Newbie here...

For two days I have read through this great forum searching for answers as to the sudden problems I am having with my 1655. I purchased the 1655 Sept 7th 06' and up until just 4 days ago, after exactly 100 clean burns on TY DVD-R discs, it just starts handing me coasters. Ironically I had just ordered new, identical TY media (Silver Thermal 8x DVD-R) from SuperMediaStore.com and so I thought that maybe I had received some bad media. So I went out and purchased some TDK DVD+RW (wanted to try messing around with re-writable media), took it home and it burned 3 ISO's fine. But then after trying to erase one of the RW's the 1655 started refusing to eject the media, refused to burn anything, and started throwing off error codes like Oprah deflecting a diet soda. I have upgraded the 1655 to the latest Firmware (BCIB I think it was called?) and even tried rolling it back to the previous firmware. I have never been able to figure out how to use Nero 7 Burning software to burn ISO's so I have always used the burner program in DivxToDVD to handle it. It has never failed until now. I get a write code error 030C00 and sometimes the 1655 ejects the disc and other times it refuses to eject requiring a reboot of the computer to get the disc out. Also, the drive won't read any of the past, successfully burned ISO disc's nor will it recognize any factory DVD movies. So basically I have a 1655 that is acting alot like my 7 year old. Tries to keep everything I give him and hands me garbage for my efforts. Do I have a bad drive? Do these drives fail this quickly? Any suggestions would be HUGELY appreciated!

Thanks!

Eric
San Diego, CA

Hey Eric........I've been out of the loop for a while now but you might find some info here . Hope this helps and welcome to the forum. I think you said you had Nero. If so, it could be helpful to some of us if you would use the Nero info tool and post. Also just for giggles, double check and make sure you didn't lose your DMA settings on the drive.

Welcome back Sportfish!

Thanks Bubba.

Thanks for the replies. I do have the Nero info tool but am not sure how to use it. When I open it it scans my comp's configuration, I guess, but I am not sure how I collect all that data and post it here. Do I just cut and paste the various sections of info on here like this?..... (Edited for length) (If you can direct me how to properly post a log from the Nero Info Tool I will do so promptly. Thanks for the assistance...)










Nero InfoTool 4.00

Interface Information
---------------------
Adapter 1
---------
Description : Primary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Master: WDC WD800JB-00JJA0
Type : Disk Drive
DMA : On

Adapter 2
---------
Description : Secondary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Slave: BENQ DVD LS DW1655
Type : CD-Rom Drive
DMA : Off
Autorun : On

Adapter 3
---------
Description : Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller

Driver
Description
Company : n/a
Version : n/a
Description : n/a



Software Information
--------------------
Operating System : Windows XP Home Edition (5.01.2600 Service Pack 2)
Country : United States
Language : English
ANSI Code Page : 1252
OEM Code Page : 437
DirectX : DirectX 9.0c

Description : Nero Burning ROM
Version : 7, 0, 1, 4
Company : Nero AG
Version Check : Ok


Hardware Information
--------------------
CPU : AMD Athlon MP 1500+ 1656 MHz
Bus Speed : 166 MHz
Motherboard : ASUSTeK A7V8X-X
System : System System Name
BIOS : Award ASUS A7V8X-X ACPI BIOS Revision 1010
Memory : 512 MB
Sound : C-Media Wave Device
Video : RADEON 9200 SERIES - Secondary



ASPI Information
----------------
System ASPI : ASPI is not installed

Nero ASPI : ASPI is installed and working properly

wnaspi32.dll : 2.0.1.74 164112 bytes November 02, 2004

AbikePeddler, you don't have a bad drive, but you have a bad system configuration.
Your BenQ beauty is running in far to slow mode to be able burning anything al all.

Read HERE how to enable UDMA on your drive.

I followed the suggestions on turning on the DMA and trying to get this turd working again but to no avail. When I looked, the DMA is on and when i used the Nero Info Tool it confirmed it. SO what do I do next. Here is what the latest Info Tool scan showed...



Nero InfoTool 4.00

Drive Information
------------------
Drive : BENQ DVD LS DW1655
Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder
Firmware Version : BCIB
Buffer Size : 2 MB
Date : ?
Serial Number : KWN5610499SC0
Vendor Specific : KWN5610499SC0
Drive Letter : D:\
Location : 1:1
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 16.0 , 12.0 , 8.0 , 6.0 , 4.0 X
Write Speed : 48 X

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : No
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : No
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : Yes
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : Yes
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-ROM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : Yes
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : Yes
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : Yes
Write DVD-RAM : No
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : Yes
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 1
Changes User : 4
Changes Vendor : 4

Disc Information (D:\)
-------------------
Type : Blank DVD+RW


Interface Information
---------------------
Adapter 1
---------
Description : Primary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Master: WDC WD800JB-00JJA0
Type : Disk Drive
DMA : On

