Matshita DVD-RAM UJ850S not working

I have a Toshiba A215-S5839. It has an AMD Dual Core Processor and 2 gig of ram. Installed in the laptop when I purchased it was a Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-850S. I have always had some problems with the drive and would often have to reinstall the driver. Reinstalling has stopped working. Now it will not read data dvd or cd's at all. Comercial Video DVD's play, but all that can be see is moving blocks. I tried your registry trick and it crashed my computer. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get it back. All the rest of my drivers have been updated and seem to be working properly. I have all the proper codecs and my DVD drive is set for the proper DVD region. I'm at a loss. Please help...

On the one hand i'd say it's probably defective and time to replace.. tho on the other hand, is odd, if you're saying reinstalling the driver seemed to fix it?? Let alone the registry fix crashing the machine???

1. What Service Pack level is installed?
2. And let's take a quick look at the filter drivers loaded for your device
> Download/run Filter Driver Load Order tool
> Select your CD/DVD in left pane
> Then click on the Clipboard button and paste the result back into your next post

I am running windows 7. It hsn't reached a service pack level yet. Other then todays and Silverlight, I have all updates installed. Here is the filter information you asked for...


Upper Filter Drivers: No Upper Filter Drivers specified for this device.
Device Object: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA Device
Lower Device Filter: tdcmdpst

Driver Name: tdcmdpst.sys
File Location: c:\windows\system32\drivers
File Description: TOSHIBA ODD Writing Driver for x86.
File Version: 2, 0, 0, 3 [2.0.0.3]
Product Name:
Product Version: 2, 0, 0, 3 [2.0.0.3]
Company Name: TOSHIBA Corporation.

Thank you for your interest in helping me. I have been trying to fix this for more then a week.

Hmm... Sorry, i should have also asked you for this information as well...

List any Problem Devices

• Make sure all your devices are connected and powered on
• Click Start->Run, enter: msinfo32. Click the + sign next to Components to expand it
• Click Problem Devices. Anything appear?
• If yes, click on it, Ctrl-A to select all, Ctrl-C to copy it, Ctrl-V to paste into next post
• If none, just tell me "none"

Run NeroInfo Tool
Download/run NeroInfo Tool (Note you can use it to click the Disc tab and see how it recognizes the Discs)
> Run it, click the Save icon and save as a .txt file
> In TechSpot, use the paper clip icon to attach the report. (If you don't see icon you may need to first click Go Advanced)

/* Edit */
Also... you said you had been "re-installing" the drivers.
> Have you been downloading a vendor's driver? If so, where from? or can you give me the link you are using?
> Or are you just uninstalling whatever you found in Win 7 (ie using standard drivers in Windows 7? if you know?)
> In part, just curious to check on/ know where your toshiba filter is coming from

Matshita Drive

I'm gonna break this up into 4 posts so I can send the atachment you asked for.

What is on there right now is a driver running in compatability mode for windows vista service pack 2 that I got on the toshiba site I'm about to give you. But I have tried the drivers from microsoft with the same result. I will give you that link when I reach five posts.

Matshita Drive

Not to throw a rench in the coggs, but it read an install disk today for a cisco wireless router. I also forgot to mention is it will run the windows 7 install disk from boot. That install was a reinstall about a week ago after i got some "bad" advice from a few users to edit the registry and remove a filter. It crashed my computer in a way I had never seen. Not even a system restore was able to recover it. I wiped all petitions of the hard drive except the bios portion and reinstalled windows 7. That's when I started playing with both microsoft's drivers and toshiba's drivers. I don't know if that info helps. But I thank you for your help anyway.

Matshita Drive

I'm sorry, thist should be the last on and then you should have all the info you have asked for.

Matshita Drive

Ok. Here's the link to the toshiba drivers.
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/modelContent.jsp?ct=DL&os=&category=&moid=1998665&rpn=PSAEGU&modelFilter=A215-S5839&selCategory=2756709&selFamily=1073768663Nero InfoTool 5.3.3.0"]http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/modelContent.jsp?ct=DL&os=&category=&moid=1998665&rpn=PSAEGU&modelFilter=A215-S5839&selCategory=2756709&selFamily=1073768663"]http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/modelContent.jsp?ct=DL&os=&category=&moid=1998665&rpn=PSAEGU&modelFilter=A215-S5839&selCategory=2756709&selFamily=1073768663Nero InfoTool 5.3.3.0

Also, Here's the Infotoo data you asked for.

Hmmm.. i skimmed the info for a few things but didn't have an "Ah HAA!" moment (i.e. nothing in particular popped out at me). But here's some thoughts

1. Try running from a boot Cd and test your optical drive
If your optical works when running under Knoppix - an alternate OS (for example), you'll know it's a Windows problem. Otherwise it's likely hardware or firmware problem. See How to recover your folders/files when Windows won’t boot and follow step 2 to create an optical CD. Then try playing music

2. Firmware
NeroInfo Tool tells us the optical drive is running Firmware Version : 1.40. You might google a bit to see if any newer firmware version availbale that might be worth trying

3. Filter Drivers
On the one hand, i don't know why removing CLASS filters should have crashed your machine so badly
> Unless maybe you received bad instructions?
> Or you possibly removed the wrong registry key???
Do you remember the link that gave instructions?? - just curious to see it, if you do)

Normally, one would only be removing CLASS filters. For your current case, i see you currently still have one filter installed and its a DEVICE (not a CLASS) filter.

Do you now (or did you used to) have a Toshiba Backup Utility installed? Seems that Driver Name: tdcmdpst.sys
is part of that tool. If still installed, reboot, then use Revo Uninstaller to uninstall it. You might check Filter Load Order Tool also to see if it's disappeared. Then retest and see if it makes any difference

/* btw */
If it happens you've ALREADY uninstalled that Toshiba Backup tool it would seem it left behind a filter driver!

Matshita Drive

Okay, As far as option 1, I can boot with the drive. I can't play a cd, but with some coaxing, I can get it to rip a cd. Also with some coaxing, I can burn an audio cd. I have looked for firmware for the drive surching in google with
Matshita DVD-RAM UJ850S and all I keep getting is links to sites that give me a program I have to pay for that search for drivers that need to be updated. The DVD driver is never one of them and I never find firmware.

As far as the filter drivers, like I said, I am running the drivers from that toshiba link that I gave you. I am currently running them in compatability mode for Windows Vista Service pack 2. I have the original drivers disk from the laptop that I burned with the recovery disks as soon as I got the computer. But the drive won't read them. Im going to change my boot order and attempt to run the driver disk from boot. If that works, I will reinstall from there and let you know.

I can't find the link for where I got the registry manipulation. It was in a thread on microsoft answers I can't find.

Matshita Drive

Ok. I changed my boot selextion and began with the recovery disks that I made when I got the laptop. Disk 1 (the bootable disk) ran with out a problem. I went into the repair utilities to locate and up date my drivers, hit the icon to load drivers, and inserted the disk with the drivers and utilities that was burned when I wrote the recovery disks. that disk wouldn't read. I still have the boot order with the dvd drive first and I'm taking the disks with me to school this afternoon. I will pop on periodicly to try to move this along.

As for option 1, i think you misunderstood my intent.

The point was to boot into Knoppix and so you can then see if the your audio CDs will play when running under Knoppix and using its media player. (Thus you can test your hardware when booted into a completely different OS then Windows! to help see if it's a Windows vs. a hardware/firmware issue)

Though from the sounds of it, if you're still having problems when you try booting from/running your recovery CDs, sounds like its time to replace the optical drive

Matshita Drive

Ok. Thanks for the help.