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Help save Mandylion's CD-ROM drive - become a legend

Mandylion

Omnipotence personified
Contributor
15 Mar 2003
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Well, after almost two years of trouble-free computing, the CD-ROM drive on my laptop is acting up. I would love any advice you could give to fix this problem. Here is the skinny -

I bought a Hitachi DVD Camcorder and installed the software that comes with it - a USB dirver, something else that starts with a U and also is related to connecting the camera to the computer, and two DVD edit/making programs.

Somewhere along the line, my CD-ROM drive developed an attitude.

Now, if I put any blank media CD-ROM disk into the drive, the computer refuses to open the F: drive by either a double click on the icon, a right click open command, or by accessing it through other windows. I did not have this problem before the Hitachi Incident. I get either one of two error messages 1) "Cannot access F: drive, Incorrect function" or 2) "No disk in drive, please insert a disk."

This is inspite of the fact that the F: drive icon changes to show a disk is in the drive - it even tells me what type it is...

I have run every troubleshooting guide Windows XP has and nothing seems to work. All my drivers are kosher and running fine. I don't have this problem with disks that already have something written on them, and I can write to the F: drive by the send command when you right click on a file, so all hope is not lost.

This is more of a pain in the rear than a crippling problem. It is just that I play with a lot of media files in the course of a day and not being able to quickly access my CD-ROM drive is a bother. I have contacted Hitachi and am waiting to hear what wonderful sollution they are going to offer. In the meantime, I thought I would let our wonderful JREF tech community take a crack at it.

(I'm running a Japanese Windows XP home edition on a Japanese computer with a Japanese Hitachi software (by the way, everything on the Japanese version of XP is in the exact same place, so don't let that stop you:)))
 
How About....

Uninstalling all the new software, and seeing if it works like the good ol days? Or maybe first using System Restore to go back to a date before you installed the new stuff. Knowing the new software is the only problem may help you find a solution? If it turns out to be the new software, maybe load one program or section at a time till you find the software that is causing the problem.Then you could load that program in only when you need to use it, uninstall it when not useing it? Good luck!!

Frank

:?
 
Thanks Frank :) I'll give that a try in a bit - had crossed my mind... Right now I am fishing for answers.

Bring 'em on!
 
Possibly the program jumble the device enumeration around... have you already looked on Hitachi's homepage for the most actual version of the program?
The programs on CD are most times some vintage versions which exhibit some strange problems more often than not 😌
 
Lina - yes, I have had a snoop around Hitachi's site, and the only patches so far are for the editing/burning programs (in Chinese and I think Spanish). The Hitachi DVDCAM is fairly new, released in Japan I think in April or March, so that might be part of the problem... We'll see.
 
Well, I'm not an expert, but have you tried deleting the drive from the hardware list & then re-install it?

Or take a look at the boot menu! On my girlfriend's computer both CD drives disappeared mysteriously from the hardwarelist (nobody deleted them, no new software installed, nothing). After I put them into the boot menu manually, everything worked fine again.
 
I hesitate to delete the drive, I have never done that before.
I assume I would need the drivers to reinstall it? I know for sure I don't have them on disk and they are not free over the web (I have checked)

What is the boot menu? How do I move things to it?
 
To remove a device, do the following:
1. My Computer->Properties
2. Select "Hardware" tab
3. Click on "Device Manager"
4. Select the device in question and click the "Uninstall" button in the toolbar (that's the striked out computer icon)

But I'd say, check the device status first. If you right click on the device and select "Properties", you can see the device status - it will tell you if there's anything wrong with the device. There's also a "Trouble shooting" button which can provide some helpful advice.
 
Hmm, I have run through that process, and the drive says it is functioning normally, and I have run all the trouble shooting promgrams I can get my hands on...
 
Will do Frank. Still waiting for Hitachi before I proceed. I would like someone to blame who is not me if things get worse :)
 
Mandylion said:
I hesitate to delete the drive, I have never done that before.
I assume I would need the drivers to reinstall it? I know for sure I don't have them on disk and they are not free over the web (I have checked)

What is the boot menu? How do I move things to it?
The drivers are not available online? That's strange, I have an Afreey drive, & even found a driver for this thing. What exotic thingy do you have?
Anyway, there should be some generic drivers included in Windows XP. Not that I recommend deleting it if you're not sure you have one that fits!

With boot menu I mean the BIOS, the option should be available right after you start your computer: "Hit DEL to enter setup"

Could be a good idea to look there, anyway.
If you change anything in there & your laptop doesn't work properly anymore, you can always enter again & go back to the default system settings.
 
Mandylion said:
Will do Frank. Still waiting for Hitachi before I proceed. I would like someone to blame who is not me if things get worse :)

I'm curious when computers started getting so weird and too advanced that they are not becoming as user-friendly as they use to be?

I use a Japanese computer too and I have problems too....I think it is from mixing American and Japanese software sometimes even though it shouldn't affect it at all and also mixing different brand software (EX. Sony and Hitachi, or HP and Sony, etc..)

That's just my opinion.
 
Usually it's a driver problem. I dunno why but my friend who bought a penpad in tokyo had a really hard time to install it, since the technology is more advanced in japan than in europe and he couldn't install the jp drivers on an European OS.

