Darn! It was such quirky behavior I was hoping the filters issue would fix it!
It could ultimately be a hardware issue (and i defer to red's excellent hardware experience and advice :approve
. But i have one more idea for a test you can do, if you want, to help delineate between hardware/software.
Are you saying you have problems with data DVDs or just blank DVDs or what? I don't quite understand
My thought is the following: Boot into a standard Linux distro to test the behavior of your CD/DVD device. If it still fails, it's definitely hardware. But if it works now, then we know the problem is within Windows or software in your Windows environment.
One thought is Knoppix (you'll find instructions to create bootable Knoppix
here).
> Once in Knoppix, click
Start->Preferences->Install Knoppix to Flash to create a bootable Knoppix USB flash drive
> Now boot from the flash drive to test audio and media players with your CD/DVD
Though if your only problem is with BLANK media, i don't think the Knoppix version i mention provides for DVD burning (in order that you could test blank media) but perhaps red1776 or someone else with more Linux-type experience then I might have a recommendation.
In any case, hope you get the problem solved (be it hardware of software based!)
/* edit */
One other thing that's at least pretty simple so is also worth a try: Open Device Manager, rt click on your CD/DVD drive, select
Uninstall. Reboot and let Windows automatically reinstall the driver
/* edit 2 */
Oops. I lied. It was two more things
. Here's the other. Check for any firmware upgrades for your CD/DVD drive. Check either the system vendor site (e.g. if computer and CDDVD drive was supplied from Dell or HP) or the drive's manufacturer site.