[ckirmser]

I had an HP DVD burner that came with my PC and it worked like a champ until it stopped burning. It would still write - for a while - but that's it.

When it totally crashed, I bought an HP dvd1140i to replace it.

It would run ridiculously slow and never recognizes any disk but a blank one. I have to R-click and select Open to get into the drive - after about a three to five minute wait.

But, blank disks are recognized almost immediately.

I have some ISO files on my hard drive and they will write just fine to the 1140 and they work like a champ. But, if I try to rip a DVD, it fails and just won't read the disk. Well, I had thought that perhaps there was something hardware wise in the 1140 that prevented reading DVDs, so I tried it on a disk that I had ripped long ago. It, too, failed. So, either there was always some sort of increased protection that my old DVD burner didn't recognize, so ignored it, or it's a problem with the drive. Coupled with the molasses-like slowness when opening the drive, makes me think it's a problem with the drive, not my software.

So, I tried finding a new driver for the 1140. No luck. It appears to only need the generic drivers that came with XP Home.

OK, so, the thing writes fine, but just won't read. Well, alrighty then, I'll just go buy another one. They're relatively cheap. And, I've rarely had any problems with HP products. I have a 41c calculator that I've been using since the 80s and it's still in top shape. As opposed to my TI calculators that always had a failed keyboard in six months or so.

So, new drive bought and installed. Well, crud - same problem...

Anyone else have similar problems with an HP dvd1140i and found a solution?

 

[JimE]

So what problem are you trying to solve? Some drives are slow to spin up and recognize media. As for ripping, some drives are faster than others, but the main issue is copy protection. In which case, the issue is which software you are using.

And I won't ever again buy an HP branded drive.

 

[ckirmser]

There's slow to spin up and recognize media and there is s-l-o-w to spin up and recognize media. It should not take minutes. And, if a disk is blank, the drive recognizes that very quickly; as quickly as any other drive I've experienced. Also, my ripping software is DVD Decrypter and, in ISO Read mode, It recognizes the drive and its contents very quickly; the report information on the drive contents comes up in less than five seconds. It just seems to be Windows that has a hard time recognizing the drive.

The ripping issue isn't the software, as it worked fine on the earlier drive. A dvd that ripped with no problem at all with the old drive, gives me errors with both of these new ones. And, if I am writing, it does fine. Copy protection isn't the issue, unless there is some sort of hardware protection detection that the older drive just didn't have.

The problem I'm trying to solve is the problem with opening media. As in it just won't do it, if the media is a DVD. without a three to five miute delay. CDs will open, but only after about 30 seconds, during which time windows explorer shows as not responding and the system indicates substantial HD activity - going by the drive access indicator light. And, this includes CDs that I created, so copy protection isn't even a part of the problem in those cases.

I am convinced this is a driver issue, but I just am unable to locate a driver for this drive, aside from generics. It appears to be a unit that is too old for HP to support and I can't find a driver anywhere else. During my research on the issue, I've seen others with the same problem and they have either asked their problem on a pay site or no one has responded.

As for HP, I've been using HP calculators since the late 70s and their PCs and peripherals since the early 90s. I've never had a problem with them that wasn't related to third party equipment and was always a failed device, not an issue with the HP equipment.

 

[JimE]

Windows uses its own drivers. You won't find any others.

You could try removing/deleting the drive from Device Manager and rebooting. Assuming it's an IDE drive, you could also try removing/deleting all of the IDE controllers and rebooting. Windows will then reload all of the drivers and default the settings.

As for the drive, you can try updating the firmware.

The drive access indicator light could be misleading. Especially for IDE drives as the motherboard uses the light to indicate all use of the IDE bus.

Aside from that, I'd simply suspect a bad drive.

 

[ckirmser]

I checked the HP site for new firmware, but there doesn't seem to be any. I'll have to give the deleting idea a try and see what that does. I've also contacted HP for any help they might be able to provide.

I had thought it might be a bad drive on the first one, so I bought a second. But, the same problem is still there. I bought the first online from CompUSA back in February and the second from a Fry's Electronics a little over a week ago. Either I've managed to get two drives from the same bad batch or two random drives that have the same problem. Both of those options strike me as being awfully long odds.

Or, it is something I'm doing wrong - and, I suspect that is the case. Unless, of course, the 1140i is just a bad design overall. But, I figure, if that's the case, I'd find gobs of entries on the 'net complaining about it and I just didn't find all that many.

Thanx for your help, Dogg! I appreciate it and I'll see what deleting the drive does.