DVD Won't write

I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think). Eventhough I created a system
recovery CD when we took the machine out of the box (3 mo. ago), she is now
being reminded to create CD/DVD system Recovery discs.
Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's. She
called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW. Puts the disc in and got some sort
of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank. But for the hell of
it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.

I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase anything that
may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no good.

I really dread having to call HP. PC is only a few mos. old so after the
holiday's she is prob. going to bring it into CompUSA, where she bought it.
That is unless I can figure out what is wrong. IMO the drive appears to be
malfunctioning. It reads and writes to CD, plays DVD, but won't write.

Any ideas/suggestions. TIA

In article <RR1lf.1550$ew5.1229@trndny04>, "Larry Mauriello" <> writes:
:I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think).

One of the various Microsoft Windows variants, I assume, and not
a Linux flavor nor some other operating system, is running on this
particular box.

Which particular DVD drive is present within the system?

Out of curiousity, has this PC system ever previously successfully
recorded DVD media?

:Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's. She
:called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
:She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW.

I'd tend to try to generate the proffered 13 CD-R or CD-RW disks first,
here -- the CD media is cheap, and the time and the "thought effort"
involved in generating the recovery disks on CD media isn't huge.
(I'd get the recovery disks generated by Windows first, and I'd then
look into the DVD recording problem.)

Once I verified that the recording drive was a DVD recording drive and
not, for instance, a CD-R/-RW/DVD-ROM drive, I'd then ensure that the
proper DVD media was used -- most HP systems use an HP-provided drive
and DVD+R/+RW media, while some HP systems have drives with the "quad"
DVD+R/+RW/-R/RW recording support. And yes, some of the HP systems
can and do have CD-R/-RW/DVD-ROM (CD writer, DVD reader) drives.

:Puts the disc in and got some sort of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
:It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank.

Probably. Don't bet on it, though. I've received all sorts of
odd media over the years, some unformatted, and some not.

Do get the message, as that might point to the problem.

:But for the hell of it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
:It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.

That might be a software problem, or a DVD+R/RW drive problem,
or a media problem.

:I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase anything that
:may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.

(Re)formatting only works with rewritable media, obviously.

:I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no good.

Not all software and not all hardware supports drag-to-disk, if
that is what you did here. If you tried creating a disk using
Sonic or

You've proved a hard error, which makes support rather easier.
Details on the DVD drive and the media would be a start, here.

And if the media is correct and the drive is a DVD recording drive
and etc, and if the box is presently under warrantee, I would call
the HP support folks for assistance.

---------------------------- #include <rtfaq.h> -----------------------------
For additional, please see the OpenVMS FAQ -- www.hp.com/go/openvms/faq
--------------------------- pure personal opinion ---------------------------
Hoff (Stephen) Hoffman OpenVMS Engineering hoff[\0100]hp.com

Larry Mauriello wrote:
> I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think). Eventhough I created a system
> recovery CD when we took the machine out of the box (3 mo. ago), she is now
> being reminded to create CD/DVD system Recovery discs.
> Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's. She
> called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
> She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW. Puts the disc in and got some sort
> of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
> It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank. But for the hell of
> it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
> It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.
>
> I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase anything that
> may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
> I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no good.
>
> I really dread having to call HP. PC is only a few mos. old so after the
> holiday's she is prob. going to bring it into CompUSA, where she bought it.
> That is unless I can figure out what is wrong. IMO the drive appears to be
> malfunctioning. It reads and writes to CD, plays DVD, but won't write.
>
> Any ideas/suggestions. TIA
>
>
Suggest you go to HP's website and see if there is a firmware update for
the drive. When I purchased my HP mediacenter PC the DVD drive wouldn't
write to DVD's until I upgraded the firmware.

JM wrote:
> Larry Mauriello wrote:
>
>> I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think). Eventhough I created a
>> system recovery CD when we took the machine out of the box (3 mo.
>> ago), she is now being reminded to create CD/DVD system Recovery discs.
>> Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's.
>> She called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
>> She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW. Puts the disc in and got some
>> sort of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
>> It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank. But for the
>> hell of it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
>> It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.
>>
>> I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase
>> anything that may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
>> I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no good.
>>
>> I really dread having to call HP. PC is only a few mos. old so after
>> the holiday's she is prob. going to bring it into CompUSA, where she
>> bought it.
>> That is unless I can figure out what is wrong. IMO the drive appears
>> to be malfunctioning. It reads and writes to CD, plays DVD, but won't
>> write.
>>
>> Any ideas/suggestions. TIA
>>
> Suggest you go to HP's website and see if there is a firmware update for
> the drive. When I purchased my HP mediacenter PC the DVD drive wouldn't
> write to DVD's until I upgraded the firmware.


The cd creator software wants DVD+R or DVD-R. DVD+RW will not work.

craigm

Sorry, forgot some of the other details. PC is an Xp Home machine. Writting
to DVD was never tried.
Off hand I don't know the drive that is installed. Assuming you mean the
actual name of the installed h/w.

