CD Drive problem

Morning all,

Last night I was trying to save some data on CD and I ran into a problem. I was using Sonic the first time and CD Burner XP Pro the second time. I was able to format the CD but when I tried to save the data my CD drive would start clicking and then my hard drive light would come on and not go out. My CPU was not doing anything, so I know nothing was happening. I could not get the hard drive light to go out so I hard booted and tried again and had the same effect. I can run CD's on the drive, I just can't get Sonic or Cd Burner XP Pro to work properly. The clicking concerns me as well, it does not do it when I am running a CD, only when I am trying to save information.
Throughout these attempts my system started running really slow and I ended up removing that account and starting another one.
My drive is HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4481B. Any ideas would be helpful.

 

I gather the drive is a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo, i.e., it'll read and burn CDs, but will only read DVDs. Some questions:

• Can we safely assume that your system operates as it should with the CD drive disconnected?
• Have you had a chance to test the CD drive in another machine?
• Are you using the burner software supplied with the drive?
• Is your system a Dell?

I'm a bit suspicious of that drive. Replacement might be in order. However, other forums have suggested that it might be a driver or firmware problem. You might try looking for updates for both if you haven't done that already.

 

My system operates fine with it connected and disconnected. It only freezes when I try to save data with it. I do not have another machine to test the drive in, but I only bought this rig about 5 months ago so I would really hope that it is not worn out already (I have only made one music CD and saved data once). My system came with Sonic and that is what I used. Yes my system is a Dell. Is it possible that stops writing but still reads ? I imagine I should call Dell and give them hell if I cannot get it working.

 

The stuff I got when I googled your drive's model number as given in your first post got me several hits that suggested that this problem does happen. You might want to spend longer than I did reviewing those hits -- one of them might lead to a solution that I missed.

Dell may have it as a "known problem"; if so, they may have a fix for you. Give them a call.

 

You said you formatted the disc. It's not a CD-/+R is it?

 

No, it is a RW. I determined that my system was not freezing so much as Sonic stops responding. What I cannot figure out is why Sonic is accessing the hard drive when I try to save information to a CD. At any rate I am calling/emailing Dell and giving them heck. Do I have to have any memory set aside for my disk drive? I only have one partition on my rig. When it came to me there were three partitions on it. Though I dont think so, could this be an issue?

 

I got the windows burner to work, so I will just use that and not Sonic or any other program. Are the files burned by XP able to be read on other computers, or just mine?