Issue trying to burn a DVD in Windows 7  

I can't burn a DVD in Windows 7 Ultimate. My CD/DVD drive is listed in "My Computer" and it reads DVD's and CD's fine.

Background Info: I had a problem with the button on my old DVD burner, it would not open the tray without pushing it multiple times, taking a minute or more. I then tried to burn a DVD of some photos with the latest version of Nero Esentials but it failed. I can't remember if I tried to burn a DVD after installing Windows 7 a year ago, but it did work in Vista prior to that with Roxio and I could burn CD's successfully. I just bought a new Liteon ihas124 DVD burner and installed it hoping it would solve the burning problem. It didn't. The tray opens properly, but it won't burn my files to DVD. I tried to burn different files, but that wouldn't work either. The place I bought the DVD burner from said to replace the SATA cable and plug it into into a different port, but that did not fix the problem. I did successfully burned a CD with the same files. I then uninstalled the Nero Essentials and tried burning a DVD again with Windows 7, but it didn't work. I rebooted the computer multiple times, but it still wouldn't work. I am using Sony DVD-R disks. I have also tried Verbatum DVD-R disks. I took these two Brands of disks to my other computer and it burned the same files onto the DVD's without a problem. I went to the Microsoft website and ran "Fix it" and it said everything on my computer is working properly and the Device Manager says the drive is operating properly. I downloaded a program called "Ashampoo Burning Suite 6" that someone on another forum said solved their problem burning DVD's in Windows 7. When I ran it I selected the practice option which completes the burning process before it actually writes to the disk to verify everything works. The program said the burning process was completed successfully, but when I hit the button to write to the disk, and it failed. Someone has suggested to run the repair feature on the Windows 7 disk, but all I saw when the system booted from the disk was the option to "install". I have removed the CD/DVD drive and drivers, disconected the drive, rebooted, run registry cleaners and reloaded the Windows drivers. It still would not burn a DVD. I created another partition and installed Windows 7 on the second partition and tried to burn a DVD, but it didn't work. I deleted the second install and reformated that partition.

I have seen people talking about doing regedit to remove the upper and lower filters to solve problems with CD/DVD drives in Vista and XP but not Windows 7.

Does anyone know how I would go about trying this on my computer? I can't come up with any other ideas to try and solve this issue.

Thanks

Rick

Can I suggest you download and try ImgBrn?

It is an excellent, free burner.

The Official ImgBurn Website

You could also try delete the DVD drive in Device Manager and I mean delete the device, not just the driver, and then reboot in the hope Windows recognises the drive and installs the correct drivers.

I have completely deleted the CD/DVD driver from device manager and rebooted, but it still didn't work. I have also tried several burning programs but I still can't burn a DVD, just CD's. There must be something in my registry that is from my prior burner or prior installed programs that is interferring with burning DVD's.

Exactly what is the problem? You're not saying what really happens, is there an error message when you try to burn DVDs, or do they burn but aren't readable, or what happens?

Is your drive compatible with DVD-R discs? Have you tried a DVD+R disc instead?

When you insert a blank DVD-R disc and run ImgBurn, is it recognizing the blank disc correctly (showing available capacity etc.)?

Yes, my burner is compatible with DVD-R's. It is a Liteon ihas124. I have already uninstalled Nero from my computer, but I used windows to do it. I just tried the suggested Nero general clean tool but it didn't find any Nero program on my computer to remove. I had used Roxio Disk Creator in the past in Vista, but it would not work properly after I installed Windows 7, so I uninstalled it again using Windows. I will also try the "safe mode" uninstall. I am attaching an error log that I found (I can't remember where) but it may point to the problem, but I am not sure how to read it. I am also attaching the windows error message displayed when the burning process fails.

Thanks for the assistance

Rick

The error message may have been before I uninstalled the Nero program, I have been working on this issue for so long and tryed so many different things I can't remember. I wish I could remember where I found that error message. Maybe I just need to reformat and reinstall Windows 7 again. I have so many programs installed that I would like to avoid that option if possible.

I see in the log that the burning software is trying to write a multisession disc in DAO (disc-at-once) mode.

That can't possibly work, since a multisession disc means leaving the burned session open, which requires SAO (session-at-once). DAO is contradictory as it implies burning a single-session disc and immediately closing (finalizing) it.

It appears that the disc is written properly but at the end the software does throw an error "can't finalize session" because of using DAO mode.

Have you tried reading the burned discs? Are they readable? If not, you should be able to close the open session after the fact.