External DVD writer problem (SR2+patches)

Topic

New Reply

My home PC has an internal CD ROM and an intenal DVD/CD writer.
Recently I bought an external (USB) DVD/CD writer to use at a centre where I do some training, where the PCs only have CD ROMs.

I plugged the DVD writer into my home PC and it worked ok. However, after disconecting it I found that neither of my internal optical drives would work: Explorer showed nothing in the right hand pane for the DVD writer when I inserted a CD-R disk containing various data files. When I put the same disk in the CD drive Explorer put out an error message saying ” is not accessible. Invalid function”.
I can access the CD-R contents on either drive by going to the drive’s hardware properties panel and clicking Populate. I can also make both drives work normally by uninstalling them (through Control Panel), then rebooting so Windows re-installs them. However the next time I reboot the problem is back again.
This is a nuisance on my home PC but completely unacceptable for using the external drive at the training centre which is used by several organisations.

Can anybody suggest a solution? Unfortunately I don’t have the external drive at home with me at present, so I can’t experiment.

George

Reply | Quote

Replies

Did you install any drivers or other software with the external DVD? If you have a restore point from a time before the external DVD was installed you could try a System Restore to that time.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

No – I didn’t install any drivers, but relied on XP automatically installing the external drive.
Unfortunately I’ve passed any restore points before I connected the drive.
There are similar problems, to do with the Windows Mount Manager getting confused over drive letters, described on Microsoft support pages, but these don’t seem to relate to installed drives that already have letters assigned.

George

Reply | Quote

That ‘invalid function’ message happened with older version of Roxio CD Creator and could happen with any software that tries to directly access the CD/DVD. Did you install any software to burn or play CDs/DVDs?

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Yes Joe, I Have Nero 6 installed.

George

Reply | Quote

Was Nero installed before or after the external drive?

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Before

George

Reply | Quote

Make sure that you have the latest update of Nero installed:
http://ww2.nero.com/nero6/enu/nero-up.php%5B/url%5D

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve done the upgrade you suggested, but it hasn’t made any difference.
I still get the same error message from the CD drive, while Explorer shows nothing on the DVD drive (although it recognises that a CD has been inserted, because it changes the drive name form DVD RAM drive to CD drive). Clicking the Populate button on the Volumes tab of the hardware Properties dialogue, then refreshing the Explorer view brings up the disk’s contents as it should to start with.
For some reason XP is recognising the disk type, but not its contents, until forced to.

George

Reply | Quote

Have a look at Download details: Autoplay Repair Wizard. If you don’t want to use a Microsoft program look at some of the links from Live Search: autoplay fix.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Thanks Joe – ran the MS autoplay wizard & it found no problems.
My problem persists, alas.

George

Reply | Quote

Is your other issue with ‘invalid function’ gone?

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

I’m afraid it’s just the same Joe.
I tried changing the drive letters but this had no effect.

George

Reply | Quote

May I ask a stupid question: are you disconnecting your external USB DVD drive the proper way (by clicking the icon with the green arrow in system tray next to the clock, then clicking “Safely remove USB mass storage…” balloon and disconnecting USB cable after “It is safe to remove…” message appears) or simply disconnecting USB cable?

Reply | Quote

Sorry for the delay in replying, kaplinb. I got so confused with trying diferent things that I gave up & went to bed.

Anyway, you question is not stupid – I’m normally very careful to disconnect an external storage drive properly – the way you describe. I’ve only ever connected the external DVD writer once, and I can’t honestly remember whether I disconnected properly that time. I’ve always assumed that the disconnect facility just waits for the write cache to be emptied, but does it also do some kind of software disconnect?

I’ve tried putting an audio CD into my internal drive: a Windows dialogue popped up asking me what I wanted to do, including “Play with RealPlayer”. Clicked this and it played OK. Windows Explorer showed showed one file, tra01.cda. Double clicking this made it play in WMP.
Replaced the audio disk with a data disk and Explorer again shows nothing until I click the Populate button on the Volumes tab of hardware properties.

The internal DVD writer uses UDMA mode 2, the CD ROM drive uses PIO.
Finally I tried a DVD RAM disk in my internal DVD drive (it supports + – and RAM formats) and lo and behold, the dreaded BSOD, and the eject button would not work.

At this point I gave up & went to bed!
I’m now wondering if maybe there is some kind of hardware problem because of what happened with the DVD RAM disk.

Many thanks for all help and suggestions.

George

Reply | Quote

Just curious, which kind of error Nero InfoTool (Start | All Programs | Nero… | Tools | Nero InfoTool) shows after you change CDs the way you described?

Brief Google search brings the only suggestion: open Registry Editor, backup (export to REG file) the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

delete the key and restart your computer – Windows suppose to recreate the key. It is possible you will need to reinstall Nero (to run once again the update file you downloaded). In case of any trouble restore (double-click) backup REG file.

Reply | Quote

OK, I haven’t tried the patch yet, but experimented with the Nero Information tool (which I didn’t even know was there).
The first time I ran it, with data CD in the drive it produced the message “Drive is locked by InCd server. Do you want to try to release it – this may take a few minutes”. Clicked yes, and after a few minutes the tool came up with a raft of information. Clicking the drive in Explorer then revealed the disk’s contents.
After removing the disk, rebooting then inserting the disk again, Explorer once more gave the “Y: is not accessible. Incorrect function” message. Running the Nero tool this time did not produce an error message – it went ahead and extracted the information, and after this Explorer was able to see the disk contents. However the Explorer accessibility did nor survive another reboot but running the Nero tool again rectified things.

Next I ran an audio CD – everything ok. Replacing it with a data CD again resulted in the Explorer Incorrect Function message. Running the Nero tool again came up with the same error message as before – drive is locked, etc. Clicking Yes to release InCD server once more freed up the drive and the disk contents became visible.

George (on UK time, BTW)

Reply | Quote

Since you mention InCD, troubleshoot this issue.

Nero InCD is not compatible with Roxio DirectCD or UDFReader. If both services are running on your computer, it can produse various software conflicts similar to which you experience.

Check which service is running (click Start | Run, type SERVICES.MSC and hit Enter). Roxio UDFReader service is often installed by computer manufacturer, if your Windows was pre-installed.

If you use both Roxio- and Nero- formatted CD-RWs, download and use
Roxio

Reply | Quote

I don’t have Roxio but I uninstalled InCD anyway – didn’t cure the problem.
Tried to delete the reg key mentioned in your earlier post but I couldn’t – got a message syaing “Cannot delete key, error while deleting key”.

George

Reply | Quote