LG DVD Rewriter (GH22LS50) issue...or is it?

[Shagga]

Hi all.

I could do with the guru of forums helping me with a problem that has me foxed...completely.

All of a sudden, my LG DVD rewriter stopped reading any media that's both CD's and DVD's. That's when trying to browse the media in explorer or even trying to boot from the drive, nothing.

If I select the drive in explorer, if no media is in the drive I get a message saying "insert a disc, Please insert a disc into drive x." I insert a disc, close the tray and the LED on the front flashes green as it tries to read the media (this can be blank or have data on it). The LED stops but explorer seems to hang in a state of flux. It does however recover if I eject media.

I've also noticed that whilst trying to read the media I cannot start a browser, until the media has been ejected. All other software works fine whilst explorer is stuck in temporary suspended animation.

Things I've checked and done.

1. The DVD drive is recognised in the BIOS. However, I cannot boot from a bootable media.
2. I've changed the SATA cable
3. I've tested the media in other PC's and they are fine.
4. I've removed the device from the device manager, rebooted, reinstalled the drivers.
5. I've updated the firmware.
6. I've purchased a new DVD Re-writer but the same symptoms persist.
7. The device manager says the device is installed and working properly.
8. I can right click on the drive and pull up the drives properties, again it reports the drive is fine.
9. I've run a virus scan, with Kaspersky 2010 and no viruses, trojans etc found.
10. I've run the MS fix app. that runs through fine, but becasue the drive will not read any data I cannot complete the test.

I'm at a loss what to do now. I thought it might be a Vista issue, but cannot even reinstall the OS as the DVD drive won't read the data!

I'm struggling with this one. Any advice/pointers would be very much appreciated.

Regards,

Rich

 

[Fardringle]

If the drive can't read bootable discs on top of the other symptoms, it sounds like it's time to get a new drive.

 

[zagood]

6. I've purchased a new DVD Re-writer but the same symptoms persist.

whoa.

Have you...tried it on a different sata port/chipset?

If using AHCI (in bios) switch to IDE?

Tested the drive itself in another PC?

Sounds like a motherboard/bios problem, or just some random setting. Has to be outside of Windows since you can't boot media. Could even be something like a trace being shorted out on the underside of the mobo.

p.s. more ideas...

Increase the Delay For HDD in BIOS (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277824-31-build-boot-drive)

 

[Fardringle]

Ah, I missed the new drive part. I agree that it has to be a BIOS setting or a problem with the motherboard since you have the issue with multiple drives, different SATA cables, and both in and out of Windows.

 

[Shagga]

Thanks for the feedback Guys. I appreciate it.

I'm running RAID 0 for my Hard Drives so IDE/AHCI won't work unfortunately. The LG Rewriter worked fine if I'm honest and then it just decided to stop working.

I suspected it might be the motherboard if I'm honest which is a bit of a blow if it is. Is there any sort of diagnostic software I could run to check to see if the Motherboard is functioning correctly (albeit I'm almost convinced it is the motherboard) as I just want to be sure?

Could be a short so I'll take the mobo out and re-seat it. See if that helps.... ARGH...I hate technology...when its not working.

Thanks again.

 

[Shagga]

Just an update.

I removed the motherboard and noticed all of the securing screws were loose. Anyway, re-fixed the motherboard connected all the hardware and started it up.

Unfortunately, the DVD drive still doesn't work. So, thought I'd disconnect one of the SATA hard drives and use this SATA port to connect the DVD drive to. Still the same problem. Okay I thought, I'll connect one of the HD to the SATA port that was used by the DVD drive. Everything is fine, HD works as it should.

So, what does this tell me. I think it tells me there is nothing wrong with the motherboard.

ARGH!!! Anyone got any more thoughts?

 

[superunknown98]

You said the computer won't boot from the vista dvd, what about some sort of linux distro? What about a bios update for the motherboard?

