DVD Shrink/ DVD Decrypter problems

Delboy05

Can anyone help me out on this. I've had no problem burning DVD's on my PC (Dell 5150) until Saturday last.
My DVD drive all of a sudden seemed not to recognise that there was a DVD in the drive. I downloaded the latest version of Nero and at least it started playing DVD's again allthough they can be a bit jumpy.

But now using DVD shrink or DVD decode takes forever...what took 40 mintues before is now taking 3 hours.
With DVD shrink, the point at which the backup is complete and the disc is ejected- when you should then put in a blank disk, an error message appears saying the burning has ceased.
With DVD decrypter, it seems to get to the end or around 99% complete, and then a failure to complete message appears.

Trying to copy from my hard drive to a blank disc has also gone astray. I use Nero Startsmart.....it takes a long time for it even to recognise that a blank disc is in the drive. It eventually starts, and makes a lot of noise but then also fails after taking an age to get up to 70/80%.

I performed a diagnostics test on the CD/DVD drive and all passed the test on the hardware side.

Anyone any idea on how I can get my PC back working the way it was???? I'm not very techie so any help/advice much appreciated....

Slick de ville

If your running xp just do a system restore back to when everything was working.

Delboy05

Slick de ville wrote:

If your running xp just do a system restore back to when everything was working.

Thanks - I am running xp. Will this mean I all loose personal files or just the changes made in the time back to the 'restore' date........

whats the exact procedure to get a 'restore' up and running

cheers for the help

8T8

Have you recently changed the brand of media you are using ?

What make is your DVDRW drive ?

(use Nero Info Tool it will tell you, see the text area next to the drive letter e.g. NEC - 4550)

mickoneill30

Using system restore just undoes any changes you made to the system since the restore date (new apps installed, drivers, registry settings etc.). It doesn't do anything to your data so that should be safe. I'd still have it backed up though in case system restore went mental and you couldn't boot your machine. Not likely but worth doing.

To get it running it's in the Accessories - System tools menu on your programs bar.
Also try a virus checker and spyware scan. It's a really long shot but no harm to do.

In your case though I'd say it's hardware. Unless you've installed drivers that would affect the DVD burner then there's not much outside of hardware that would cause your symptoms. By all means try System Restore but if it doesn't fix the problem then try a new DVD drive. They're only about €40 from Komplett or if your Dell is under warrenty get on to them.

Delboy05

mickoneill30 wrote:

....In your case though I'd say it's hardware. Unless you've installed drivers that would affect the DVD burner then there's not much outside of hardware that would cause your symptoms. By all means try System Restore but if it doesn't fix the problem then try a new DVD drive. They're only about €40 from Komplett or if your Dell is under warrenty get on to them.

I did change the type of DVD's I was burning to...I had been using Maxwell DVD;s and no problem, ....as soon as I put in the 1st of a new batch I'd got (Imation), the problem first appeared.
The comp is only 6 months old so the warranty is in place...I've been on to Dell, but they're customer service is iffy to say the least - think it's in India by the sounds of it....and it's office hours also. The advice they've given me so far has been about as useful as tits on a bull.

8T8

Inside the firmware of your DVD writer it has a table which contains support for various media, an ID to identify the media with a corresponding write strategy which tells the drive how to write this disc and at what speed.

So DVD writers do not support all media, some are better than others and some are pretty crappy with poorly maintained media tables.

Media quality can also be a factor as depending on the vendor the quality can fluctuate wildly and result in problems.

As you say you switched brands by the sounds of it your DVD writer does not support this Imation media properly. The best way to rectify that is to seek out a firmware update for the DVD writer (tell us the make & model and we can point in the right direction) or change brands of media.

Try getting some Verbatim branded DVD-R or DVD+R discs they are one of the most common brands and even the crappiest of DVD writers generally support their media codes fairly well.

jcoote

i had an issue like that about 2 years ago that i couldn't resolve

bought a new writer (was time for an upgrade anyway) and it worked fine

TomCo

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054965584

Try that.

Check if the IMAPI service is running.

Delboy05

TomCo wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054965584

Try that.

Check if the IMAPI service is running.

