Can't access DVD Writer anymore - "No medium found"
 

Hi,

I posted a topic last week about trying to get a USB flash memory stick working
on my machine. In the end, I got it working, but since then I can't access my
DVD Writer. I've reset everything back to where it was before my writer stopped
working, but it's no good.
I can't link to the other thread, haven't enough posts, but if you search for my name,
you'll find it.

My machine is a Dell Optiplex GX280.
To summarise what I did...

I upgraded to Mandrake 10.1 from 10.0, which fixed a problem where I couldn't
write DVDs on my PHILIPS DVD+/-RW DVD8631. I believe this is because
cdrecord was updated to a newer version when I upgraded to 10.1.

Anyway, at that stage, I still couldn't get my machine to recognise USB flash
memory sticks, so I made some changes..
a) Changed from acpi=ht to acpi=off in my lilo.conf
b) Upgraded bios from Optiplex A03 to Optiplex A04.

This fixed my USB problem. But the next time I went to access a CD or DVD,
I couldn't mount it. I keep getting "No medium found". So, I reset everything
back the way it was before it stopped working (rolled back to bios A03, set acpi=ht
in lilo.conf), but it's still the same. As far as I can tell, it should be recognising it.
I've tried lots of discs, that work fine on other machines. This applies to CD-ROM,
CDRW, DVDRW, DVD-ROM...nothing works.

I've also tried booting from a Windows 98 boot floppy, where it gives me the
option to enable CD-ROM support. Everything starts up fine, but it won't let
me access the DVD drive...I can type D:, and get a D: prompt, but when I try to
'dir', I get CDR101 not ready, abort, fail, retry...usual DOS stuff. It might be that
DOS doesn't recognise this type of drive, but if it's the case that DOS and Linux
can't see the drive, then I guess maybe that means the drive is dead. I copied the
files on the boot floppy to a CD, and tried booting from that, but it totally skipped
it, so maybe the drive is broken.


Here's some more details

From /var/log/messages.......


kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
kernel: ICH6: unknown IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1, VID=8086, DID=266f
kernel: ICH6: chipset revision 3
kernel: ICH6: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
kernel: ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7, BIOS settings: hda: DMA, hdb: pio
kernel: hda: PHILIPS DVD+/-RW DVD8631, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
kernel: Using anticipatory io scheduler
kernel: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
.
.
.
kernel: hda: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
kernel: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20



After boot-up....

ls -l /dev/hda
lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 30 May 17 11:07 /dev/hda -> ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/cd

lsmod | grep ide
ide-cd 42660 0
cdrom 39520 2 sr_mod,ide-cd

I've checked lots of other things as well, and everything looks fine. There is an
identical machine in my office, which we haven't changed (still on Mandrake 10.0)
and the DVD writer works fine (well, does everything except write DVDs, but we
can read and write CDs, and read DVDs). Everything on that machine looks identical
to everything on my machine (in terms of settings etc.)

If anyone needs anymore specific info, let me know.

Thanks,
SpruceMoose

Unplug your CD/DVD combo and try it in another machine wot you know the DVD works in. It looks from here like the drive is stuffed. (Likewise, borrow (while not nessisarily telling them) someone elses DVD drive and plug it into your machine ... same test.

Yup, looks like it's finished. I did some checking on Google, and it seems
I'm not the first to have problems with this drive...Philips DVD+/- 8631.
Dell seem to ship this drive with lots of systems, and lots of people have
major problems with it...looks like the only solution is to get them to
send me a new drive...some links below...


http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/179003
(and more threads on this site)

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...ed=true&q=8631

We've contacted Dell, so lets hope they'll send a new drive without too much arguing.

SpruceMoose

Good: stick it in the HCL

Sometimes I 've similar problem on Mandrake 10.1-10.2.
It seems that your comp has uninterruptible power on the mainboard and it doesn't reset all internal values. I usually plug power cord off for several seconds.

I had the power cord out for a few minutes when I opened up the
box to make sure there wasn't a loose connection or something,
it didn't help.

Also, I booted up from a Windows 98 floppy (with CD-ROM support)
and it couldn't see the drive. We have an identical machine here,
and Windows/DOS was able to see the drive on that machine, so
looks like the drive on my machine is definitely broken.

SpruceMoose.

I'm having what seems like the same problem with my HP dvdrw 630i. It worked perfectly for the first 5 months I had it, then the drawer started ejecting to random positions, then it stopped opening all together, now it opens and closes on command, but the "no medium found" is the typical response to mounting. I was wondering if I should reinstall drivers or something software related like that? That's what I would try in windows, but I have no experience with drivers in linux (suse 9.1 pers.)

Inebrown: please read the previous messages thoroughly.

The advise there should be followed first: check that your drive isn't broken - say by plugging it into someone elses machine and seeing if it works OK there. Alternatively, borrow another drive and see if that's OK in your machine.

If you've already tried that, tell us about it.

If the linux drivers were working before then they are probably still working - there's nothing to mess them up in linux. The only thing linux could do is swap your drivers out for something else. Then you'll have the wrong drivers right? But this shouldn't be an issue with you. Most likely the device is broken - it happens.