Sony DRU500A, firmware 1.0f RecordNow fails?

[hetvarken]

Hi,

Just wanted to share some problems/solutions.
Got my drive with the 1.0c firmware. First made one perfect DVD+RW with Nero 5.5.9.17. Then I made one DVD+R coaster with Nero (the famous "failed to close disc" error), so for DVD+R I switched to RecordNow which worked fine.

But now, after firmware-updates first to 1.0d and later to 1.0f, RecordNow refuses to recognize ANY brand of empty disc, and keeps stating that "the disc is not empty". :devil:

So I gave it another shot with Nero, and that works fine now! :confused:

Does anyone else have problems with RecordNow after firmware updates as well?

[Sergey Nameless]

I have RecordNow MAX version: 4.50 Build: 450B20D.358(STV)
It works after update

[framerman]

hetvarken

I'll tell you what happened to my firmware update. It went crap-ola!
Apparently, at least in my case, I did not disable the dma settings before I updated. I downloaded the firmware update from Sony and installed it. My drive cannot even recognize that there is a disc if it is a store bought dvd. I can still burn cd's but it just won't read those dvd suckers. I called Sony about this problem (waited on hold for 45 minutes) they said I can't reverse it. It's too late. Thanks alot Sony, I have a piece of crap.

[bobeuchre]

did sony say it would be ok if you reinstalled the firmware again ?
and when you installed did you uninstall dla first

i put in the 10.f and i dont see any differance, didnt improve the read speed, and i dont have any 4x disc to check that part

if i were you, i would try again, uninstall any dla you have, disable dma on your drives and reinstall 10.f
by the way did anyone see 10.e and does 10e. have to be installed befor you can install 10.f
good luck framerman

[Caedel]

I didnt disable DMA when i installed the upgrade. My drive works fine. Also... i dont use DLA. Never have... dont really like that kind of thing. I dont think there was ever a 1.0e released. I went from d to f.

[framerman]

what's dla and how do I uninstall it

[framerman]

bobeuchre and Caedel

If you could tell me your settings on how you burn your discs and what media you have, boy, I would greatly appreciate it. I cannot get my drive to burn slower than 2.5x or 2.6x. I set the settings on dvd decrypter to 1x but it still burns at 2.5-2.6. Nero doesn't allow me to burn at less than 2.4x. It's grayed out, I can't fix it.

[Caedel]

I assume you're using a +R disc. In RecordNOw Max, you have an option to set the max burn speed, though I always burn at the fastest option. I dont ever use DVD Decryptor to burn disc because I had issues with it when I first got my drive. Now, I pretty much stick to Nero (5.5.9.17, had problems with earlier version) and Ritek 2x DVD-Rs. Havent made a coaster for a while.

DLA is one of the software programs that comes with the drive. It is my understanding that it lets you use your DVD-write like a regular drive, drag and drop files and they are burnt to the disc. I never installed it, so i couldnt tell you how to get rid of it.

[framerman]

No. After so many non burns, I only have +rw's. I have verbatim, memorex, and fuji. All the same results. I don't have Record Now Max. Record Now is what came with it. I have Nero 5.5.9.17. The speed setting in Nero is grayed out, but I see 2.4x in the box. That's the only setting it has.

Sony told me that what I did was irreversible. If I didn't follow the instructions that came with the download (which never came with my download) it was impossible to uninstall the firmware. It burns into the firmware memory in the unit itself.

[Caedel]

What about the Sony +RW that came with the drive?

[framerman]

OK, well I guess it's the media. I tried like you said for the Sony dvd disc that came with my drive. Voila! I'm heading off to Best Buy tomorrow. Now I would still like to know how to burn to these other discs I have. I thought they were pretty good. Memorex, Fuji, & Verbatim. Is there any possible way to burn at the lower speed? I've got 20 of these discs total. I don't have that much data.

[Caedel]

I wouldnt ever buy Memorex again... just an idea. I dont know about the others. The Verbatim should be good... I used their DVD+Rs. Out of curiousity, why are you using +RW as opposed to -RW? Just wondering if there was a reason.

[destemido]

i also did my upgrade without disabling DMA, so the computer locked after the firmware upgrade and i had to manually restart it. when i entered the upgrade software, it said the drive firmware was 1.0d. When i tried to record with record now, the one that came with the drive. it said and "an error has occured" and it would eject the dvd with recording anything on it. i tried to record several cd's and it worked.
you can try this...
try to burn something else to a dvd+rw using nero.
if you're using win2k or winXp enter in safemode and do the firmware upgrade. then try to burn some other files to a dvd+rw.
when i did the upgrade i thought i had destroyed my drive. but it could still record cd's. so i went do the shop, got a new drive. tried to burn the same files (a stripped dvd) and it would give me the same error. so it wasn't the drive but the files i was tryng to record.

i really hope this can help...

[framerman]

I use the +rw's only because I was under the assumption when I bought my drive that +rw's burned at 2.4x and -rw's burned at 1x. They have since changed that I believe, but it was before I bought all of these discs.

destemido

Did you upgrade to the 1.0f version? I can burn files to dvd OK. Maybe my files are messed up. I'm sure I'm doing it right though. I decrypt in decrypter in file mode. I usually take out the widescreen vob's in the movie. Right now I'm trying to burn Ice Age. All I did was go into the folder and move the widescreen out of the folder to a new one. Then I move the video ts folder to the c drive. Open up ImgTools and create an image. After that, I burn in ISO mode in decrypter. Takes me about 19 or 20 minutes.

One problem I seem to be having is the discs will only burn at 2.5-2.6x in decrypter. I have the settings at 1x to avoid burn problems, but I can't get it to burn slower for some reason. I'm trying new aspi drivers now.

[Caedel]

Are you copying the VIDEO_* files from the DVD also??

[framerman]

I copy all of the files. Then I remove the vob's of either the widescreen or standard screen. I keep all of the video_ts files there and keep all ifo's and bup's. I must be doing something wrong in the authoring part. I used the dvd's I was talking about and burned ice age perfectly minus the standard screen. Burned at 2.6x on decrypter. I just tried snatch in the same exact way and I get a dirty disc error. Brand new unopened disc. Formatted with Roxio cdudfrw. I don't get it. I would say this has nothing to do with firmware.

[bobeuchre]

im in toronto canada so i cant tell you a lot about the dvd's that will burn in the sony
i use princo 1x speed and they work ok - one hour to burn a full dvd
if your still unsure how to burn and what files, i use nero 5517 and they best part about nero is that if your missing a file or the compilation is not correct it will tell you
the disc that came with the unint will burn at 2.4 with nero and it will erase in about 20 seconds with nero
sorry i havent been follow the forum, well cause my unit is working haha
let me know if there is anything i may help with - keep in mind i dont know much hahah
this may also help with the making of a dvd - ofcourse doom9.net is very good - this one will show you in a flash video how to encode and how to use ifo edit
http://www.dvd2dvdr.com/index.htm