Driver update for Optiarc DVD RW AD-7190A

[Vince Cravotta]

In going through all the help info I decided to check on the Regions page and I found that I had no region established on the form. I know I enter the 'United States' when I installed the new burner. It was blank, so I entered the United States' again. I rebooted for it to take affect, setup my song and tried the burn.
I went through the test fine. When I tried to burn it errored out and ruined another disk. I tried again using only the 'write' instead of testing again. It started preparing the tracks and errored out again, of course, ruining another disk. I went bact to the region sheet and again it showed no region selected and mentioned 'remember you can only change region 5 times'. I thought about it not wanting to accept my region and decided I would change from Master and Slave to Cable Select which I did. I went back select Region 1 (United States) and it accepted it. I tried another burn with test and then no test and I lost another two disks. The region was accepted and I don't know if changing to the Cable Select option had anything to do with it.
I then put new cable leads into the computer for the two drives still using the Cable Select option. Nothing changed.
I feel I have tried everything that you've suggested and all the thoughts that I thought would have worked and really feel that there has to be something in the burned itself that is malfunctioning. I am now down to 45 disks out of the 100 I purchased from MTU. I feel that they should replace the unit and the disks that have been ruined.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Vince Cravotta

In going through all the help info I decided to check on the Regions page and I found that I had no region established on the form. I know I enter the 'United States' when I installed the new burner. It was blank, so I entered the United States' again. I rebooted for it to take affect, setup my song and tried the burn.
I went through the test fine. When I tried to burn it errored out and ruined another disk. I tried again using only the 'write' instead of testing again. It started preparing the tracks and errored out again, of course, ruining another disk. I went bact to the region sheet and again it showed no region selected and mentioned 'remember you can only change region 5 times'. I thought about it not wanting to accept my region and decided I would change from Master and Slave to Cable Select which I did. I went back select Region 1 (United States) and it accepted it. I tried another burn with test and then no test and I lost another two disks. The region was accepted and I don't know if changing to the Cable Select option had anything to do with it.
I then put new cable leads into the computer for the two drives still using the Cable Select option. Nothing changed.
I feel I have tried everything that you've suggested and all the thoughts that I thought would have worked and really feel that there has to be something in the burned itself that is malfunctioning. I am now down to 45 disks out of the 100 I purchased from MTU. I feel that they should replace the unit and the disks that have been ruined.

Vince, why use the quality disks for this testing? Buy some cheap ones. Whether they burn or not it won't cost as much for testing. If it does burn (we find the problem) then it just won't be quality, but at least you'll know it is fixed and can then reburn on the quality disks.
If it was the drive then it would not have worked with other programs either which is not the case. I can't speak for MTU but I doubt they are going to replace it or the disks.
As far as the Region setting goes once you set it then it is set. If you open that setting again it shows blank so you can enter a new setting if you want, so don't reset it again.

Just for your information too, Microsoft only puts out updates on Tuesday, so if you check on Wednesday morning that will take care of your updates and you don't have to do them every morning.
Speaking of updates are you doing the hardware updates from Microsoft too? Half the time those updates (which they get from the manufacturers) are out dated and can cause problems. Only do the software updates. If you have been doing them too that may be part of the problem.

[Vince Cravotta]

Can you tell me what software is related to the Microstudio that affects the production of disks that I would need to update or upgrade? My Router has been updated, my Modem has been updated and I backup my three hard drives every two weeks.
Your advertizing stated when I was buying the new burner that if I didn't use MTU's disk that the burner would not work properly. I believed what they said. That's why I didn't buy cheaper disks.
How would cheap disks work when I'm trying to get the burner to work.
You can look up in my records that I purchased a burner some time this year and it worked fine for about as long as this current one. I asked for an RMA number and returned the unit to MTU. They deducted a re-stocking charge.
I have been with this company a long time, Since 2003, and in the beginning I spoke with the owner most times and he would spend some time helping with the problems I would have with other software. Like never being able to download programs for some unknown reasons and would have to purchase the CD/or/DVD to get the programs to work.
*I would like to hear from someone from MTU who can explain to me why my unit will 'test write' a new disk that I want to burn and it processes perfectly, but when the burner tells me that testing process was completed successfuly and it asks if I want to burn it, it errors out every time. What part of my computer system has any control at that point in the process. Then, maybe I can work on that piece of hardware or software!
I have some $15,000 dollars of editing software and hardware in this computer. I have Pinnacle Software and Pinnacle hardware, Lexocon amplifiers that I use to produce my recording of all of our Songs Using $500 dollar microphones and Cakewalk software when I need to produce new music. I can run all of this equipment but I can't produce a Karaoke disk with this burner. I have seventy Karaoke disk to create now but my business is dead in the water.
I purchased this new burner on 2008-11-25 @ 23:30:24. My order number is 63081. I've had it just over a month. It worked for two weeks and your Warranty is 10 days.
*I think if no one can answer my question I feel that MTU owes me something. At least to check the unit out at you plant and see if they can get it to work.
I have been buying MTU software and hardware since 2003. I really am not mad, I'm disapointed!