Sorry for the blissful ignorance, but what exactly is the IMAPI and how did you get it sorted?

As for the DVD writer I have, the make is:NEC DVD +-RW ND-6650A i think

8T8

Delboy05 wrote:

Sorry for the blissful ignorance, but what exactly is the IMAPI and how did you get it sorted?

As for the DVD writer I have, the make is:NEC DVD +-RW ND-6650A i think

The IMAPI service can be found in the control panel->administrative tools->services however even if it isn't running (default is manual) it should not affect your system in that manner as it only deals with burning CD's not DVD's.

Your writer I'm all to familiar with the NEC 6650A isn't a very reliable drive, firmware updates I would not advise doing unless you can obtain them from Dell's support site for your laptop as flashing the wrong firmware update in a laptop DVDRW can permanently disable the DVDRW drive.

The easiest thing you can do is go buy some different media ideally like I mentioned above Verbatim discs or go buy a ton of Taiyo Yuden discs these are the best quality discs you can buy and the NEC 6650A will have no trouble writing them (if it did then it would be a hardware problem).

Delboy05

mickoneill30 wrote:

Using system restore just undoes any changes you made to the system since the restore date (new apps installed, drivers, registry settings etc.). It doesn't do anything to your data so that should be safe. I'd still have it backed up though in case system restore went mental and you couldn't boot your machine. Not likely but worth doing....

Can someone advise me on this - can I select the system Restore Date...i.e.last thursday, and only loose all the stuff I added since then...or will I lose everything on my PC (ITunes music, Picture albums etc) going back to when i got the PC....

thanks

eamon234

Try re-installing DVD shrink first I've had similar problems on a few occasions and this has sorted it out.

Gadgetman496

Delboy05 wrote:

But now using DVD shrink or DVD decode takes forever...what took 40 mintues before is now taking 3 hours.
..

Delboy05,

Check your DMA settings

DVD Burning very slow.

Check the DMA settings of your burner and make it is set to DMA and not PIO. If it is set to PIO change it
To DMA. If you can’t chang them from PIO you will have to uninstall the drive and reinstall it.

To check these settings goto
Control Panel
Device Manager
IDE ATA/ATPI Controllers
Primary IDE Channel (Under Advanced Settings it should be set to DMA 5)
Secondary Channel (Under Advanced Settings it should be set to DMA 2)

Yellow Dog

I had a problem like this not too long ago.

A friend offered this advice:


http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

on that ^^ page is a vbscript that resets your ata drives back to dma.

that site will tell you everything you need to know
if still stuck check out

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=817472 <

---

microshaft version with any patches needed

cathymcl2

Have you checked with the manufacturers of the DVD Drive to make sure there isn't an update for the drive?
Another reason could be the drive wasn't installed properly. This was the case my daughter-in-law had with hers, from Tesco!!!
failing that might have to uninstall drive then re-install it again.

Puddles

My computer freak partner suggested that you should try to burn at a lower speed. you can set this option through NERO. eg. If your burner burns at 12x then set it to 8x. Obviously this will take longer but it should work. Also, if you use RW discs, some drives can have problems with them.

Gadgetman496

gadgetman496 wrote:

Delboy05,

Check your DMA settings

DVD Burning very slow.

To check these settings go to
Control Panel
Device Manager
IDE ATA/ATPI Controllers
Primary IDE Channel (Under Advanced Settings it should be set to DMA 5)
Secondary Channel (Under Advanced Settings it should be set to DMA 2)

Maybe I did not make the steps clear enough.

Here they are exactly.
Start
Control Panel
Performance and Maintenance
Administrative Tools
Computer Management
In the left hand pane, click on "Device Manager"
In the right-hand pane, click on the little plus sign beside
"IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers".
From the resulting drop down list, right click on Primary IDE Channel & choose properties.
Click on the "Advanced Settings" tab
You should now see the "Device 0" & "Device 1" Transfer Mode & Current Transfer Mode boxes.
Both of these should be set to DMA & Ultra DMA Mode.
If they are set to PIO you should change them to DMA.

Once you have checked that, do exactly the same for the Secondary IDE Channel as per the blue section above.