Plextor 712A "Auto Adjustment Failed"

[joe tweaker]

My plextor 712A DVD writer stopped recognizing all CD media, but still reads/writes DVDs. When I place any CD media (CDRs, factory pressed audio CDs) in the drive, it tries to ID the media for about a minute, then flashes amber twice, pauses, and repeats. According to plextor support this means "Auto Adjustment Failed - Cannot read a stamped disc or initialize a CD-R/RW disc because the drive cannot properly configure the focus and track adjustment settings." Does this mean the drive has separate lasers for CD and DVD media, and only one of them has failed (because DVDs still read perfectly)? Or could something else cause a plextor to only fail when CD media is involved?

This drive burned a full spindle of CDR media when it was new. However I burned mainly DVD media for the past year. During that time I flashed the firmware to 1.09, changed the IDE controllers in the BIOS from AUTO to PIO mode 4 (because AUTO was causing the controllers to use PIO mode 0, the worst possible transfer rate), ditched ECDC for Nero, and fully patched Windows 98SE using the 98SE AutoPatcher project. Also I just opened a new spindle of CDR media which is at least a year old (I bought two spindles of 50 when they were on sale). But the drive fails to recognize previously burned CDRs and factory pressed audio CDs in addition to blank media.

The 712A is about 3 years old, and was the last writer Plextor sold which was compatible with Windows 98SE. It seems to be working fine with Sony DVD+R media. CDR media created in the 712A more than a year ago are still readable in other drives, but not in the 712A which created them. (If I hadn't needed to burn a bootable CDR today, I probably would have continued to burn DVDs in this drive for years before discovering it had stopped recognizing CDs. But now that I'm aware it won't read/write CDs any more, I'm very unhappy.)

System Specs:

InWin Q500A tower case

Sparkle Power Intl. FSP300-60GT power supply

Abit BM6 ATX motherboard, BX chipset (BIOS version PQ)

Intel Socket 370 Celeron-300A CPU (464 MHz at 2.0 volts)

512MB (2x256MB) Crucial PC133 CL=2 non-parity SDRAM

AGP slot = ASUS AGP-V3400TNT-TV with 16MB 128-bit SGRAM (BIOS ver 2.04.20)

PCI1 = Empty (to allow space for AGP video card)

PCI2 = Linksys LNE100TX Fast Ethernet (version 2)

PCI3 = Diamond Fireport 40 SCSI Controller (BIOS ver 4.05.00.00d)

PCI4 = Sound Blaster Live! Value (model SB4670)

PCI5 = Empty (shares IRQ with PCI4)

IDE0 Master = WD1200 120GB Hard Disk

IDE0 Slave = WD1200 120GB Hard Disk

IDE1 Master = Plextor PX-712A CD/DVD-R/RW (firmware 1.09)

IDE1 Slave = WD600 60GB Hard Disk

SCSI3 = Plextor Ultraplex 40X CD-ROM (firmware 1.02)

SCSI5 = Iomega 100MB Zip Drive

FDD A = Mitsumi D359T6

Dual Boot Windows 98 and 98SE with Bootit NG

Each OS has its own primary partition on HD0

Verizon ADSL 768/128 with Orckit modem

Recording Media:

Sony Japan 1-8x DVD+R (YUDEN000 T02) - still works

Sony Taiwan 1-40x CD-R (unknown) - used to work

712A drive will no longer recognize any CD media,

not even factory pressed audio CDs, but works fine with DVD+R.

712A has Disconnect, Auto-Insert, and DMA settings checked,

and uses drive letter 'W' (for 'writer') in Device Manager.

[joe tweaker]

Further testing reveals that the same problem exists in both boot partitions, ie, 98 and 98se both read all DVD media placed in the drive, and both fail to recognize all CD media. Therefore I think I can rule out OS corruption. That leaves either the firmware update, the BIOS settings, or the failure of a laser inside the drive as the remaining alternatives.

[puntoMX]

Looks like a dying DVD-RW. If you already cleaned the laser and tested in another computer and still have the problems I would look for another burner that supports 98(SE).

[joe tweaker]

Looks like a dying DVD-RW. If you already cleaned the laser and tested in another computer and still have the problems I would look for another burner that supports 98(SE).

I only have one computer to test it in, but that computer does have a dual boot configuration, and the symptoms were the same in both configurations (98 and 98se).

I am not sure what is meant by 'cleaning the laser.' Plextor recommends against using disks that brush the lens. In addition, at this point it is still working fine with DVD media. So it is not a total loss... yet.

Where could I find a list of current 'state of the art' drives, and how does one know from the drive specs whether it will work with 98/SE or not?

