Dvd/rw Nec Nd_1100a

[DooMMooD]

my DVD/RW drive is going crazy. it stopped recognizing blank cd-r and cd-rw's all of a sudden. however, it still recognizes blank dvd-r and dvd-rw's. It wont write cds either but it will write dvds. ive tried everything. ive tried updating the driver, but its the latest one. ive uninstalled and reinstalled at least 3 times, but it still refuses to work with blank cd'rs and cd'rws. ive even reformatted my hard drive twice, for unrelated reasons, and it still won't work. does anyone have any other ideas because im fresh out.

[The Undertaker]

Update the firmware, all I can think of.

[DooMMooD]

what be firmware. remember im ignorant

[GoldEyes]

I could only find this...
http://www.techseekers.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3434

It says that NEC isn't updating the drive on its own, so to use that, but make sure you read it carefully, to make sure thats for your drive.

Firmware is....
Software that is embedded in a hardware device that allows reading and executing the software, but does not allow modification, e.g., writing or deleting data by an end user. (188) Note 1: An example of firmware is a computer program in a read-only memory (ROM) integrated circuit chip. A hardware configuration is usually used to represent the software. Note 2: Another example of firmware is a program embedded in an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip, which program may be modified by special external hardware, but not by an application program.

[DooMMooD]

well i cant use that because my comp is from dell. the bastards. thanks for searching on the subject though.

[Planky]

So what if it's a dell computer? That won't effect updating the firmware on the cdrom (unless its a warranty issue).

[GoldEyes]

It says not to on the website the firmware is on.

Please note this is for retail and OEM NEC ND-1100A drives only do not flash this firmware to the drive if you got it from Dell or IO-Data (as their a different revision) or if the firmware already present is something other than 1.A0 or 1.A1

[The Undertaker]

Check on Dell's support site (http://support.dell.com).

[Big_al]

Is there a different laser/read head for CD-RW/R than DVD-R/RW maybe that's dirty or broken?

[Looney]

I have a bad CD R-RW that does the same thing, I tryed a cleaner but that didn't help at all. Tryed updating the firmware, no luck. How old is it? if it's still under Warranty..., Take/Send it back for replacement.

[DooMMooD]

oh its still under warranty. i just dont want to waste my time to have a dell person come over and fix it or mail the part in. i guess ill have to. ill try cleaning the cd writer, but it might not help.