 100%, synchronising cache, then froze, had to reboot the box. Checked the disk and just makes my box freeze again.

Bear in mind that I originally wrote them on this drive and they did work. When I checked these disks on my other box with normal DVD drive, it jams fine.
[So I can say these disks are working and not faulty or summing.]

I even tried writing normal cd'z (verbatim Crystals)and this is what it looks like after burning:

http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/momo ... 06654a.jpg
http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/momo ... 06651a.jpg

I've marked the sections with a red line. There are suppose to be full 700Mb movies on then. I used Nero as well as RecordNow. it says it burn'd successfully. But when trying to play these disks, it gives some sort of CRC errors or that the media is not recognised. When I burned on my other box/writer, it wrote it clean and working. Can anyone tell me why does it do that? (as shown in the pics)

I've tried reinstalling XP thinking that maybe I've got too much stuff installed thats interfering with the burning ... no luck.
Tried installing the drive on my other box thinking maybe it the box itself ... but still same problem.

The only Media I used:
Verbatim 700Mb CDR Crystal AZO
Verbatim DVD+RW

Any input? Drive faulty? Can it be fixed?

Thanx guys

This is what I would try:

a. A different IDE cable

and if that doesn't work

b. Put the drive in your other computer and see if it works there. If not, it's probably the drive. Send it in under warranty.

Thnx for the reply Ian.

I did put it into my other box and it does the same thing. I was on the verge of getting the pioneer 108 ... but thought lemme check this one first.

Do you have any idea technically why the cd'z in the pics turn out that way? busted lazer or not enough power or etc ... ???

Do you think they'll fix it or replace it?
I'm just afraid they'll "try" and fix it and then it gives me the same hassles down the line.

As far as the CD's go.. it's probably changing/lowering the speed during the writing process. Does it do this with all CD media? Have you checked to see if DMA is enabled?

I'm not sure how Sony handles warranty replacements. Most likely, they'll send you a working drive in exchange for yours. I'd give em al call and see.

Hi Ian

Regarding write speeds, I chose 24x, then eventually went down to 8x, but made no difference.

Yes, it does that to all my disks as shown in the pics (some are very fine .. you can hardly see the division .. but you can see it's there) or there are small patches on the beginning tracks. Can't be the media as it writes perfectly on my other cd writer when I installed it on the same box.

I think eitherwayz I'll have to take it in ... pointless sitting with a drive that I soo much wanna smash against the wall ....

Thanx Ian