Latitude E-Series DVD Burner troubles

Also the M4400, judging from this review. See the date on the firmware!



Should we start the DU-8A2S owners' club?

John

 

A technician just popped by to --guess what-- replace the drive again. This ofcourse doesn't make any difference since I replaced it myself once already.

So still the same problem. Upgrading the bios to A03 didnt help either. He left with the message that I should reinstall vista with the supplied 32bit dvd. Got a mail from lite-on as well:

"Given your situation, would you please tell us the current firmware of the drive?
You could try to get the firmware info from the burning application or Device Manager."

I guess it's the same as yours but I can't check since windows setup is running And thats rather old indead...

 

My burner's firmware is 4D12.

You can see the firmware number at the end of the Device Instance ID string on the Details tab for the burner in Device Manager.

It would be a serious oversight by Liteon to be shipping a burner made in June 2008 (the date is on the label under the bay release mechanism) with a superseded firmware. Liteon is the best hope for fixing the burner problem quickly.

The computer's BIOS won't change the burner behaviour. Incidentally, I've now found where they put the BIOS update info. There's a fixes / enhancements entry on the BIOS download page. it says:

John

 

Mine also has Firmware 4D12. Just installed Vista 32bit, and still the same problem. this is taking way to much of my time...

 

Reinstalling the OS is a step too far for this problem but is probably on the technician's check list of suggestions.

I pushed the bundled Roxio software to one side and installed Nero 7 which has given me reliable service on other machines. When Nero also had problems then I was certain it was the burner.

Even if Dell / Liteon were to issue a list of compatible media, it wouldn't fix the reading problems we have also occasionally encountered.

John

 

Had another call, they're coming to replace my motherboard this monday. Thats pretty fast service, but I'm pretty pissed off since I have to stay home another full day (since they control the technicians schedule).

Anyone an Idea to make dell compensate for all the problems?

 

Is this the next attempt to fix the burner problem, or something else?

John

 

I have PLDS DU-8A2S using Vista 32-bit on my E6500 and was able to burn a DVD and many CD just fine using InfraRecorder. I will try another DVD again today to be sure. Don't have the firmware number on hand yet.

 

No luck with infrarecorder either. And replacing the mobo is their next attempt to fix it. It better helps

***yeeey update***
Got an email from Lite-On:

Update 2!
Technician just left, motherboard was replaced and the problem remains. Dell is going to contact me on when to replace the whole laptop.

 

Problem solved!

I had the same problem with my E6500 and the DU-8A2S DVD drive.
I also had the notebook shipped with XP, and reinstalled with the supplied Vista reinstallation DVD.

My computer could burn CD's, and read DVD's, but could not burn a DVD either with standard Windows Vista or using ImgBurn. I found no driver for the drive and could get no help from Dell ProSupport.

What did the trick for me was to use the supplied Drivers and Utilities DVD, and specifically install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager found under the Serial ATA heading in the list that comes up when the program is run. I noticed I also got a "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in my system tray that had not been there before.

After installing this and rebooting, I could succesfully burn files using Vista, and also burn an image using ImgBurn.

That is all the testing I have done so far, but I could not do these things before so I hope this did the trick!