Post-XP Pro upgrade CD-RW woes

From: Ivor Durham (ivor.durham_at_webprint.com)
Date: 02/26/04


Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 15:14:38 -0800

After upgrading my Dell Inspiron 7500 from Windows Professional 2000 to
Windows XP Professional I have had no luck burning CDs. I have installed all
available updates from Microsoft:

- I can play audio CDs without a problem on my Plextor 12/10/32 SCSI
external CD burner via an Adaptec SlimSCSI CardBus controller. It is the
only device on the SCSI chain and has internal termination set.

- Native XP CD burning writing fails almost immediately with the "Wizard
failed to complete" message. The device property is set to enable writing
and I enabled the IMAPI CD Burning service before the attempts. However, the
service stops after a few minutes; setting it to "Automatic" starting
doesn't help. The event log doesn't seem to indicate why the service stops
or why the burning attempts fail, so I don't know where to begin to diagnose
this.

- Retrospect 6.5 appears to write CDs ok (via NT SCSI pass through) but has
started reporting "error -206" errors (dirty heads, bad media etc.) when
verifying the written CDs. The Roxio help suggests that error -206 may also
mean a timeout talking to the device. After this I tried switching the SCSI
termination to external, but that didn't help either.

- Easy CD & DVD Creator Platinum 6.5 required that it be uninstalled and
re-installed after the XP upgrade. After the re-installation, the re-boot
blue-screens; I had to use the last known good configuration to boot again.
One installation attempt of EZCD caused both the internal CD reader and
external CD burner to become unusable. I used a restore point to back up the
system to its earlier state. However, the restore didn't re-enable access to
the internal and/or external CD devices. I had to delete the UPPERFILTERS
and LOWERFILTERS registry keys per the Microsoft Tech. Note and re-install
the upgrade to get a working system again.

I am pretty desperate for some knowledgeable guidance on what the core
problem with the CD-RW device might be or how to further diagnose it. I have
so many applications, many downloaded over time, that a clean installation
and re-installation of the applications is a highly undesirable option.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Ivor Durham



Relevant Pages

  • Re: CD burning drivers for WinXP
    ... I've installed Easy CD Creator 3.5c on a WinXP SP3 machine. ... continue the installation, so I did. ... It is a test I am doing on a machine that I don't use to burn CDs, ... deactivated CD burning capability on this machine on reboot. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: CD burning drivers for WinXP
    ... I've installed Easy CD Creator 3.5c on a WinXP SP3 machine. ... continue the installation, so I did. ... It is a test I am doing on a machine that I don't use to burn CDs, ... deactivated CD burning capability on this machine on reboot. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: CD burning drivers for WinXP
    ... continue the installation, so I did. ... It is a test I am doing on a machine that I don't use to burn CDs, ... were replaced by older incompatible versions and Windows deactivated ... CD burning capability on this machine on reboot. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Dell OEM Windows XP
    ... >>> ## Where would I get an installation CD? ... > I had to supply my own CDs with THIS HP PC. ... >>> the XP upgrade CD in the drive and see what it says? ... >> The existing partition. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: CD burning drivers for WinXP
    ... I've installed Easy CD Creator 3.5c on a WinXP SP3 machine. ... It is a test I am doing on a machine that I don't use to burn CDs, ... I set the shortcut in Win95 compatibility mode after the installation. ... this installation was that the WinXP CD burning drivers were replaced ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)