Burner Burnt Out???

U

urb1972

Geek Trainee
I have a Lite-On SOHW-1693S which I only bought the other day.

Been mainly using it for burning DVDs... did the odd CD.

Did a CD tonight and it revved up (noisy little thing at 48x) like it did the other times but at 50%, the sound revved all the way down. Then nothing, then like a cracking sound.

Only way I could abort program/get CD out was a restart.

Went back into Nero.

Now it can't detect if a CD is blank. If I create a list of things to burn, the drive makes a sound like a car revving up (low to high to low to high, etc) then stops accompanied with the message "no really... I said a BLANK disc" (you get what I mean)... :(

Not too worried as I'll just ask for an identical exchange at shop if its bust, but not very happy at all about the fact that a brand new, supposedly reasonable DVD burner can actually f**k itself up whilst trying to burn a disc, and it could happen again.

Any ideas? Restarting doesn't do the trick. If I re-installed the firmware do you think that would?

UPDATE: Re-flashed firmware. No difference. Power off for two minutes. No difference. Can play discs that are written to, CD and DVD, but cannot detect a blank CD (and I can't test that on DVD as I'm out of blank DVDs)

And after reading this thread I'm scared:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=78047

Shall I try reinstalling IDE drivers then, or the driver disc for the specific burner.

Is this a hardware, firmware or software problem??

Help urgently appreciated!!!
 
Because of the cracking noise it does sound like the drive needs replacing.

Have you tried different media (from different companies)? As it could be a compatibility issue with the media, if possible at all try the drive in another system. Other wise I'd take it back for an exchange.

And if possible exchange it for a NEC make.
 
Cheers sniper

It still plays recorded-on discs, which is the weird bit. If it's the drive then I wonder what exactly went wrong? I've tried a DVD-RW with stuff on it, the drive detects it but I haven't tried erasing it yet.

What kind of driver f**k up is THIS specific??? :(

I am going to try and exchange it first, as I too have a gut feeling it's actually the drive. Hopefully (it's PC world) they will try it on another system there to see if it's actually faulty. If not, then it must be an OS/driver issue, and I'll have to figure that out.

I hope it's the drive, but if it is, I can't see them exchanging it for a different brand unless, probably, it was one that cost more and I can't afford to spend any more. I could probably go £10 (bout $15-$20) more on a Sony one they have but only if it's worth my while. I tend to use 4x/8x dvd-r with CMC dye, and I'd got the Liteon as I thought it would be the most compatible with these. They don't have NEC, I don't think, but they have LG and Philips. I originally wanted Plextor but couldn't afford it.
 
h i have an AOpen DVD+/-RW drive, works like a charm, only writes DL dvd's at 2,4x but I'm not too bothered, you should see if you can get a refund and then look at what you can find on the net.
 
It's all got a whole lot worse.

I paid cash and I can't find the receipt anywhere. I'm normally very careful with things like this.

Sh*t

Now what?
 
urb1972 said:
It's all got a whole lot worse.

I paid cash and I can't find the receipt anywhere. I'm normally very careful with things like this.

Sh*t

Now what?
Click to expand...
I use a lot of LiteOn drives in both the systems I build for others and for myself. I haven't had any problems with premature drive failure except when the system owner was a smoker (smoke damages optical drives very quickly). On the other hand, I have seen premature failures from NEC, Sony, Samsung, and especially LG or Optiwrite. The latter two seem to fail predictibly at around 6/mo. If your LiteOn drive has failed after a short period of time, it's an unusual occurance, at least in my experience. Is your PSU adequate? In any case, even if the store you purchased it from won't take it back, LiteOn might RMA it for you.

All the best,
-AT
 
Anti-Trend said:
even if the store you purchased it from won't take it back, LiteOn might RMA it for you.
-AT
Click to expand...

RMA? Sorry don't know that one! I presume repair, replace?

My PSU is 350W.

lol I'm a smoker, that's quite funny.
My old Pioneer A104 must be able to handle its tar. 1 thousand dvd burns and less than ten coasters :cool:

As it happens (bit of a funny story this) I'd previously ordered a Pioneer 110D but thought the order hadn't gone through, and in desperation bought the LiteOn (I needed the burner urgently), but now it seems they went ahead and processed the order, so I'll have that in a couple of days. Speeds aren't quite as high (I don't think) but the same for DVD-R burning which I do the most. So now I have this LiteOn I don't really need (could stick it in my gf's eventually) so I'll prob send it off to LiteOn and see if they can replace it first.

cheers peeps
 
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