just recently my cd writer and dvd writer (i have both) were working fine and then the other day i went to write a film to disc from the dvd files on my pc and the program i use (win avi) told me the architecture was all wrong ...i tried again no luck....

...then i noticed that the drive names were different in 'my computer'
the dvd writer says its a 'dvd ram' but when i put a writable dvd in it it says its a 'cd drive' ..but it will play shop bought dvd films (but the sounds a bit choppy) )
the cd writer says its a 'cd-rw' but when i put in a balnk cd it says its a 'cd drive' and i cant write to it and it wont play anything either


if i'd been having these problems with just one device i'd say it was the hardware failure but they both packed up at the same time

all suggestions gratefully received

Heya Cf , in nero i sometimes get architecture wrong message , its basically doesn't like how the film is packaged , on nero i just hit ignore & they play fine .
What writer did you buy ? some are choosy about discs , i would recommend Ridisc cheap as chips & a good dye , make sure you have the jumpers on different points on the back of the drives , some if not all drives lock them selfs to a certain region after five goes , ie if u been chucking then original dvd's in in may region lock it to Pal say , can ge round that with Anydvd or such like . finally atlot of third party software will mess up you're drive by installing third party sprites and such the biggest culprit being itunes , try a program called Imgburn , its free and imho never bettered .

you could check to make sure the writers have DMA enabled

sometime they change back to PIO which is not good enough to do much

you can check the settings in control panel? should be a guide on google maybe

i did that and it is



dvd writer is a sony, got very good press and has never been a problem in the 18 mnths i have used it ,plenty of goes left re-regions, dont usually play shop bought dvds in the drive (i have a region free dvd player +telly)only put one in to test it , never used itunes and i havent installed any programs recently.everythings been running smoothly........
...... hmmm i did try to burn some tunes for a mate who's in hospital and windows media player couldnt burn them ...duuno what format they are the're not mp3s i can play them but they wouldnt burn ,could this have thrown a spanner in the works? its the only odd thing that my pc has done for a while

Probley .flac and doubt that caused it , the spanner , i would check a few discs maybee a bad bulk ? they shell um out now aslo have a read into Adaptec ASPI , i use it right from me scussi days , ps i take it ur on Xp ?

yeah i'm on xp.

i just have a look the files i tried to burn were m4a ,i dont know enough about this subject to guess if that might throw anything off.

it just things have been running so smooth and all of a sudden i cant write anything at all on either drive makes me think i've knocked some software out somewhere

You could always try this, which fixes quite a few woes with Win optical drives:

Step 1: Start Registry Editor
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. Registry Editor starts.
Step 2: Delete the UpperFilters registry entry
1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5. In the right pane (topic area), click UpperFilters.

Note An UpperFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the UpperFilters registry entry, you must click UpperFilters and not UpperFilters.bak.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7. When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the UpperFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The UpperFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry subkey.

Note Do not exit Registry Editor. You must have this program for the next step.
Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry
1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5. In the right pane (topic area), click LowerFilters.

Note An LowerFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the LowerFilters registry entry, you must click LowerFilters and not LowerFilters.bak.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7. When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the LowerFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The LowerFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry subkey.
8. Exit Registry Editor.
Step 4: Restart the computer
If a CD recording program no longer works after you restart the computer, you must reinstall the CD recording program.

fell at the first hurdle in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
theres no 'upper filters'

i'll delete lower filters and see what happens .....gulp

have you got m4a codecs installed? im sure this is an apple lossless codec but i could be wrong ...google dbpower amp and codec central to get any missing codecs you need ..db power amp will convert the files into whatever you want ..makes burning later on a damn site easier

Fun init , yea thats the crap Scribble posted that itunes & others put in , nightmare to track down at first , anyhow ill be honest imnot a fan sony always brought poi as for the computability of hacked firmwares etc , i still sway towards the discs , ive put old dvd's in u no the ones the puter has hard time recognizing , & on the odd occasion the drive becomes unreadable & displays me drive as cdr etc , try heading over to the firmware page , i used to keep upto date on firmwares etc im sure u will hit on it there .

sorry scribs still exactly the same , just tried to drag some files and it dont wanna know

How old are they?
The lasers could just be going?

both at the same time? if it was just one i'd say you were right and it was the h/ware but they both started to grief me up at exactly the same time

thanks sherrif i'll check that firmware site

¿Why not try downloading a Linux distro that can be run from the CD, like Ubuntu, and check your drive(s) that way?

may as well, i've updated me firmware and blasted it with aspi which according to aspicheck i needed to ...all to no avail