However Mandylion, are you sure you haven't tried to change your cd rom's firmware?
Maybe it's also an autorun problem (I mean your Camcorder software installed some media-autodetect things that makes your cd-rom drive try to read any media you put inside...)
 
dreamer said:
Usually it's a driver problem. I dunno why but my friend who bought a penpad in tokyo had a really hard time to install it, since the technology is more advanced in japan than in europe and he couldn't install the jp drivers on an European OS.

However Mandylion, are you sure you haven't tried to change your cd rom's firmware?

That's what I'm talking about...computer & electronics have become so "user-unfriendly"

But that is due to business and money.
 
mandylion, if you can give me a near complete list of your system specs, eg
processor & speed
ram
motherboard
cdrom drive
comp manufacturer
and anything else you might think helpful, ill post the problem on a tech forum and see if anyone there has any ideas.
 
For the record, my CD-ROM drive is a Matsushita UJDA730 DVD/CDRW. I've searched the net, but not really long and hard, for drivers to no avail. I'll give it another go when I have some freetime.

Dreamer - Thanks for the help, how would I change my firmware?

Jeisan - I'll give you what I can :) Thank you. I think I know most of that off the top of my head, but I'll wait to get home and confirm....

Buddha Smoker - I hear ya'! I've had a lot fewer problems with software language mixing in XP than I did in Win98 and others. On my XP now I have Photoshop and a few other big programs I run in English - very any problems. But the mixing issue shouldn't apply here, since both the computer and software are made for Japan.
 
Mandylion said:
For the record, my CD-ROM drive is a Matsushita UJDA730 DVD/CDRW. I've searched the net, but not really long and hard, for drivers to no avail. I'll give it another go when I have some freetime.

Found it on driverguide.com. Tried to PM it to you, but it seems there is no attachment for PMs. You can delete it after you downloaded it.

Be careful, though! From the webpage:

"ujda730
Matsushita (Matshita Panasonic) - DVD Drives
cdrom.sys

Before you download...

If you are installing a Windows driver, DriverGuide strongly recommends that you backup your existing drivers before installing new ones. "
 

Attachments

  • cdrom.zip
    25.8 KB · Views: 75
Thanks Bossel, I shall put in on file for future use! I shall also remember that website... Fantastic! 🙂
 
Jeisan -

AMD 1.1 Ghz processor
240 MB RAM
27.95 GB memory
??? motherboard (whatever it came with)
Matsushita UJDA730 DVD/CDRW (not a external drive)
Sharp Mebius PC-FS2-C1M laptop computer
Windows XP home edition

Never had any trouble in two years, do all my system checks and scans at least once every ten days, I have run all the troubleshooting things I had or can think of, CD-ROM drive says it is functioning normally. No mixing of software/hardware going on (ie American market computer with Japanese market software etc.)
 
Mandylion said:
Well, after almost two years of trouble-free computing,

If it has been 2 years sense you last install of windows you really need to reinstall it. Some computer geeks reinstall windows once every 2 months.
Windows can get messed up sometimes. Well with Windows NT ( 2000, XP)
you dont have to reinstall as much as you did with Windows 95 and 98.

I use to reinstall once a month Back when I was a hard core gamer. I was always wanting the best performance. Reinstalling gets rid of all unknow spyware that Ad-Aware does not pick up.

Now is the time to back up all of your data and reinstall.

Or you can try to remove the drive and reinstall it. Windows should detect the drive all by its self.

Windows makes me do this a lot :banghead: .
 
Thanks guys - I'm working through a bevy of ideas from the Hitachi people (none of which have worked yet) and page after page of Windows knowledge resource stuff. I'll take the reinstalling windows idea and add it on the list! What it looks like it is, is a UDF problem. Roxio, the default CD burner for my computer runs on version 1 something while the Hitachi cam needs version 2 something, thus causing a big conflict. I have gotten my drive to recognize all media except blank DVD-R(W)s and have sloved the origional "incorrect function" problem - I'll let you know how that went when I have a bit more time on my hands...hopefully when I get this secondary issue sorted.

Thanks again guys.

I'll be in touch.
 
Well, good luck!
Now that you know the problem, it may be (yeah, maybe) a lot easier to find a solution.

Hope, you won't have to re-install. Had to install XP recently, after I messed up my Win98 system completely (by installing an ACDsee demo). It took me several days to re-gain the former functionality. It's still not really convenient.
 
Mandylion said:
Thanks guys - I'm working through a bevy of ideas from the Hitachi people (none of which have worked yet) and page after page of Windows knowledge resource stuff. I'll take the reinstalling windows idea and add it on the list! What it looks like it is, is a UDF problem. Roxio, the default CD burner for my computer runs on version 1 something while the Hitachi cam needs version 2 something, thus causing a big conflict. I have gotten my drive to recognize all media except blank DVD-R(W)s and have sloved the origional "incorrect function" problem - I'll let you know how that went when I have a bit more time on my hands...hopefully when I get this secondary issue sorted.
Looks like the Hitachi driver updated everything to version 2 which it needs in order to work properly, but the CD burner was manufactured for version 1 (because at that time there was no version 2 yet) and doesn't seem to work properly with version 2. You could try to backdate everything to version 1 again (which would probably return the CD burner to proper operation, but prevent the Hitachi stuff from working properly 😌 )
Anyway, hope you get your stuff working again :haihai:
 
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