Suddenly unable to write to DVDs

C

clog_bn

New Member
Hi,

My DVD drive on my laptop has suddenly started refusing to write DVDs. I used to work perfectly fine for every DVD I tried (+R and -R). Then one day it complained that a blank DVD that I tried to write to "was write protected".

At first I thought maybe the DVD was faulty or incompatible, so I bought a pack of blank DVD-R disks form ASDA which I used to use all the time. But my DVD drive still doesn't like them. The specifications for the DVDs haven't changed as far as I can tell, and the DVDs work fine on other computers.

Can anyone help me to fix this problem?

I'm running Windows XP (fully up to date)
And under hardware, the name of my dvd drive is "Sony DVD RW DW-Q58A"

Thanks
 
Windows XP can't write to DVD without 3rd party sofware. However, XP can write to Cd's using its own native program. If you don't have a 3rd party program, you'll need one of the following.

Nero
Roxio

Which neither is free. For free alternatives use the following

IMGburn
cdburnerXP
 
I am - I'm using CDBurnerXP (which does burn data DVDs as well). I don't think its a problem with the program though - I have tried other programs, and not even the backup utility is able to write to DVDs.

I've just tried the same DVDs (even ones that my problematic DVD drive has already rejected) in another computer and they're perfectly fine. They've been left open and I can add more data to them. But then I put it back into the problematic DVD drive, and they get rejected again. :confused:
 
Then most likely the drive has failed on you. There is a different eye/laser that burns and reads dvd's. If the drive reads cd's ok then you'll have to replace the drive.
 
Could try opening the tray and blowing out across the laser head very lightly. If its canned air. do not turn side ways or upside down. It has a oil base to it. Lightly.
Else replace as mentioned. Maybe reseating the cable from burner to board. Thats about it.
 
Optical drives can infact just give up the ghost whenever they feel like it. Newer drives can be more reliable with writing to different media types (like +/- DVD's) as well as doing it faster.
 
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