Help my combo DVD burner will read DVD's but not CD's

[Turd1327]

I just got a sony AW-Q170A-B2 combo dvd burner driver from Newegg and installed it in my new build. I have Windows Vista home basic running. The drive will read the installation DVD and my battlefield 2 installation dvd. When I put in an audio CD or a software title on CD the drive will not recognize it and vista tells me to put in an appropriate CD. I can't find any location for firmware to flash the sony drive. is this a Vista thing? Or do I need a specific driver or something? Device manager says the drive is installed and is working correctly.
Please help

 

[Thunderfox]

Do you have a bootable CD you can test? An old XP disc will do, or Vista itself if it comes on a CD rather than a DVD (don't know which).

If you can boot your machine from a CD, that will tell you that it's a software problem rather than hardware.

 

[goldragon_70]

Actually, I have a DVD burner with the same problem. It's a light on, but I don't remember the model, I can find it though being I use it as a second drive. I've tried a second os to boot from, Knoppix and stuff, and the other doesn't work. It won't burn, play, or even read a cd, but no problems with a DVD. I've tried alone on IDE connection in a known good IDE cable, in a known good connector on the Mobo, and still nothing. tried playing a CD with it just powered up and not connected another way (has a head phone jack). The manufacturer said it doesn’t have a second lens, but couldn't find out if there was anything else I could do.

 

[Turd1327]

it will not boot my windows xp install cd...it has not read any cd's...ugh i'm just tired of all this vista compatibility crap...

 

[goldragon_70]

it will not boot my windows xp install cd...it has not read any cd's...ugh i'm just tired of all this vista compatibility crap...

If you just used another OS and it's not seeing the CD then it's not vista.

 

[nukemaster]

Bad Post

 

[goldragon_70]

goldragon_70's Lite ON may be the same as your sony. allot of sony drives are made by lite on, as such if you have only the lens and focus system for DVD, then its time to bitch at sony.... or at lease RMA to see if its a bad drive.

The liteon that I have, I had for more then 90 days before the problem happened, and now the DVD Drive is over 3 years old. Still reads DVD's though, so I use it as a second drive.

 

[nukemaster]

Had it for 90 days. well scratch that idea.

All mine went the other way...CD worked and i blew the dvd part

 

[goldragon_70]

Well, I haven't found any great code or anything to answer my problem. It's down right time for me to open the thing up and look inside. 8)

 

[darth_farter]

Same problem with my 8x single layer liteon SOHW-something from 2003 dvd's yes, but CD's no.

did it's duty though so I went with a SATA DVD burner from liteon. works really nicely the last 5 burns.

 

[goldragon_70]

It was eather 2003 or 2004 that I got my liteon.

Edit: it's an 8X dvd +r burner model LDW-851S made December 2003.

 

[hellokeith]

Exact same problem here.

LG all-format DVD/CD burner bought about 4 months ago. DVD's are fine, but will not read/write any kind of CD including store-bought music CD and CD-RW's.

 

[tnbasrc]

Same here. NEC 3540a, reads DVD's fine, movies and software. But will not read any CD's, music or software. Will not detect them at all. Puzzled.

 

[echoflake]

Mine's a Liteon LH-18A1H 487C. Got it for the dual layer and the lightscribe less than 2 weeks ago, worked fine for 1 week. Uses generic Microsoft CDROM driver but won't read CDs. Nero software tells me it reads CDs too, but won't recognize any CD I put in. DVD's fine so far. Strange. Not booting so I'm taking it back before the warranty expires.

 

[hacker91]

I had a HP 740 I drive. same thing it would read DVD but refused to read or burn CDs. I had the drive about 3 months and took it back to walmart. Gave a lame story and got a sony that works perfectly. My Sony is a 820

 

[chocobocorey]

Same here. NEC 3540a, reads DVD's fine, movies and software. But will not read any CD's, music or software. Will not detect them at all. Puzzled.

same problem for me too, same drive - 3540a. one day it just decided not to work with CDs anymore. so i have that to burn dvds and another cd rw drive to do my CDs.

seems like a lot of cd drives do these after a bit of use. the ps2 seemed to have this problem too, if i recall. it would read ps2 dvds, but not ps1 cds after a while.

 

[mike99]

If you cannot boot from a bootable CD, it is BROKEN!
It is NOT a windows problem. If you have just bought it or it is under Warranty, get it exchanged! There are two different lasers, one for CDs and a different one for DVDs. So you all have faulty CD lasers.

Mike.

 

[smvans7]

I have the SAME PROBLEM.

The problem ABSOLUTELY 100% is Vista. My XP CD and Vista DVD both boot at start up.

Get into the OS and suddenly any CD I put in is not detected by Vista at all!

I should have gotten a freakin' Mac!

 

[FourBin Labs]

Has there been ant real solution for this. There is some major software problems going around. I have two identically burners that are both less that a year old. both in the same comp. this problem (reading dvd's and not cd's) happened all at once. The question is, is there a common denominator, someone said they had vista I have XP. Have we all installed the same burning software or the same image software that somehow gets in the way between the OS & the hardware?

I have installed at some point:
Nereo 8.3.13.0
Magic Disc
Magic ISO

Is it possible that this is actually some type of malware that has modified a system file or registry entry?

 

[FourBin Labs]

I solved it.

If your winXP check your registry under: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

if there is a string labeled either UpperFilters or LowerFilters. If either of these mention "PxHelp20.sys" remove it. You should see results almost instantly.
Another way to look for this is to go into device manager and look at the properties for the drive in question. In the driver tab see if that file is mentioned.

If you have vista it might be the same, but if not try running a search in your registry for this file.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to FourBin Labs hint, I solved my problem. I have Vista Home Premium. All It needed was:

- "Run" Regedit
- search for "PxHelp20.sys"
- Rename the folder "PxHelp20" to "_PxHelp20". (This is in th left pane that shows the folder tree like thing)

Done !

I could start setup programs, listen to audio on CDs, immediately after closing the Regedit program.

Thanks again !

 

[Guest]

can't find this in windows xp

 

[Guest]

Try installing the newest firmware from the manufacters website , i had the same problem , reading dvd's was fine but cd's he didn't even see them at all eventhough he read/burn them before , after installing latest firmware everything is ok !

 

[buwish]

This topic has been closed by Buwish