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Question

Problem with optical drive on Lenovo ThinkPad

Jul 13, 2014 4:17AM PDT

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad, running Win7 home premium 64-bit SP1. The optical drive is an HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT33N.

The machine is about 3-4 years old over a year ago I started having trouble when trying to burn a DVD. Using Sony's DVD Architect Pro 6.0 to burn. I get an error msg that says the drive is busy processing a command.
The details of the error message:

'SFMMCX'-(17)
''-(0)
-'HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT33N LT22'-(1)
Module c:\src\sonic3\main\cddrvs\sfcd\sfmmcx.cpp Line 2187
The drive is not ready.
The drive is not ready, an operation is in progress.

Status: 00020202
Command: 2a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00
Sense: 02 04 07
Info: 00 00 00 00
Specific: 00 00 00
Extra: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

I have been using other computers to burn with, but today I tried using this one again, as it is my newest burner. It allowed me to burn one DVD successfully, but when I tried a second one, the old error came back to haunt me.

I don't have any Sonic software installed on this machine, that I know of. I examined my list of software in Control Panel > Uninstall or change a program.

I also uninstalled the driver for the optical drive and let the operating system re-install it.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
When drives fail, you replace them.
Jul 13, 2014 4:27AM PDT

Drives start to go out about 2 years and this is well beyond that. Since laptop drives are sometimes a pain to replace I use an USB DVDRW drive. Too many out there to list anything specific. And yes, folk do ask how to fix a DVDRW drive. Only the new tech tries.
Bob

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I don't think it is a drive failure...
Jul 13, 2014 10:43AM PDT

Thanks for the reply, Bob. However, this time I'm pretty sure there is a software issue here. I do have other burning software on the laptop--Roxio. I was able to get that software to burn a DVD, and the DVD worked just fine.

Yes, I'm finding out that I do have to replace two other drives, one in a HP laptop and one in my desktop. That's why I am coming back to the Lenovo.

Lee

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So reload the OS and it will work again.
Jul 13, 2014 10:48AM PDT

There are tomes on the web about cranky drives, lens cleaning, upper and lower filters. For me I clean the lens, check for CODE 19,39, etc and then swap in a drive. Only your newer tech won't try a drive after the basic tests. That is, they'll run up the hours trying to save a drive.

I swap the drive or try the USB DVDRW within a few minutes. Some clients really want to save the drive at all costs. Sure. We'll do that. Sign here.
Bob