I am trying to burn a DVD. I have burned DVDs on my laptop for 3 years. But recently it is not letting me.

1. Explorer shows my DVD drive as a CD drive
2. Whenever I try to burn to a DVD it tells me there is no valid recordable device detected.
3. I am using MyDVD (Sonic) which always tells me that DMA is turned off. I have tuned DMA on on both my primary and secondary devices in device manager but I am still told that DMA is off.

I have a Laptop Compaq (HP) Presario V3000

In device manager I am told that my DVD/CD ROM Drive is MATSHITA DVD-RAM UL850S. (the device is working properly)

I have tried for months but have finally given up.

Please, can anyone help.

Cheers

in device manager ,right click it and uninstall it and reboot computer letting it reinstall and give it a try

have you always used the same software in those 3 yrs

I have installed and uninstalled various software over the 3 years! What type of software could cause this to happen.

Also, I don't have the DVD drive installation discs so is it safe to uninstall and reboot?

I am currently with my laptop in Africa - and won't be returning to my installation discs and fast internet connection for 5 months (in UK). AT the moment I am connecting via dial up (0.5kbps!)

OK, I uninstalled the drive, rebooted and it re-installed it automatically.

But no change. It still reads it as a CD Drive, it still says DMA is off when it is on and it still says no recordable device found when I try to burn a DVD through Sonic MYDVD - a software package I have used without problems for a couple of years on this computer.

Looking forward to hearing your next suggestions.

Many thanks

I was referring to burning software!
it could be that the dvd is failing ,lense getting weak!
have a look in registry for this it helps when dvd will not install may help in this situation also .


Possible Solution......go to Start /run/ type in ,regedit.and do the following

There are 2 reg keys that can screw the device......remove them both and reboot......

The keys are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325 -11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} - "Upperfilters" and "Lowerfilters".

Hi,

I had the same problem, for me it was a hardware failure.
If you have a extra HDD for your laptop, you can try
to swap the HDD with new O.S. installed...

In this way you can find out if this might be a
software or a hardware problem.

I bios set you will see a setting for DMA possibly in input output or IO SuperIO setting. Anyway it is there somewhere.
ECP Mode Use DMA 1
It is usually set to 3
DMA 3 is for drives specific.

Also, your drive cables have to be 80 channel cables. The ridges are really fine compared to the older cables which are ridged.

Now you can set DMA to your drives.

I have removed the upper filters (there were no lower filters).

I cannot find the DMA in the BIOS. I seem to only be able to change the language and the system clock. Can you direct me to the DMA settings please.

The drive now shows as Name: DVD RAM drive (E, Type: CD Drive.

As soon as I put in any type of DVD (+R, -R or +RW) the name changes to CD Drive.

I still cannot write to DVD.

Any more help appreciated.

Cheers.

Take the drive out of the laptop - usually a spring mechanism underneath. Boot up to desktop (without the cd drive) and check explorer for drives. It should show only the master drive and any partitions. If you use a usb wireless internet connection, this is your problem. Right-click the device and it shows as a cd drive.

If this is the case , let me know and i will post instructions on how to resolve this issue.

Also, Some laptops multi drive, the cd is rw but the dvd is rom only.