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Vince Cravotta

Can you tell me what software is related to the Microstudio that affects the production of disks that I would need to update or upgrade? My Router has been updated, my Modem has been updated and I backup my three hard drives every two weeks.

Windows XP is very integrated into this process. Microstudio as are other programs on your computer are inter-related and dependent on the Windows functions working correctly. If I could tell you exactly where to go to fix this I would, but every situation is different and trying to troubleshoot problems through the forums or even over the phone is very difficult since we can not see exactly what is going on with your computer.
Please understand that though I may not be an MTU employee, I do have 40+ years in IT support.

Originally Posted by Vince Cravotta

Your advertizing stated when I was buying the new burner that if I didn't use MTU's disk that the burner would not work properly. I believed what they said. That's why I didn't buy cheaper disks.
How would cheap disks work when I'm trying to get the burner to work.

I don't believe that is what they say on their page on those drives. They do say that if you use cheap disks they may not play on a karaoke player. I personally use Memorex "Music" grade CDs and have never had any problem with them playing. All they are saying is they researched and and sell a quality disk that they know will work.
The reason I (not MTU) said to use the cheap disks was for troubleshooting purposes to keep from destroying your quality (more expensive) disks while testing for a fix.

Originally Posted by Vince Cravotta

You can look up in my records that I purchased a burner some time this year and it worked fine for about as long as this current one. I asked for an RMA number and returned the unit to MTU. They deducted a re-stocking charge.
I have been with this company a long time, Since 2003, and in the beginning I spoke with the owner most times and he would spend some time helping with the problems I would have with other software. Like never being able to download programs for some unknown reasons and would have to purchase the CD/or/DVD to get the programs to work.
*I would like to hear from someone from MTU who can explain to me why my unit will 'test write' a new disk that I want to burn and it processes perfectly, but when the burner tells me that testing process was completed successfuly and it asks if I want to burn it, it errors out every time. What part of my computer system has any control at that point in the process. Then, maybe I can work on that piece of hardware or software!
I have some $15,000 dollars of editing software and hardware in this computer. I have Pinnacle Software and Pinnacle hardware, Lexocon amplifiers that I use to produce my recording of all of our Songs Using $500 dollar microphones and Cakewalk software when I need to produce new music. I can run all of this equipment but I can't produce a Karaoke disk with this burner. I have seventy Karaoke disk to create now but my business is dead in the water.
I purchased this new burner on 2008-11-25 @ 23:30:24. My order number is 63081. I've had it just over a month. It worked for two weeks and your Warranty is 10 days.
*I think if no one can answer my question I feel that MTU owes me something. At least to check the unit out at you plant and see if they can get it to work.
I have been buying MTU software and hardware since 2003. I really am not mad, I'm disapointed!

This is information you need to put in your Support Ticket Email.
There is only one point in this part of your post I will comment on. When you have Microstudio perform "Test CD Before Writing" it is not testing the CD itself as this would require writing to it and would ruin the CD. It is testing the drive controller to make sure it is responding correctly without actually turning on the laser to perform the burn. The drive is performing every step of the function with the laser turned off so it doesn't ruin the CD.

[Vince Cravotta]

I talked to someone through the MTU system and asked about the statement that I read in one of the adds and he stated that MTU's disk were manufactured specifically for MTU and they would suggest that I use them with the new burner.

As to the laser not being activated during the test and that the system is checking the files only, how can I test to see if the laser actually has the ability to burn a disk? I use a CD and DVD cleaner which I use each morning before I start burning disks. My Plextor burner had a test function to check if the laser was functioning properly. The laser has a reading funtion and a burning function. I could be updating and upgrading 'til the cows come home and it still would not work.

