A few years back I got a dell with a TEAC DV-W58E dvd burner. For about a year it would record onto the dvd-r's just fine. Then all of a sudden it wouldn't recognize the blank discs. I would go to burn and it would just say "Please insert blank or rewritable disc." As far as I know I didn't change anything. It was too long ago to do one of those system restore things and go back a few days.

Throughout the entire time I used the burner I never once changed the dvd-r type (always stuck with Magnavox DVD+R), so I don't think its one of those +/- issues. I've tried multiple burning software and all of them give me about the same message so I don't think thats the problem. And finally I've tried every driver for it on the internet, I've even uninstalled the entire thing and started from scratch. No matter what I try I get that same message.

The burner can read DVDs just fine, it can even reads DVD-Rs that I burnt using the same TEAC. It can also still burn CD-Rs. I have a pretty decent knowledge of computer stuff and can usually solve these sort of problems on my own, but this time I'm really stumped. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This burner is old and what is the max burnspeed and how are the dvd media rated you have tried with???

The max burn speed seems to be 8x. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "dvd media rated".... If you mean what I'm trying to burn to, I've always used Magnavox DVD+R. If you mean what DVD I'm trying to burn from, it doesnt really matter. I'd burned from DVDs in the past and it worked fine, but now I can't even burn a small notepad file.

How are these +R rated, for what speed?

Ah, my bad. It says 8x on them.

Hm, that's weird.

Could you test the burner into another computer?

Nah, not really.

Could it have something to do with the region? My regular DVD drive, which doesnt have any problems is set at Region 0, while my burner is set on 1. It used to be set on Region 0 also though. I remember changing it a long time ago, but I don't remember why. My dvd player could always read the files I was trying to burn, even when it was set on Region 0.

The thing is, I can't seem to change it back.... I'm assuming Region 0 means region free? My computer only gives me a list of countries to select and then it automatically gives me the a region 1-5. Is there a way to get it back on Region 0, and if there was do you think it would even work?

I don't think it has to do with the regioning.....

Look here: http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=1827

What firmware is on your burner? Don't flash with one you don't know for sure!

I've tried both of those...the last one I did was the DOJ one. Neither changed anything.

I have the TEAC DV-W58E drive and have a question about the CD-RW format: Is there any software that allows this drive to delete individual document and other data files from a CD-RW disc just like a floppy drive can on a floppy disk?

If not, is there software that at least allows the drive to overwrite an existing file with an updated version of the same file, so there won’t be two versions of the same files on the disc? That way I wouldn't have to erase the entire CD just to purge it of old file versions or other unwanted files.

It’s sad that only DVD-RAM is said to be able to do this. That’s certainly of no use to me when I want to copy files from my home pc to a CD to load onto my office pc. The latter machine won’t even read DVDs, let alone DVD-RAM discs. Please advise.

You can do that by using crapped software like Incd.