# New DVD blanks won't be written to



## Idahoe (Feb 4, 2006)

They are "brand new" in spindle packages of 25, HP Lightscribe regular old blank DVDs I bought on Ebay.

The DVDs appear on Windows explorer as "full" and the file type is RAW. They are DVD+R.

Can I reformat these things? Whatever is on them causes one computer to deny access to the drive itself, and the other just reports it as "full" and the DVD writing program says "bad disc", "bad media" etc. Both computers run Windows XP media center.

Did I get majorly ripped off or what?

ETA: when I examine the DVD's properties, it indicates 0 bytes of capacity, 0 bytes of information on the DVD. They "look" blank, too, if you know what I mean.

Sorry if I don't include info you might need, let me know . . .


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Idahoe said:


> Did I get majorly ripped off or what?


I doubt that you got ripped-off, but you probably purchased the wrong kind of DVD blanks. Evidently your burner doesn't work with DVD+R blanks.

It's possible that you have a minus (-) DVD burner that requires DVD-R or DVD-RW. It's also possible that you have an early plus (+) DVD burner that only takes DVD+RW blanks. There is no way of knowing from the limited information you provided, but if you post your burner's brand and model I can tell you what type of DVD blanks you should be using.


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## Idahoe (Feb 4, 2006)

The laptop is Ma----a DVD RAM UJ-830S (window pops up DVD drive not accessible) and the desktop I normally use to write to DVD has an HP brand DVD RAM 840b. The desktop is one year old, the laptop is almost two years old.

On the latter DVD RAM drive, it states disc has 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free.

I have used DVD+RW and DVD+R in this drive for the last year without problems. In terms of the DVD-R type, I haven't ever used or bought them.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Apparently your burner is a Panasonic (Mat----a) UJ-830S. Your drive media specification is:

DVD+RW:8x/4x, DVD-RW:8x/4x, DVD-RAM:3x, DVD-ROM:8x, CD:24x/10x/24x

So far as I can see, DVD+R media is not listed.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

That drive has been around for a while. The word I'm getting by googling is that more compatibility with media can be obtained by doing a firmware update. Apparently the UJ-830S uses the same formware as the UJ-831, and Toshiba has a firmware update available for download.

http://support.toshiba-tro.de/tools/updates/dvd-r-rw-firmware/uj-831/frmwre-xp-102.zip

Check to be sure this firmware is older that this update (08/08/05). That should be in your drive properties. Here is the firmware description page.

http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe....all&page=1&ID=43245&OSID=10&driverLanguage=42


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## Idahoe (Feb 4, 2006)

Ah . . . thanks so much, Nevada! Just haven't run into this one yet . . . I'll definitely upgrade the laptop, it has the original firmware config I'm sure.

This is a major piece of info that I didn't put in the OP (can't believe I didn't) . . . the first two of these new DVDs did in fact get successfully written to on the desk top HP 840b, but none since, have gone down the stack 3 or 4 DVDs and still get the "bad media" window (on the desktop).

I'm sorry! But is this a separate issue then, aside from compatibility? I really x10 to the umpteenth power appreciate your help.


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## Teresa S. (Mar 2, 2006)

I bought TWO packs of 25 blank dvds...got 1 dvd to work out of the two! I couldn't even return them because they don't take back 'opened' software and cds......


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## Idahoe (Feb 4, 2006)

What's that all about??? How aggravating. I have purchased excellent products from Ebay, only two items were duds (both electronics) and "buy it now", so I learned my lesson.

So NOW . . . I downloaded the F/W installer, and it says "device not connected", but it IS, restarted the computer, checked Device Manager (OK) still doesn't think my DVD Ram is connected. Grrr . . .

"Unblocked" the annoying block windows has on downloaded applications without known publisher, and NOW I get WNASPI32.dll error.


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## Teresa S. (Mar 2, 2006)

ebay can be the WORST sometimes when buying electronics!


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Some brands of blank dvds just plain out dont work well with some brands of burners. If you spend lot time googling there will be forums and such where people say what brand blank worked best in their particular burner (pay attention to model of burner, not just brand). I went through one spindle of blanks that were royal pain, maybe one out of five burned correctly.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Well here is a different problem with a CD Burner. I can Burn songs from Windows Media Player onto a blank CD using the same brand blank CD I tried to put some pictures on it and the windows program says No CD in Burner. Now I know the burner works because I just burned 20 songs on it so I Know Media player is "seeing" the CD but when it comes to Windows itself it does not see it??? And when I put a blank CD in Windows Does See it in the drive and says used 0 Free Space 703 mb. So the Computer IS reading the disc. But when it comes to burning pics on I select all copy them in a folder then it says "Files are ready to Burn to CD" I then click on "Write These Files To CD" and comes up with a prompt that says No Cd in Drive~! But I know there is~! And yes I have picked the correct drive to burn them in mine is CD-R/W drive (F). and it does not recognize there is a CD in that drive. And yet I can burn CD's while using WMP just fine~!??? Oh one more thing these blank CD are marker All Purpose too. Music,Data,Photo And I am using CD-R


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