"Hoff Hoffman" <> wrote in message
news:PY2lf.91$9%...
> In article <RR1lf.1550$ew5.1229@trndny04>, "Larry Mauriello"
> <> writes:
> :I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think).
>
> One of the various Microsoft Windows variants, I assume, and not
> a Linux flavor nor some other operating system, is running on this
> particular box.
>
> Which particular DVD drive is present within the system?
>
> Out of curiousity, has this PC system ever previously successfully
> recorded DVD media?
>
> :Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's. She
> :called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
> :She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW.
>
> I'd tend to try to generate the proffered 13 CD-R or CD-RW disks first,
> here -- the CD media is cheap, and the time and the "thought effort"
> involved in generating the recovery disks on CD media isn't huge.
> (I'd get the recovery disks generated by Windows first, and I'd then
> look into the DVD recording problem.)
>
> Once I verified that the recording drive was a DVD recording drive and
> not, for instance, a CD-R/-RW/DVD-ROM drive, I'd then ensure that the
> proper DVD media was used -- most HP systems use an HP-provided drive
> and DVD+R/+RW media, while some HP systems have drives with the "quad"
> DVD+R/+RW/-R/RW recording support. And yes, some of the HP systems
> can and do have CD-R/-RW/DVD-ROM (CD writer, DVD reader) drives.
>
> :Puts the disc in and got some sort of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
> :It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank.
>
> Probably. Don't bet on it, though. I've received all sorts of
> odd media over the years, some unformatted, and some not.
>
> Do get the message, as that might point to the problem.
>
> :But for the hell of it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
> :It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.
>
> That might be a software problem, or a DVD+R/RW drive problem,
> or a media problem.
>
> :I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase anything
> that
> :may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
>
> (Re)formatting only works with rewritable media, obviously.
>
> :I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no good.
>
> Not all software and not all hardware supports drag-to-disk, if
> that is what you did here. If you tried creating a disk using
> Sonic or
>
> You've proved a hard error, which makes support rather easier.
> Details on the DVD drive and the media would be a start, here.
>
> And if the media is correct and the drive is a DVD recording drive
> and etc, and if the box is presently under warrantee, I would call
> the HP support folks for assistance.
>
> ---------------------------- #include
> <rtfaq.h> -----------------------------
> For additional, please see the OpenVMS FAQ -- www.hp.com/go/openvms/faq
> --------------------------- pure personal
> opinion ---------------------------
> Hoff (Stephen) Hoffman OpenVMS Engineering hoff[\0100]hp.com
>

I did think of going to the HP site, but I can't convince her to go to DSL.
I did a driver lookup in Device Mgr. and came up empty.
In all honesty I try not to tinker w/her machine. I don't need to be making
daily housecalls...lol

I will look at HP site to check. If need be I can always d/l it to a disc
and bring it over there.

"JM" <> wrote in message
news:. ..
> Larry Mauriello wrote:
>> I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think). Eventhough I created a
>> system recovery CD when we took the machine out of the box (3 mo. ago),
>> she is now being reminded to create CD/DVD system Recovery discs.
>> Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's. She
>> called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
>> She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW. Puts the disc in and got some
>> sort of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
>> It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank. But for the hell
>> of it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
>> It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.
>>
>> I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase anything
>> that may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
>> I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no good.
>>
>> I really dread having to call HP. PC is only a few mos. old so after the
>> holiday's she is prob. going to bring it into CompUSA, where she bought
>> it.
>> That is unless I can figure out what is wrong. IMO the drive appears to
>> be malfunctioning. It reads and writes to CD, plays DVD, but won't write.
>>
>> Any ideas/suggestions. TIA
> Suggest you go to HP's website and see if there is a firmware update for
> the drive. When I purchased my HP mediacenter PC the DVD drive wouldn't
> write to DVD's until I upgraded the firmware.

"craigm" <> wrote in message
news:RH4lf.8709$...
> JM wrote:
>> Larry Mauriello wrote:
>>
>>> I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think). Eventhough I created a
>>> system recovery CD when we took the machine out of the box (3 mo. ago),
>>> she is now being reminded to create CD/DVD system Recovery discs.
>>> Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's. She
>>> called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
>>> She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW. Puts the disc in and got some
>>> sort of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
>>> It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank. But for the
>>> hell of it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
>>> It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.
>>>
>>> I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase anything
>>> that may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
>>> I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no
>>> good.
>>>
>>> I really dread having to call HP. PC is only a few mos. old so after the
>>> holiday's she is prob. going to bring it into CompUSA, where she bought
>>> it.
>>> That is unless I can figure out what is wrong. IMO the drive appears to
>>> be malfunctioning. It reads and writes to CD, plays DVD, but won't
>>> write.
>>>
>>> Any ideas/suggestions. TIA
>>>
>> Suggest you go to HP's website and see if there is a firmware update for
>> the drive. When I purchased my HP mediacenter PC the DVD drive wouldn't
>> write to DVD's until I upgraded the firmware.
>
>
> The cd creator software wants DVD+R or DVD-R. DVD+RW will not work.
>
> craigm

Oh for crying out loud. Why wouldn't the stupid program say that. So there
may actually be nothing wrong w/the pc.
But then why couldn't I copy a Word doc to the DVD?