[puntoMX]

You can clean the lens by opening the cover of the DVD-RW and use a Q-tip with alcohol to rub the lens clean (softly).

I would post in the Windows 98 section asking about compatible burners with additional driver or not. The hardware will be compatible but Windows need to recognize it.

[joe tweaker]

You can clean the lens by opening the cover of the DVD-RW and use a Q-tip with alcohol to rub the lens clean (softly).

I would post in the Windows 98 section asking about compatible burners with additional driver or not. The hardware will be compatible but Windows need to recognize it.

Are there two separate lasers and lenses in combo drives? One for CD media and one for DVD media?

Opening the drive to clean a lens prior to total failure with all types of media sounds risky. Obviously, if it didn't read any media there would be nothing to lose. But it is still working fine with DVD media. Is it worth the risk of losing both in order to fix only one?

And how would others in the windows 98 section discern which burners work in 98/SE? By trial and error?

Are there other boards where people are more knowledgable about burners compatible with an older OS?

[puntoMX]

Are there two separate lasers and lenses in combo drives? One for CD media and one for DVD media?

Yes there are 2 lasers build in one optical unit so it looks like one lens.

Opening the drive to clean a lens prior to total failure with all types of media sounds risky. Obviously, if it didn't read any media there would be nothing to lose. But it is still working fine with DVD media. Is it worth the risk of losing both in order to fix only one?

Don’t be scared of killing any thing so fast, if you are careful and do everything with calm, I’m almost sure you can do it.

And how would others in the windows 98 section discern which burners work in 98/SE? By trial and error?

I would guess the do; almost no package at this moment shows any information about compatibility with 98.

Are there other boards where people are more knowledgable about burners compatible with an older OS?

I would try http://club.cdfreaks.com/ ...

[GrofLuigi]

I hesitated to post link to another forum, but after puntoMX's reply, I'd recommend Plextor DVD Burner forum. Joe, there you will find everything you need to know about your plex (and more) If you're patient and turn a few pages back, you will even find posts about your exact model. Also check out the sticky FAQ in there.

And yes, cases like yours were encountered before (CD or DVD component dying, and other working fine).

GL

[LiquidSage]

Do not touch the lens! If a squirt of compressed air isn't enough to clean it then…well…

(This reminds me of such memorable stories as the old lady who forced a floppy into a cd drive and the kid who put his PB&J sandwich in the VCR hoping to watch it.)

Optical drives use a laser diode driver to properly access media. To be backwards compatible with the CD-R/W standard, current DVD-R/W's incorporate Multimode laser diode drivers. This allows the drive to adjust the beam and operate at the proper current and pulse to handle the media type you choose to give it. If this was damaged, the drive most likely wouldn't work at all. However, it has happend to others as GrofLuigi pointed out.

But...it is possible to adjust the beam intensity manually and if the little control inside your drive managed to move a bit, it could interfere with accessing CD's properly. I mention it only because it is a possibility. Realistically, I wouldn’t worry about it at all right now.

_{Adjusting the beam intensity is a rather well known DIY fix for playstation's and XBOX's that have problems reading game discs or to increase the likely hood of successfully recognizing home burned discs depending on the drive. This shortens the lifespan of the drive, but beats buying a new system for a while. Adjusting beam intensity manually should never be done on R/RW drives however.}

Okay...so lets try a few things to make sure it's not a software/ OS issue. You tried 2 different win98 systems, but more than likely have the same wnaspi layer installed and burning software plus who knows what else.

1. Delete Upper and Lower device filters from the registry.

Most DVD/ CD related software install their own hardware filters to interact with your drive. It's very possible that some of your filters are buggy or have conflicts. Just about any and every problem you can think of could be caused by filter issues. (Bad TOC's, CRC problems, system lock up's when the drive reads media, slow burns, etc)

Now to repair in 2000 or newer systems, navigate to:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

and delete UpperFilters and LowerFilters.

Immediately reboot the PC.

I'm a bit rusty with win98 so you may find it easier to just search the registry for the above class to delete the U/LFilters entries.

An easier method if you have WMI/WBEM repository installed.

Filter Detection and Removal Tool 4.6

(After reboot, you may later find that some programs that interact w/ your drive won't work anymore. Find the most recent version of the program in question and reinstall to fix. I would make it a point to do 1 at a time to evaulate it's effect on the system. It would be wise to backup your registry before editing the registry.)

2. Go to http://radified.com/ASPI/forceaspi.htm and download ForceAspi. The author recommends to then:

Run dumpASPI to backup your current ASPI layer

Run instASPI to install the new ASPI layer

Reboot

Run aspichk to see if everything worked OK

Can't beat good advise......

