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Need a Driver Disk for a DVD Drive

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by TonyPSchaefer, Dec 31, 2006.

  1. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    I realize that there's only a small number of people who have help me with this, but I'm hoping one of those few people are reading it.

    A few months ago I purchased and installed a new DVD drive in my computer.
    http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1000418

    I bought it OEM without software, drivers, or anything. Just a drive in a soft package. I figured that I didn't need the goofy little trial software CD/DVD burning software since I already have it.

    Little did I realize that the standard Microsoft drivers for DVD-R/W drives isn't sufficient. I can watch DVD movies and I can read data from DVD disks. But I can not write to disks. I have scoured the 'net looking for the reasons and basically what it comes down to is that I need the real Sony drivers. The ones that would have been on the CD I should have gone ahead and gotten with the drive. My bad.

    I have had several friends and coworkers look online to see if they can find the driver downloadable. So far, all I've gotten is firmware upgrades which have not resolved the issue.

    So I'm asking anyone who happens to have a Sony DW-Q120A DVD-R/W drive with installation CD including device drivers to please let me know. I'd be happy to reimburse shipping costs of a copy of the disk.

    Another option - which I have considered - is to purchase another drive complete with installation disk and then return it when I'm finished. That's a little dishonest I suppose but if I have to I'll do it.
     
    #1 TonyPSchaefer, Dec 31, 2006
  2. priusenvy

    priusenvy Senior Member

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    If I were you, I'd download a 30-day trial of Nero Ultra.

    http://www.nero.com/nero7/enu/nero7-demo.php

    If you like it, then you can find sources online to buy the basic version for as little as $10. For instance:

    http://www.surpluscomputers.com/store/main...p;item=SWW13452

    I've got a half-dozen copies of Nero bundled with various CD and DVD writers I've purchased over the years, and none of them was ever crippled to only work with certain manufacturer's drives.

    There shouldn't have been anything on the bundled disks that you absolutely need to have.
     
    #2 priusenvy, Dec 31, 2006
  3. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    You dont need drivers for windows to see the drive.

    Does your BIOS see the drive?

    Does windows recognize the dive is there? is it listed in the "My Computer" with the rest of your drives?

    Did you set it up as a master drive or a slave? Is there any other drive attached to the same cable and if so where is it attached?

    What end of the cable did you put it on? Middle or the very end?

    To watch DVDs you will need software to view them like windvd. If you need a copy I can let you download one or um I mean point you in the direction of a copy. ;)

    If you need burning software I can point you to that to. ;)
     
    #3 TheForce, Dec 31, 2006
  4. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Dec 31 2006, 03:07 PM) [snapback]369059[/snapback]</div>
    He's correct. You need burning software, not drivers. The fact that you can play movies off it means that you already have either DVD (movie) decoder software or hardware since Windows doesn't ship with any.

    Funny enough, I bought a BenQ DW-1640 DVD burner long ago from newegg. At the time, from the description, it was unclear whether it came w/any burning software but the description implied no and that it was just a bare drive. I mailed newegg and basically they said they didn't know and can't go and check. So, I went and bought a copy of Nero from the above store.

    When I received the drive, guess what? It came with a copy of Nero. :angry:
     
    #4 cwerdna, Dec 31, 2006
  5. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Thanks for the replies.

    The computer and drive are set up correctly. BIOS detects it as a CD/DVD burner and it is not set up to use it as a Read-Only drive. That's something a tech guy at work told me to look into.

    Windows detects it as a DVD drive at first: New Device Detected. Then, when I look at it in Windows Explorer, it's called "CD Drive" and not "DVD Drive." Is that normal?

    I have Roxio Basic v5. It allows me to burn CDs but when I attempt to burn a DVD it tells me that there is no DVD Burner detected. Or some such nonsense. I will download a demo version of Nero Ulta and see if that works.

    Even with the burning software, will Windows still refer to it as "CD Drive"? I found on one website that Microsoft intentionally does not allow the drag-n-drop DVD burning via Explorer like you can with a CD.
     
    #5 TonyPSchaefer, Dec 31, 2006
  6. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    Dont know about the drag and drop with windows. Never used it. i always use Nero for all my burning needs.
     
    #6 TheForce, Jan 1, 2007
  7. nicoss

    nicoss New Member

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    Therefore Windows (I assume XP home or professional) does recognize it as a DVD device.
    This says that Roxio can communicate with the drive and send “burn†commands
    Roxio does periodic updates of the list of supported drives
    http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/General%20I...mation/000008GN

    OOps missed it: Roxio 5.x basic does NOT support DVD burning.


    (P.S: Your experience supports the Windows “Plug & Pray†concept)
     
    #7 nicoss, Jan 1, 2007
  8. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    DING DING DING!!
    AND WE HAVE A WINNER!

    I don't know where you found that, but that just might be the key right there. The reason I have Roxio 5 Basic is that I got it from work. Legally.

    I have dial-up connection at home. The Nero Ultra Demonstration download is something like 18Mb. I will download it at work tomorrow. ;)

    As for the other questions, the DVD is the Secondary Master on the only IDE ribbon.
    It looks like this:
    C: - Hard Drive - SATA 0
    D: - Hard Drive - IDE Secondary Slave
    E: - DVD Drive - IDE Secondary Master

    The DVD drive is on the end of the ribbon and is not going to change due to case configuration.

    I'm not going to muck up the physical connections of the drives until I try Nero.
     
    #8 TonyPSchaefer, Jan 1, 2007
  9. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    Yes see what your results are with Nero before doing anything.

    For better performance you may want to put your second hard drive on the primary master IDE if your MOBO has that option with your SATA drive atached. Then put your DVD drive on the secondary master IDE.
     
    #9 TheForce, Jan 1, 2007
  10. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    My MoBo is an Intel D945GTP ( http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/D945GTP/index.htm )

    As for drive options, there are four SATA plugs but only one IDE plug. Some people said I was silly to get an IDE port in the first place, but I have multiple IDE drives (not all installed, of course) and like having a back-up option for my data. In the future, I'll buy another SATA drive and replace my IDE drive, but that time's not here yet.
     
    #10 TonyPSchaefer, Jan 1, 2007
  11. nicoss

    nicoss New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jan 1 2007, 10:48 AM) [snapback]369273[/snapback]</div>

    Windows XP :angry: rule: If it works do not change anything :D
     
    #11 nicoss, Jan 1, 2007
  12. bhaynnes

    bhaynnes Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Dec 31 2006, 08:39 PM) [snapback]369166[/snapback]</div>
    Tony: My windows XP professional series sees the drive as a DVD-RW drive. I'm thinking yours should also. What operating system are you using?
     
    #12 bhaynnes, Jan 2, 2007
  13. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    [Update]
    Got my hands on Nero OEM and everything's fine. That was last night. Tonight or soon I will uninstall Roxio.
     
    #13 TonyPSchaefer, Jan 3, 2007
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