DVD ROM drive problem after installing DVD-RW

On my WinXP PC I used to have two drives: A DVD-R and a CD-RW, both of
which worked fine. I recently replaced the CD-RW with a DVD-RW. Now the
DVD-R is unstable: Sometimes it can read and play DVDs, and some other
times the whole system hangs when I insert the disk. I think the
problem is always caused by the same disks. The new drive however reads
and plays all disks. Any ideas what could be causing this?

thanks

 

Before installing the new drive did you change the jumper to match the one
being replaced? One is master and one is slave. Drives usually ship as
master.

 

Yes, I did. Windows XP does see the drive anyway. The problem is when I
insert most DVDs!

 

did you properly remove the drive replaced ?

the best sequesnce is (in my opinion)

remove the drivers for the device.
remove the device
reboot the system
check the device and drivers are gone.

install the new hardware
start the system
new hardware detected
load drivers
etc.

If you just swap in a new device you can get errors in the registry
because the old device was not properly deinstalled.

 

Check the DMA on the IDE channel. Some DVD-ROM drives needed to use DMA but
is not really necessary for DVD-R/RW drives. Mine all run fine on regular
old PIO.

 

I thought you no longer have to do these things because XP is Plug And
Play. Someone please confirm!

 

Don't forget that the new DVD-RW drive is working fine. It's the old
DVD-ROM drive that has the problem, which used to work!

 

jramaley wrote ...

"Plug And Play" was the original marketing name.

Most of us call it "Plug and Pray" and many reserve even
stronger and fouler language for it. It works great when it
works. But when it doesn't, you have do do all manner of
screwy things (like this) to work around it. If there were
only some way of turning it off.

"I hate it when my computer thinks it is smarter than me."

 

You have to do these things because of plug and play.

 

Make sure the new DVD RW is NOT connected to the old DVR. If you have cable
space...connect each one to a Hard drive cable making each DVD device a
slave. This way there will be no conflicts and you'll copy to the DVD RW