Greetings,

I've been having a problem similar to a lot of people -- my Sony DW-D56A CD/DVD drive is not recognizing data CDs or music CDs. It does, however, recognize audio (burned) CDs.

I am using WinXP Pro on a Dell Inspiron 9300, and have burned 30-50 audio CDs and a couple of DVDs in the past. I was using Maxell and Memorex blank CDs.

I first noticed a problem when I was burning a couple of television programs to DVD, and the burn was unsuccessful -- whereas the day before I was able to burn a TV program to DVD.

Here is what I've done:

• Updated firmware to PDS7
• Set ASPI to the recommended 4.60
• Digital music recording is enabled
• DMA is on

The drive couldn't recognize ANY media until I flashed the firmware to PDS7 (though the laptop always recognized the drive). I tried booting to a Windows OS Backup CD, but the computer didn't recognize it (since, I guess, it's a data CD).

I have researched this for hours, and have tried every suggested solution I could find, to no avail. It seems to me that the problem lies somewhere "between" hardware (since the drive works for audio CDs, and the computer indicates the drive is working properly) and software (since all Windows Media, Real player, etc., show the same results).

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and regards,
Scott