DVD Drive Problem

[Barefoot_Tom]

My OS is Windows Xp, but I doubt that the problem I have is connected to the OS.

I have a Samsung CDRW/DVD -SM352 F drive installed in my computer. It no longer is willing to write to DVDs. The computer recognizes the drive, and will display videos on that drive. It will copy any files to my computer; and it will burn CDs. It will, however not recognize the presence of a DVD disk when I try to burn something to it.

I have installed the latest driver updates. I have two burner programs: CDBurnerXP and IMGBurn, and neither will work. Both programs mis-identify the disk in the drive as either being a CD disk, or not being writable.

My question is: does anyone have any idea what is causing the problem; and, if so, how I can solve it?

Perhaps I have to install a different drive.

Any help would be welcome.

[patio]

Many optical drives have seperate burn lasers for the CD and the DVD...
Sounds like the DVD burn laser is shot.
Generally the burners these days last approx. 2 to 3 years...

[DaveLembke]

I agree with Patio on that its likely a failed drive. The good thing is that a replacement is cheap these days. I bought an LG DVD-RW for like $18 at newegg 5 months ago and continually see them for sale cheap.

[artbuc]

I recently had a similar problem and did a fair amount of research on it. The DVD laser has a slightly different wavelength and tends to fail much sooner than the CD laser. My experience has been 3-4 years DVD laser life even though I almost never use it.

[patio]

I've never gotten even close to 4 years with the new units...