I have been reading as many of the Forum posts as I can, and the majority of them are complaining of the same type of problems that I'm concerned with. Can it be that all of us who have posted all of these problems are all inept at using Microstudio Burners and software? All of this began with the new Microstudio that converted all files to .bin files. I never had problems like this before the new software was issued and Microstudio informed us that our old code numbers would no longer work (and not explaining in advance that our old codes would no longer work). They (Microstudio) should make an attempt to re-institute a way for those of us who had to purchase disks because of the inability to receive downloads that did not work.
Again, all I can say is that I'm very disapointed that Microstudio has let this situation grow to these perportions.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Vince Cravotta

I talked to someone through the MTU system and asked about the statement that I read in one of the adds and he stated that MTU's disk were manufactured specifically for MTU and they would suggest that I use them with the new burner.

As you say they "suggest" and I would too for burning finished products, but for testing no itisn't necessary to ruin the expensive disks to find out if a fix worked or not. That was all I was saying.

Originally Posted by Vince Cravotta

As to the laser not being activated during the test and that the system is checking the files only, how can I test to see if the laser actually has the ability to burn a disk? I use a CD and DVD cleaner which I use each morning before I start burning disks. My Plextor burner had a test function to check if the laser was functioning properly. The laser has a reading funtion and a burning function. I could be updating and upgrading 'til the cows come home and it still would not work.

If the laser activates during the test phase then the disk would be ruined and not usable for the burn. There is no way to test the laser without ruining a disk.

Originally Posted by Vince Cravotta

I have been reading as many of the Forum posts as I can, and the majority of them are complaining of the same type of problems that I'm concerned with. Can it be that all of us who have posted all of these problems are all inept at using Microstudio Burners and software? All of this began with the new Microstudio that converted all files to .bin files. I never had problems like this before the new software was issued and Microstudio informed us that our old code numbers would no longer work (and not explaining in advance that our old codes would no longer work). They (Microstudio) should make an attempt to re-institute a way for those of us who had to purchase disks because of the inability to receive downloads that did not work.
Again, all I can say is that I'm very disapointed that Microstudio has let this situation grow to these perportions.

Yes there have been some who have had problems with Microstudio but it is a small minority of the thousands of users. And no I don't think that any are inept at using the software and burners. Any time you upgrade from a major version (3.xxx) to a new major version (4.xxx) then your registration code changes when you purchase the upgrade. This has always been MTU's policy.
Not sure why you can't recieve downloads, since you obviously have internet connection. Depending on your internet speed it may take some time to download, but it should come through ok.

The "conversion" to .BIN files from .CDG was actually only an extension change and did not change any of the contents of the files. I realize you are looking for reasons why this is happening, but unfortunately this isn't it.

Vince consider this. You have tested the burner on other programs and it writes ok. You have had two drives and they both worked for a short period of time (in Microstudio). The question is what is causing them to suddenly stop working for you? MTU knows that if everything is right with the computer Microstudio works and so do a lot of people.

[Vince Cravotta]

Dale,

I don't seem to be getting through for some reason. You have not given me any technical answers to my questions. Every answers is telling me that there is no way for the burner not be functioning correctly. I know that you are trying your best to satisfy me, but I don't consider your answers satisfying at all. I need someone to say there might be a problem so let's check it out. I notice that now when the burner starts in the burning process and before it errors out, the light on the burner never changes from the green color to the light orange or yellow color the other CD burners that I have do.

I downloaded Bel Arc and ran it two or three times and it states that my computer has all major upgrades and updates and every thing looks good.

*What I would like is a name and a telephone number of the manufactures of this burner that I can contact, send this burner to them and have them look at it and tell me that they placed it in a computer that they know has all the upgrades and updates in it and that it works for them. I will pay to ship it to them and then back to me. I could have it checked here locally but I would still have to get an electrical schematic for that burner.

I have sent three (3) of my Plextor disks back for service when they stopped working. They checked them and sent them back. Now because they have stopped making CD+G burners they no longer will take them back for repair. They suggested the route above to solve the problem.

I hope you can forward me the *information I have asked for.

[Vince Cravotta]

Dale, the tray on my optiarc -Ad-7201A has stopped operating with the tray button. The Only way I can open it is to right click on my computer and hit the eject item. Is there something I can do to remove the tray and clean it?
A gentlman on the site had one for sale that he doesn't use anymore but I saw the ad one day too late.
Any Ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Vince

[ddouglass]

I would say most likely not. It sounds like the switch behind the button has worn out. These are closed switches and no way to clean them. Either keep using the right click which bypasses the switch or get a new drive.

[admin]

I'm closing this thread started in 2008.

If any of you need to discuss drives in 2010 or later, please start a new thread.