NEC 4550 doesn't read DVDs

symoon · Newbie Joined: 29 Dec 2005 Posts: 2

I'm having huge problems with my new NEC ND-4550A DVD recorder. CDs are not a problem, it reads them, burns them...probably it could even make an edible sandwich out of them, but I've never been able to read a DVD disc, not even the ones 4550 burnt itself! I took the drive out, installed it in my friends computer and it worked like a charm. So I thought maybe there's something wrong with the hardware in my computer. Cables, sockets... I changed the IDE cable - nothing, I pulled out the cable from the primary IDE socket where I have my two disc drives and switched it with the one from my DVD drive - nothing. Today I even formatted the disc and reinstaled Windows - nothing. I really don't know what to do next. My computer is a 2-3 year old AMD Athlon XP2000+, so I think compatibility couldn't be an issue here. Please HELP! Than you

Roadworker · Forum Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 383

Did you check the Master/slave settings at the back of your drive? If you have 2 drives connected on a 80-pin ide cable,the last in line should have set it's jumper to "master" while the one in the middle between the mobo connection and the drive at the end of the cable should've been set to "slave" For a 40-pin cable,it's the other way around..... Ckeck also if you have a mobo with Nvidia chipset drivers,if so,replace the busmaster drivers by windows XP's native ones...

symoon · Newbie Joined: 29 Dec 2005 Posts: 2

Hi! I just replaced the busmaster drivers, and it started working!!! I don't know how to thank you, roadworker, you're the best!!! But now that I can read the DVDs another problem has emerged. About 50% of the files(photos) aren't readable anymore. ACDSee once saw the files but could not read them. The only difference I noticed between them was that the files that were readable were read-only(as it probably should be on a dvd+r disc), whereas the ones that were not read-only were unusable. When I tried to copy them to my computer I got an error: "Can not read from the source file or disk." These couple of DVDs are the only copy of 50-100 scanned films... Is there any way I could get the images back?? Btw: I tried IsoBuster and it couldn't read them. Thank you

cjstanger · Newbie Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

Hi RoadWorker, I am having a similar problem. How can I change the masterdriver with WinXP native one? Thanks

cjstanger · Newbie Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

Hi, I am having a similar problem. How can I change the masterdriver with WinXP native one? Thanks Chris

SG · Newbie Joined: 19 Feb 2006 Posts: 3

Hi I also have a similar problem, I can play shop bought DVDs, I can burn DVDs, cant do data DVDs though and wont play any I or my frends burn. Cant read it them exploer ether. I tried the bus master driver change, still no go. The drive works fine on my frends computer. I have a Giga byte M/B VIA KT266A and AMD 2ghz Athlon. Help it driving me NUTS... SG

Roadworker · Forum Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 383

What burning software do you have installed?Is the burner's firmware updated to the latest version?

SG · Newbie Joined: 19 Feb 2006 Posts: 3

Roadworker · Forum Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 383

SG · Newbie Joined: 19 Feb 2006 Posts: 3

dr1ver · Newbie Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Wetherby

Hi,

I have the same symptoms as above and have been trying to resolve it for days now. I have tried all the solutions above. I contacted my supplier when I discovered the problem, they had suggested the usual... update drivers etc.. this was quite frustrating as my purchase was for a "barebones" system (case, m/b, CPU, heatsik etc) I bought this as they allegedly come pre-built and tested, more annoying is the fact is this is a replacement for the same machine I purchased a couple of years ago. When I had received the system I had immediately noticed they had changed from Winfast m/b's to MSI. I had later read somewhere about a compatibilty issue with MSI motherboards an the NEC4550... I then purchased a pioneer 112 DVD-RW thinking I would be in the clear... but guess what? same thing!!! I am now furious!!! again looked to drivers and firmware as a fix to no avail... contacted my suppliers technical support via ticket system which they prommis to respond in 8 hrs.. (it's now been 2 days). Prior to my problems I had burned a DVD with some of my favorite apps and a copy of a game I own but the original disk is unreadable thinking I could just copy to the new machine and be up and running but got the same error as someone above mentioned "source file unreadable". In desperation I have a prehistoric AMD1700 machine that had prehaps the 1st DVD-ROM drive in existance... so with very little hope I installed it in the new machine and presto I was able to read my burned disk and recover the data I burned... I still have the issue with the NEC and pioneer drives. I am still hoping my supplier contacts MSI/MS to try come up with a solution but I am not holding my breath... rest assured if they do I will post the solution. I have a very hard time grasping the fact I purchased a brand new system and one of the most popular/cheapest DVD-RW's on the market only to have this much trouble.

-dr1ver

dr1ver · Newbie Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Wetherby

Hi,

Well I just thought I would report back as promissed, my supplier came up with no solution so I was looking into buying a SATA DVD but this weekend as a last ditch effort I was going to try install vista as suggested by my supplier, I aquired a copy but was faced with the problem of not being able to bunt it to DVD to install it... I then went to the MSI website and entered the MSI part number with took me to MSI global I downloaded the drivers for my motherboard, and my problem is now resolved!!!

Go me!!!

-dr1ver

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