LG optical drive won't burn DVD in AHCI mode

My LG optical drive, model GH22NS40, popularly called "Super Multi DVD Rewriter", running on Windows 7 64 bit, will not burn a DVD-R if the SATA controller is in AHCI mode. All other optical drive functions work OK -- reads and burns CD-R, reads DVD. Attempting to burn DVD using Windows 7 Explorer gives this error:

Dialog name: Burn to Disc
Insert a disc
"There is no disc in the CD or DVD burner.
Please insert a writable disc into drive d:."

Switching to IDE mode in motherboard BIOS solves the problem. However this causes all SATA devices to work in IDE mode. I have several SATA hard drives, so would prefer running them in AHCI mode.

Other config details:

HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS40 ATA Device
Driver date: 6/21/2006

cdrom.sys: 6.1.7600.1385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
GEARAspiWDM.sys: 2.02.00.01
PxHLpa64.sys: 3.00.67a

EVGA P55 FTW, i7-860 @ 3.78Ghz, 8GB Mushkin Enhanced DS1600-6G HP3-12800
A39 BIOS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
300GB SATA WD Velociraptor WD3000HLFS-01G6U0
2 x SATA Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS
GPU: EVGA GTX275

Hello joema,

Can you go into Device Manager and verify that your optical drive drivers are up-to-date?

Thanks,
~Jonathan

Yes, it says "Windows has determined the driver software for your device is up to date."

I have an updated firmware file for the optical drive, but LG says don't install it to solve this problem. Unfortunately I don't know how to inspect the current firmware version.

Neither do I, to be honest. Can you find drivers on LG's support section?

Something I did when i was first confronted with AHCI was to contact seagate and they told me todays sata drives are made to work independently, and dont need AHCI enabled, so they work the same in IDE mode as they do with AHCI enabled, and the only real advantage of AHCI is having Hotswapping enabled if you have external hard drives.
So to confirm this, if you want, just look at your hard drive score in windows performance index, it should be the same and hence you havent a problem Merry Christmas.

On a gloomy note I m not sure about the raptor drive, but it if you have the OS on that drive just check the index score.

Hi there

Can't understand the problem as I've got an "almost" identical device.

Just ensure you haven't got any "jumpers" incorrectly set (Slave / Master etc). Also ensure cleanly inserted into SATA slot -- try changing the cables.

Here's my hardware list (pic enc)

cheers
jimbo

whest said:

...seagate...told me todays sata drives...work the same in IDE mode as they do with AHCI enabled, and the only real advantage of AHCI is having Hotswapping enabled if you have external hard drives....

Click to expand...

I did some basic perf. tests with HDTach, PC Passmark, and xcopy. Performance for both Velociraptor and Barracuda seemed the same in IDE as AHCI mode, so it's not hurting performance. I have some external eSATA drives I'd ideally like to hot swap, but that's a minor thing -- I could live with IDE. Just wanted to report the situation for reference.

LG doesn't have any updated drivers for the optical drive -- they say use the Windows driver.

I'll try the updated LG firmware...

I have a LG GH22NS30 with firmware 2.00 , noticed that DVD burns suddenly became less reliable so I investigated. The issue seems to be the AHCI mode of the SATA controller. When I return to "enhanced IDE" mode the drive works perfectly, again .

I'm using Verbatim DVD-Rs and ImgBurn.