 

[zagood]

That means that mechanically your motherboard is "probably" ok, doesn't mean that your BIOS is set correctly. With the BIOS set to RAID mode, it's probably looking at every SATA port for additional hard drives. I haven't done RAID on an ASUS mobo before, but there's got to be something in the BIOS or in the Intel Matrix storage manager that lets you specify a port as not being in the array. Gigabyte boards are easy since they use two different chipsets.

 

[Shagga]

You said the computer won't boot from the vista dvd, what about some sort of linux distro? What about a bios update for the motherboard?

The DVD drive has worked fine for quite some time without needing a BIOS update, however, not really thinking a BIOS update would rectify the problem I did do this also. Unfortunately it didn't work. Not sure what to do about using some Linux distribution software at this stage so I'll give it some thought.

 

[Shagga]

That means that mechanically your motherboard is "probably" ok, doesn't mean that your BIOS is set correctly. With the BIOS set to RAID mode, it's probably looking at every SATA port for additional hard drives. I haven't done RAID on an ASUS mobo before, but there's got to be something in the BIOS or in the Intel Matrix storage manager that lets you specify a port as not being in the array. Gigabyte boards are easy since they use two different chipsets.

That was my thought also. The Motherboard has 6 x SATA ports and my setup was like so -

SATA 1 & 2 has a couple of HDD in Raid 0
SATA 3 & 4 has an individual HDD on each channel (Not raid)
SATA 5 has the DVD Writer on it
SATA 6 is empty.

The Raid controller seemed to recognise that channels 3, 4 and 5 were not a Raid setup and seemed to use them as a normal IDE channel.

I'll read through the BIOS once again to see if I've missed anything but once you select RAID the options change and IDE etc doesn't become an option if that makes sense.

It is possible the Raid controller/driver needs to be configured in some way but I've not had to do this before. I'll look into this as it seems plausible. I'll report back shortly.

Thanks again guys.

[edit]

This is a screen shot of the device manager. Does the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers look right?

http://www.zen89393.zen.co.uk/Archive/Images/General/device_manager.gif

I checked out the Intel Matrix storage manager and the two single HDD's are identified as non raid drives but doesn't identify the port with the DVD drive connected...

 

[zagood]

wtf man.

I'm all out of ideas. I'd recommend posting in motherboards, or on the asus ROG site, someone with that motherboard will probably chime in with some decent advice.

 

[Shagga]

I appreciate your time so thanks for that. I'm at a complete loss with this one, it's doing my box in. I have a thread running in the Asus formum but to be honest they are coming up with less than AT!

Arghhhh!!!

 

[Shagga]

Well I thought I would update this thread with the outcome of what turned into the longest ever problem I have had on a PC without being resolved.

After having hit a brick wall with this one I left the problem alone, refusing to buy a new motherboard and tried to get on without the DVD writer/Rom drive. To be fair I have managed but alas and eventually it becomes necessary.

Anyway, I decided that I would try to resolve the problem once and for all over the weekend and after "a lot" of head scratching I was able to resolve it. When I look back, it becomes fairly obvious but this one escaped me for quite some time.

So what was it you ask. Well, it was all down to the connection between the PSU and the Burner. The power cable which can be detached from the PSU appears to be faulty or perhaps even on of the 12v rails on the PSU. I changed the SATA cable like you would expect but never even thought it would be the power cable and why should it I ask myself as Vista was able to see the drive and reported everything was fine.

Once I had tried a new power cable/port on the PSU I was able to read what was on the DVD/CD within the LG drive so everything was back to normal. Well not really. I then had a massive issue trying to get Nero/Image Burn to recognise the drive as a DVD writer. Although I resolved it in the end (albeit I'm not sure how) everything is back to normal and I only bought a new DVD writer on this problem so it didn't cost too much. Only time and a loss of hair through countless hours deliberating.

Thanks for your help.

 

[KGB]

Now THAT'S persistence!!! Good job.

 

[Shagga]

Now THAT'S persistence!!! Good job.

lol, thank you, but it wasn't out of choice I can tell you. Right, I'll look at upgrading now. Could you imagine upgrading and still having the problem as I would have kept the PSU.