"will not show any free space with blank DVD or CD-R disk"
Does not show that space in EXPLORER. Remember I never install ANY drag to disk title as I find those too unreliable. There are some that used such and as it fails a post like yours does happen. But I read your post twice and couldn't find exactly what you use.
However the age is a concern. At 4 years I would tossed it when it failed but here's a NUGGET for you. Let's say you installed the software for old drive and it worked until now. Now we install the new drive and it's supplied software. DISASTER. Why is that? Most of these titles are locked to that make drive so we always want to avoid the supplied titles unless we have to.
So where does this leave us? If this was my machine I'd uninstall any and all CD/DVD recording software and try titles like CDBURNERXP and IMGBURN to see what it thinks of the media. REMEMBER THAT WE NEVER CARE WHAT EXPLORER REPORTS for the drive type or free space. We only use the CD/DVD recording software and what it thinks.
Bob
System: Asus P4P800 Deluxe w/ Intel 2.4Ghz cpu, 1.5GB DDR memory, Windows XP Pro SP2, 120G. HDD (1/2 used space), AGP video card, CD-RW, DVD-RAM drives.
Issue: Samsung(TSST SH-S182D MODEL)nor other Lite On(LDW 411S Model)DVD writers will not show any free space with blank DVD or CD-R disk, therefore not allowed to burn data. Under My Computer, label of DVD drive changes from DVD-RAM to CD drive, and shows all used space of disk when blank is placed in drive.
However, drives will see and run DVD disk I've burnt on Lite On drive and will run DVD-rom disk of programs.
History: Lite On DVD drive bought about 4 years ago and used just a little, made backup disks of data and music files; some time last year I redid the backup disk again. I then bought new Samsung DVD drive that has Lightsribe, and put Lite On drive in som's PC. Until now I've not had reason to use Samsung DVD drive, am now attempting to make DVD's of music files for brother who's going to Middle East.
Now, I have tried reseaching on troubleshooting the problem based on the Samsung model, reading through different forums, I found that there might be possible conflicting issue between drive and VIA chipsets, so I updated the VIA dirves for my motherboard. Also, I've updated the firmware to the latest version for the Samsung drive.
Having the problem persist and needing to get the DVD disks finished, I swapped out the DVD drives, and the problem now affects the Lite On DVD drive as well. I doubled checked the firmware for this drive, I had already updated it prior, so I doubled check all the settings that I'm aware of, not having had any problems before with the Lite On, am not sure what issues there are with DVD drives and XP.
I replaced the Samsung DVD in my system, booted up in safe mode, and see no issues in Device Manager, from there I removed the drive and then reboot normally into XP, and had no problems. Drive shows up in My Computer as DVD-RAM drive, using blank DVD disk drive changes to CD drive, using blank CD-R disk it changes to CD drive and shows CD-R disk in drive, clicking on drive I get warning "drive not accessible, incorrect function". In properties, all disks are shown as full. Note: DVD drive is set as master, cd-rw as slave, should that make any difference.
Reading through the forums here, something was mentioned about doing clean install of XP, I'm praying that isn't nessary at this time. Is there some sort of new issue with SP2 and DVD drives?
If anyone can solve this problem soon, you'll truly be a savior as I've spent all day Saturday compling music and ALL of today trying solve this confounding DVD writer issue.
Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance.
