Page 1 of Installing a DVDR

Help required please. I have a new Dell PC which I purchased with a CDR. I have now bought a Toshiba DVD rewriter and can`t seem to get it to work. I have connected it up as a straight box swap for the cdr and windows has recognised it as a new device and seems to have done its thing.
I am now trying to use it and it reads cd`s and dvds fine, it copies to cd fine but will not write to dvd. I am using clonedvd and the first half of the process is fine (writing to pc) but as soon as it comes to write it just seems to hang on 0% until it eventually times out. The disc is then unusable/unreadable. Tried quite a few different types of branded media (+/- r/rw)
I have also tried Nero with similiar effect.

If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.

Cheers

from my experance of dell optiplex computers, you will need to set the drive to "Cable select" or "CS" on the jumpers. also, update your nero. If you are v6 you sould be fine with all current DVD writers, but if you are pre 6 (nero 5.5) you will need to upgrade.

(dell appear to handle primary /slave differently to other makes, so a primary or slave will obly have a slow throughput compaired to CS)


Chris

How can Dell handle master and slave setups differently to other brands? Cable select does not offer quicker throughput than master or slave, even on a Dell which uses industry standard components.

As for the DVD writer, I am not entirely sure but this could be the software sending out calibration commands to the drive which will perform the calibration of the laser`s power to suit the surface of the disc (this is what firmware upgrades do - actually there`s a though, have you done a firmware upgrade). It seems like the drive is unhappy with the calibration so times out and DVD writing is aborted. I would exchange the drive for another if this is the reason for the write failure or try a firmware upgrade.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 9th August 2005, 18:03