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    DVD drive causing computer to freeze

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by asianrage, Apr 16, 2008.

  1. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

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    I have an Asus M50SV-A1 with the Lightscribe DVD multidrive. I've recently downgraded from Vista Home Premium to XP Pro SP2. My dvd drive has been acting up for a couple day now. Here's the problem

    Every time I insert a disc, say, to install a program, or to access a zip file I've saved in there, the drive would spin the disc, then the computer would then freeze. If I am in the midst of typing this message when it froze, the cursor would continue to blink.

    Please help me in diagnosing what kind of issue I'm having. Is this a driver issue?

    Thank you
     
    asianrage, Apr 16, 2008
    #1
  2. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    let me guess.. when you eject the dvd, it unfreezes

    What dvd are you putting in? Have you tried non-burnt dvd/cd's?
     
    flipfire, Apr 16, 2008
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  3. R4000

    R4000 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Check the drive's IDE channel in Device Manager to see if it inadvertently slipped into PIO mode instead of DMA.
     
    R4000, Apr 16, 2008
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  4. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

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    When I ejected the disc, it stay frozen, so I have to do a hard shutdown. I haven't try to put in DVDs yet, good forbid it explodes on me. So far, I've tried the factoy Asus driver CD along with burned CD-Rs. The result is the same most of the time.
     
    asianrage, Apr 16, 2008
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  5. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    It might have dropped the transfer mode to PIO. Go into Device Manager, look at the properties of the channels under the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. If one channel shows a current transfer mode of PIO then uninstall that channel. Then go to the top of the list in Device Manager, right click and select search for hardware changes (or similar wording) and it should reinstall the channel with UDMA 2 transfer mode.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Apr 16, 2008
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  6. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks!!! What's DMA and PIO? Would I be able to switch to DMA if it's in PIO? Do you know of any reason why it is erroring out now?
     
    asianrage, Apr 16, 2008
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  7. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

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    OOoooo, thank you! I guess you've just answered some of my questions above. I'll try that tonight. Man! I should have brought the laptop to work today.
     
    asianrage, Apr 16, 2008
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  8. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Trying to read a badly burnt or damaged disc can cause the mode to change.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Apr 16, 2008
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  9. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

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    Hmmm, if this is the problem, would it happen again once I switch it back to DMA mode?
     
    asianrage, Apr 16, 2008
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  10. asianrage

    asianrage Notebook Consultant

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    Well, I checked and here's what I see

    There are two box for Device 0 and Device 1

    In Device 0, I have
    Device Type: Auto Detection (grayed out and non-selectable)
    Transfer Mode: DMA if available
    Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 2

    In Device 1, I have
    Device Type: Auto Detection (I have the option to select "None", should I?)
    Transfer Mode: DMA if Available
    Current Transfer Mode: Not Applicable

    So it seems like the PIO transfer mode wasn't switched to so it's not a driver issue?
     
    asianrage, Apr 16, 2008
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  11. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    OK. So it's not PIO mode but something else.

    You could try this.

    Have you tried to update XP SP2 with all the patches? There might be something there. You could try the XP SP3 beta (available now) or wait a few days for the final SP3 and see if that fixes the problem.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Apr 17, 2008
    #11