Adapter 2
---------
Description : Secondary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Slave: BENQ DVD LS DW1655
Type : CD-Rom Drive
DMA : On
Autorun : On

Adapter 3
---------
Description : Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller




Hardware Information
--------------------
CPU : AMD Athlon MP 1500+ 1656 MHz
Bus Speed : 166 MHz
Motherboard : ASUSTeK A7V8X-X
System : System System Name
BIOS : Award ASUS A7V8X-X ACPI BIOS Revision 1010
Memory : 512 MB
Sound : C-Media Wave Device
Video : RADEON 9200 SERIES - Secondary


ASPI Information
----------------
System ASPI : ASPI is not installed

Nero ASPI : ASPI is installed and working properly

wnaspi32.dll : 2.0.1.74 164112 bytes November 02, 2004

Now that DMA is on, try doing a benchmark read test now with CD Speed and post the result here.

Hoping I did this right. I put in a blank TY DVD-R in the drive and ran the Nero CD-DVD Speed program and this is what I got... Obviously something is wrong with either my computers setup in relation to the burner or the drive itself is bad. ANy further input would be greatly appreciated.

please use a full (previously recorded) disc for that, not a blank one.

Is it just me or has anyone else seen that there seems to be no master drive on the secondary IDE Channel??........perhaps an issue?? OR am I missing something?

ohhh - ups...
good seen!

Eric, if there is only one drive on the secondary IDE-channel, you have to set it to "master"...(see the jumper on the back of the drive)

It's just you.
There is no need for any master. BenQ drives come set to slave at default.

@AbikePeddler, your last posted pic looks okay, because you have used 4x speed setting in CD Speed (as it seems).
Choose "max" setting next time.

When using Nero CD-DVD Speed, the drive will not recognize previously recorded discs! Neither factory recorded discs (I used "The Right Stuff" movie) nor will it recognize any of my back-up recorded discs on TY media. I will only recognize blank DVD-R's. I assume there is no point to running the Nero CD-DVD Speed test again on blank media, right? (That is why we are called "newbies"... I am really on a steep learning curve here... bare with me...) I have switched the jumper on the back of the 1655 to Master and still no change. If I try to burn a disc now I am still getting write failures with the code 030C00. Anyone have a hammer?


Here is the latest configuration/drive info...






Nero InfoTool 4.00

Drive Information
------------------
Drive : BENQ DVD LS DW1655
Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder
Firmware Version : BCIB
Buffer Size : 2 MB
Date : ?
Serial Number : KWN5610499SC0
Vendor Specific : KWN5610499SC0
Drive Letter : D:\
Location : 1:0
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 16.0 , 12.0 , 8.0 , 6.0 , 4.0 X
Write Speed : 4.0 X

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : No
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : No
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : Yes
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : Yes
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-ROM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : Yes
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : Yes
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : Yes
Write DVD-RAM : No
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : Yes
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 1
Changes User : 4
Changes Vendor : 4


Interface Information
---------------------
Adapter 1
---------
Description : Primary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Master: WDC WD800JB-00JJA0
Type : Disk Drive
DMA : On

Adapter 2
---------
Description : Secondary IDE Channel

Driver
Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver

Attached Devices
Description : Master: BENQ DVD LS DW1655
Type : CD-Rom Drive
DMA : On
Autorun : On

Adapter 3
---------
Description : Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller

Driver
Description
Company
Version
Description

Attached Devices
Description : Generic USB SD Reader USB Device
Type : Disk Drive
Description : Generic USB CF Reader USB Device
Type : Disk Drive
Description : Generic USB SM Reader USB Device
Type : Disk Drive
Description : Generic USB MS Reader USB Device
Type : Disk Drive



Hardware Information
--------------------
CPU : AMD Athlon MP 1500+ 1656 MHz
Bus Speed : 166 MHz
Motherboard : ASUSTeK A7V8X-X
System : System System Name
BIOS : Award ASUS A7V8X-X ACPI BIOS Revision 1010
Memory : 512 MB
Sound : C-Media Wave Device
Video : RADEON 9200 SERIES - Secondary


ASPI Information
----------------
System ASPI : ASPI is not installed

Nero ASPI : ASPI is installed and working properly

wnaspi32.dll : 2.0.1.74 164112 bytes November 02, 2004

If I'm allowed to ask:
WHO told you, that you can run a drive set to slave (without having a master), and not getting any troubles??
Some motherboards don't even boot up with such a configuration..

Many drives came with jumper set to slave, so that you can install it on the same channel as your existing Master-DVDROm, .....

...lmfao...

...now back to ABikePeddlers situation...hmmm

What are you using to create the ISOs? DVDShrink? Why not burn the ISOs with IMGBurn?
or..Why not output VOB/IFOs and then use Nero to burn with to try it that way?

