CD-ROM device works in DOS, recognized in WinXP, but won't read or play disks

I have an Asus DRW 24B1ST DVD RW device, was working fine for the last year.
On the same computer I made an new WinXP sp3 installation. The unit works
fine in DOS, I can install Windows from it, run bootCD disks, no problem.
But once in WinXP, although it's recognized in Device Manager and shown as
working properly, when I put in a disk and try to read it from My Computer,
I get a window (Z that is blank. Autorun disks also don't do anything.
I've tried many different disks that are known to be good, that work on
other computers and on this one previously...but nothing will work. Ztree
also can't access a disk in the unit. Same with GSpot.

I'm pretty sure it's not the disks, or the Asus device. But I don't know
how to troubleshoot this or find a solution. Can someone help me with this?

Thanks, John

jbclem wrote:

I have an Asus DRW 24B1ST DVD RW device, was working fine for the last year.
On the same computer I made an new WinXP sp3 installation.

Did you also install the chipset drivers in Windows for the motherboard?

The unit works
fine in DOS, I can install Windows from it, run bootCD disks, no problem.
But once in WinXP, although it's recognized in Device Manager and shown as
working properly, when I put in a disk and try to read it from My Computer,
I get a window (Z that is blank.

Drive Z? With 1 hard disk as C, the optical drive would get assigned
drive D. With 2 hard disks (C and D), the optiocal drive would be E.
How many hard disks or SSDs do you have attached to the motherboard's
drive ports? How many flash card readers do you have and what's the
number of drive ports in each? How many USB drives do you have attached
to that computer? Or did you use Disk Management to change the drive
letter (from D, E, or something right after the hard disks) to Z?

Autorun disks also don't do anything.

AutoRun is a Windows thing, not a DOS thing. So that the same discs are
bootable or readable in DOS has nothing to do with the Windows AutoRun
function (that looks at the autorun.inf file to get a filename to know
what executable to load). An optical disc being bootable is not the
same thing as a file (which happens to be named autorun.inf) in whatever
file system used on the disc.

Under DOS, an optical disc is treated like a floppy. See:

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#whatis

So booting from the disc uses boot code stored in the boot sector. In
Windows, reading a disc means looking in the file system there and not
in some boot sector. A file (autorun.inf) with a bunch of lines of text
is not a boot image.

I've tried many different disks that are known to be good, that work on
other computers and on this one previously...but nothing will work.

You did a new install of Windows XP but it certainly appears it is NOT a
clean install (i.e., just Windows). You installed other software, too.
Did you try booting Windows into its safe mode and then retest the
optical drive?

Is this a commercial disc that was "printed" in a press to create the
pits? Or was a burned disc in a disc writer that relies on chemical
changes to emulate the pits?

Your optical drive supports CD and DVD formats. You aren't trying to
use BD (Blu-ray) discs in this drive, are you? The other test drives
where a disc reads okay might support CD/DVD/BD but yours is CD/DVD.

If an optical drive gets out of alignment, it won't read the tracks on
the disc. The discs will work in other drives because those other
drives are in alignment. Similarly (but not what you described),
burning a disc on a drive that is out of alignment will let that drive
read those discs but not other drives, or not without errors.

You said the discs were usable as boot discs. However, how much space
on the disc is being read by the drive? DOS programs are small so there
may be little used space on the disc. In Windows, it might be trying to
read files on other areas of the disc when it fails. Boot images are
small and the files you read might be small but perhaps the rest of the
disc's space is bad.

Are there any cloudy spots in the disc?

It's been a long time since I hit or had to help on this problem but I
remember that some optical drive software would screw up the
UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries in the registry for a class device
driver that controlled the definition of the optical device. Upper
filters sit between the OS and the main driver while lower filters site
between the OS and the hardware device.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894730

That has you delete the upper and lower filters. You'll have to test if
the device works okay after that. If not, you have to reinstall the
driver or the software that installed the driver and hope it gets these
filters setup correct. You reinstalled Windows XP but didn't mentioned
what burning programs or optical drive utilities you also installed.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driver...werfilters.htm
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driver...class-guid.htm

While the 2nd article mentions some generic class GUIDs for hardware,
you can be sure which one to use by opening the Device Management applet
(devmgmt.msc), look at the properties for the optical drive, go to the
Details tab, and select "Device class guid" in the Property drop-down
list. When I looked at mine in DevMgmt, its class GUID happened to
match the generic one for CDROM shown in the 2nd article.