Before your drain yourself in the "Free Life Time Tech support", are you sure it
is a DVD Writer that comes with the system, not a simple DVD & CDRW combo drive
which means it will play DVD and write music&data but not DVD> Just a thought.

Dewaine

Larry Mauriello wrote:

> I did think of going to the HP site, but I can't convince her to go to DSL.
> I did a driver lookup in Device Mgr. and came up empty.
> In all honesty I try not to tinker w/her machine. I don't need to be making
> daily housecalls...lol
>
> I will look at HP site to check. If need be I can always d/l it to a disc
> and bring it over there.
>
> "JM" <> wrote in message
> news:. ..
> > Larry Mauriello wrote:
> >> I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think). Eventhough I created a
> >> system recovery CD when we took the machine out of the box (3 mo. ago),
> >> she is now being reminded to create CD/DVD system Recovery discs.
> >> Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's. She
> >> called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
> >> She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW. Puts the disc in and got some
> >> sort of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
> >> It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank. But for the hell
> >> of it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
> >> It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.
> >>
> >> I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase anything
> >> that may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
> >> I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no good.
> >>
> >> I really dread having to call HP. PC is only a few mos. old so after the
> >> holiday's she is prob. going to bring it into CompUSA, where she bought
> >> it.
> >> That is unless I can figure out what is wrong. IMO the drive appears to
> >> be malfunctioning. It reads and writes to CD, plays DVD, but won't write.
> >>
> >> Any ideas/suggestions. TIA
> > Suggest you go to HP's website and see if there is a firmware update for
> > the drive. When I purchased my HP mediacenter PC the DVD drive wouldn't
> > write to DVD's until I upgraded the firmware.

Thanks for the *thought*. Trust me it Is a DVD +/- burner. Thganks
anyway<g>.

"Dewaine Chan" <"dchanNOSPAM"@NOSPAM PLZZZnc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:Zy6lf.1798$ m...
> Before your drain yourself in the "Free Life Time Tech support", are you
> sure it
> is a DVD Writer that comes with the system, not a simple DVD & CDRW combo
> drive
> which means it will play DVD and write music&data but not DVD> Just a
> thought.
>
> Dewaine
>
> Larry Mauriello wrote:
>
>> I did think of going to the HP site, but I can't convince her to go to
>> DSL.
>> I did a driver lookup in Device Mgr. and came up empty.
>> In all honesty I try not to tinker w/her machine. I don't need to be
>> making
>> daily housecalls...lol
>>
>> I will look at HP site to check. If need be I can always d/l it to a disc
>> and bring it over there.
>>
>> "JM" <> wrote in message
>> news:. ..
>> > Larry Mauriello wrote:
>> >> I have a friend who has a HP1114a (I think). Eventhough I created a
>> >> system recovery CD when we took the machine out of the box (3 mo.
>> >> ago),
>> >> she is now being reminded to create CD/DVD system Recovery discs.
>> >> Ok she tried w/a CD and the wizzard said it would take some 13 CD's.
>> >> She
>> >> called me and I told her she needed to use DVD's.
>> >> She went out and bought a box of DVD+RW. Puts the disc in and got some
>> >> sort of msg. the disc wasn't blank.
>> >> It was brand new out of the box, of course it was blank. But for the
>> >> hell
>> >> of it I brought over a couple of my own blank DVD's.
>> >> It STILL says the disc is not empty, and can not be written to.
>> >>
>> >> I went into the SONIC s/w included w/the pc and tried to erase
>> >> anything
>> >> that may have been on the DVD. It seems to have failed also.
>> >> I then tried to copy a plain Word doc. to the DVD. That was also no
>> >> good.
>> >>
>> >> I really dread having to call HP. PC is only a few mos. old so after
>> >> the
>> >> holiday's she is prob. going to bring it into CompUSA, where she
>> >> bought
>> >> it.
>> >> That is unless I can figure out what is wrong. IMO the drive appears
>> >> to
>> >> be malfunctioning. It reads and writes to CD, plays DVD, but won't
>> >> write.
>> >>
>> >> Any ideas/suggestions. TIA
>> > Suggest you go to HP's website and see if there is a firmware update
>> > for
>> > the drive. When I purchased my HP mediacenter PC the DVD drive wouldn't
>> > write to DVD's until I upgraded the firmware.
>

In taht case, just have her call HP Tech support. It should still be under
warranty so let HP fix the problem.

Dewaine

Larry Mauriello wrote:

> Thanks for the *thought*. Trust me it Is a DVD +/- burner. Thganks
> anyway<g>.