BTW...my Q 1655 also has that occasional 'stuck on reading' problem which requires for me to manually open the drive bay to get the disc out and to reboot the PC to get the drive back up and running...maybe 4 or 5 times in the past year or so...but nothing like the problems you're experiencing with yours, and it always still sees all the DVDs...originals or back-ups.

Now bear with me on the terminology here but I am using DIVX2DVD to create files I can then burn to disc. Maybe they are not called "ISO" files? Are they call IFO files? I could never figure all the terms out in relation to this stuff. I just now used GSpot to look at one of the files and it says the following... VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB

Now if the files are to big to fit to a disc I will use DVDShrink to shrink it down but in answer to your question, I do not use DVD Shrink very often. Again, this buner worked PERFECTLY from the moment I installed in in September. I mean it kicked ASS for exactly 100 burns and then... Poof.. all this started. I didn't install any new software so I don't think there is a conflict in that area. I did try some new media as mentioned in my inital posting but even that TDK media kicked out 3 successful burns before it itself ceased being accepted.

Thanks to everyone helping me with this. Your time is much appreciated.

Eric
San Diego, CA

you know, BCDB has been the most successful firmware for this drive for me..not sure how many new firmwares are in between mine and yours, but I tried a couple beyond mine with very poor results and had to go back to BCDB.

What firmware was the 100 successes with? And did you change it before these problems started? BTW, BCHB and BCIB were the two I tried with poor results before going back to BCDB....AFAIK

I believe my drive had BCDB from the factory but is currently running BCIB (Is that the latest?) I updated the firmware to the latest after all this started happening in an attempt to solve it. I also went back to BCDB to see if that helped. Nothing. At one point I attempted to uninstall the whole mess, unplug the drive, reboot the computer so it recognized that there was no drive and no firmware for any drives and then i tried reinstalling the whole thing. Still, nothing.


Eric
San Diego, CA

It is not out of the realm of possibilty that your BenQ is dying, hopefully not. How long was the warranty again? I forget.

Unfortunately that's all I can think of since, different software, firmware, and hardware configuration changes did not help.
As for the single drive on an IDE channel set to master, that's best for optimum drive performance.

I'll keep mulling over this to see if something comes to mind.

Well I have used it alot although you'd think it would survive more then 100 burns. Maybe that's the thing. They engineer it to do just 100 discs... (Insert sound of extreme sarcasm here.)

Eric

OK, I've re-read most of your posts and see that the drive itself is not the one that can't recognize the original or back-up DVDs, but rather the Nero CD Speed??
Does the drive read and play those discs? If yes, then you are only getting these write errors when burning with DivxToDVDs' burn engine?
Since you have Nero, you should attempt to try Nero Burning Rom again to burn with, just to rule out the DivxToDVD program as the problem, and not the drive itself.

Open Nero Burning Rom...
Click DVD Video Files....
Click on the 'Add' tab....
Browse to the movie folder...
Then to the VIDEO_TS folder & highlight it and 'add' that folder...
This will pull up all the VOB, IFO, & BUP files to the project window of Burning Rom...

Click next...until you get to where to burn to and choose the BenQ as the destination...

Try this and if it still fails, it may very well be the drive failing....

BTW, my 1655 has burned over 200 and is still going strong, so your 1655 should not be dying yet either.

Are you asking me if Nero Speed is the culprit or just talking (writing) outloud?

The drive has never played burned discs when I have asked it to. Never. I has burned stuff like a champ, just has never played any DVD's. It would load various drivers on disc fine but never DVD movies. I didn't think about that till you mentioned it. But it will use DVD Decrypter to make back-ups. Weird.


Ok I followed your directions and did in fact figure out how to add the files and it even went as far as to say it was burning the disc, but in the end it errored out when using a TY DVD-R as well as errored out when using TDX DVD+RW's.



Ok, if the drive is taking a big ol' dump in it's pants, what would be a good replacement drive? I use it mainly for burning movies. Do i dare go back to a BenQ? (stupid question I know as these are supposedly very good drives... but once bitten...)


Outside of the great fortune of your assistance with this mess, apparently I am not lucky enough to get a burner that will last past a Centennial.

Just wondering what kind of coaster do you mean? Disc quality scan shows high PI/PO errors? Transfer Rate slowdowns?

Can it read CD blanks, data and music?
So it recognize DVD blanks? How about testing create data disc (you will need to sacrifice a disc):
- Insert a blank DVD
- Open up Nero CD-DVD Speed
- Click "Create Disc" tab
- Click Start.
Nero CD-DVD Speed will write your disc and after it's done please do a screenshot and post the image here.

Also please post a FULL log of Nero InfoTools, use [code] tags.