"jbclem" wrote in message ...
I have an Asus DRW 24B1ST DVD RW device, was working fine for the last year.
On the same computer I made an new WinXP sp3 installation. The unit works
fine in DOS, I can install Windows from it, run bootCD disks, no problem.
But once in WinXP, although it's recognized in Device Manager and shown as
working properly, when I put in a disk and try to read it from My Computer,
I get a window (Z that is blank. Autorun disks also don't do anything.
I've tried many different disks that are known to be good, that work on
other computers and on this one previously...but nothing will work. Ztree
also can't access a disk in the unit. Same with GSpot.

I'm pretty sure it's not the disks, or the Asus device. But I don't know
how to troubleshoot this or find a solution. Can someone help me with this?
Thanks, John

Open the drive in "My Computer", click "View", "Explorer Bar", "Folders" and make the
drive is listed as a "DVD RW" drive. Also, make sure you have the correct version of
c:\windows\system32\drivers\udfs.sys

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818733

Ben

I checked under Explorer Bar, Folders. There's a list of the
drives/partitions and Z: is listed as "CD Drive". If I right click on that
folder and check it's properties/Hardware there is a list of "all disk
drives" including the Asus DRW-24B1ST c and under type it's listed as
DVD/CD-ROM.

Checking udfs.sys, the one on my computer is from 2004, newer than the ones
listed in the link that you included. This jives with the information that
the problem (not recognizing DVD-RW disk) was corrected with WinXP sp2,
which is what I have installed.

Hope this message gets through...I answered the previous reply to this
thread but apparently my two attempts were sent but not received by the
newsgroup.

"jbclem" wrote in message ...
I checked under Explorer Bar, Folders. There's a list of the
drives/partitions and Z: is listed as "CD Drive". If I right click on that
folder and check it's properties/Hardware there is a list of "all disk
drives" including the Asus DRW-24B1ST c and under type it's listed as
DVD/CD-ROM.

Checking udfs.sys, the one on my computer is from 2004, newer than the ones
listed in the link that you included. This jives with the information that
the problem (not recognizing DVD-RW disk) was corrected with WinXP sp2,
which is what I have installed.

Hope this message gets through...I answered the previous reply to this
thread but apparently my two attempts were sent but not received by the
newsgroup.

If there is more than one CD drive in the computer, right-click the "Z:" drive in "My Computer",
then click "Eject" and make sure the correct one opens.

Ben

There's only one CD drive...and when I try eject from My Computer, nothing
happens, and the CD Drive light doesn't flash. When I double click on the
Z: icon in My Computer, an empty window opens up and the CD drive light
doesn't flash. Looks like there is no communication between this WinXP
installation and the drive.

I tried to run the Asus windows installation program (ASUSWIN.EXE) and up
pops a window stating:

"no matched drive detected"
"this utility is only for Asus drive 24B1ST"
"detected drives: 1-0-0-0 Z: Asus DRW-24B1ST c 1.05"

That's all I know at this point. I've found an Asus DVD Suite dish and I'll
transfer the contents to a flash drive and see if running it will make any
difference.






"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
"jbclem" wrote in message
...
I checked under Explorer Bar, Folders. There's a list of the
drives/partitions and Z: is listed as "CD Drive". If I right click on
that
folder and check it's properties/Hardware there is a list of "all disk
drives" including the Asus DRW-24B1ST c and under type it's listed as
DVD/CD-ROM.

Checking udfs.sys, the one on my computer is from 2004, newer than the
ones
listed in the link that you included. This jives with the information
that
the problem (not recognizing DVD-RW disk) was corrected with WinXP sp2,
which is what I have installed.

Hope this message gets through...I answered the previous reply to this
thread but apparently my two attempts were sent but not received by the
newsgroup.

If there is more than one CD drive in the computer, right-click the "Z:"
drive in "My Computer",
then click "Eject" and make sure the correct one opens.

Ben