3. Now grab an audio CD and a data CD, and see if you have any luck. Also check that DVD's are recognized as well. If not just let us know and we can try other solutions that are even more frustrating and time consuming to complete.

I'd like to point out that your DVD drive is sharing an IDE channel with a HD. On old mobo's the IDE channel will default to the fastest setting of the slowest drive. Basically your HD is not as quick as it could be, esp. because you set the DVD drive to PIO-4 IN BIOS.

Addionaly, the BIOS defaulting to lowest PIO mode on that channel would suggest you are using a 40pin IDE cable or a damaged 80pin cable. Go to newegg, fork over ~$5 and get yourself the proper cable. In fact, replace the other IDE cable if it's in bad shape or is 40pin. It will cost you next to nothing and will improve speed and reliability of your drives.

If you do decide to keep that HD connected on the same channel, avoid burning any data directly from it. Move any files you decide to burn to one of your 120gb hd's first or you could run into I/O issues and wind up making coasters.

Hope it helps!

[puntoMX]

Do not touch the lens! If a squirt of compressed air isn't enough to clean it then…well…

(This reminds me of such memorable stories as the old lady who forced a floppy into a cd drive and the kid who put his PB&J sandwich in the VCR hoping to watch it.)

Exaggerating a bit here?

Nothing will happen when you carefully touch the lens with a Q-tip and alcohol. Some people smoke, have computers close to the kitchen so sticky stuff can get to the lens. Like you clean your mirror reflex camera only with air .

[joe tweaker]

Do not touch the lens! If a squirt of compressed air isn't enough to clean it then…well…

(This reminds me of such memorable stories as the old lady who forced a floppy into a cd drive and the kid who put his PB&J sandwich in the VCR hoping to watch it.)

Nothing will happen when you carefully touch the lens with a Q-tip and alcohol. Some people smoke, have computers close to the kitchen so sticky stuff can get to the lens. Like you clean your mirror reflex camera only with air .

First, I am the only occupant in my residence, and I do not smoke. Never have. Second, the computer is in a bedroom. Third, I am not inclined toward opening the drive and putting alcohol on any lens until said drive fails with ALL media and all other potential causes have been ruled out.

I had to laugh at the stories mentioned by LiquidSage as they reminded me of the many horror stories I used to hear when I worked (2 years) in a US based windows support call center. I was reminded of other stories, such as people using their CD tray as a 'coffee' holder, etc.

As an aside, I once used rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip to clean the lens in a door peephole. Bad idea. The lens turned out to be plastic, and the alcohol fogged the lens so badly I had to replace the entire peephole. Fortunately a new peephole only cost me a few dollars, so it was an inexpensive lesson for me about the effect alchohol can have on plastic lenses.

FWIW, it is even possible to melt platics with compressed air if you spray it too long and get it cold enough. Better to use short bursts than a continuous spray. If you see frost appear on what you're spraying, then you're doing it wrong.

[joe tweaker]

Okay...so lets try a few things to make sure it's not a software/ OS issue. You tried 2 different win98 systems, but more than likely have the same wnaspi layer installed and burning software plus who knows what else.

1. Delete Upper and Lower device filters from the registry.

I need more time to study this, as this is completely new to me. I can state that I did all burning with this drive in 98SE only. The last burning software installed on the 98 partition was ECDC 3.5b, at a time when a different burner (plextor 412) was installed. When I replaced the 412 with the 712A, I installed ECDC 6.0 on the 98SE partition and used that until I discovered it had major issues (date/time stamps being shifted by 5 hours). At that point I removed ECDC and installed Nero 6.6.1.15 on the 98SE partition. I never removed ECDC 3.5b from the 98 partition, but never used it to write any media in the new drive either. Essentially I only used the 712A as a reader in the older OS. I don't recall ever trying to read any CD media since removing ECDC 6.0 and installing Nero. I'm almost certain the last time I successfully loaded CD media, I was still using ECDC 6.0 and still had older firmware in the 712A drive.

2. Go to http://radified.com/ASPI/forceaspi.htm and download ForceAspi. The author recommends to then:

Run dumpASPI to backup your current ASPI layer

Run instASPI to install the new ASPI layer

Reboot

Run aspichk to see if everything worked OK

Not sure if it's been updated, but I already have an old version of aspichk.exe [dated 1999] and it says my aspi layer is version 4.60 (1021), and is properly installed and fully operational on the 98SE partition. I believe it would give me the same result on the 98 partition, but I'd have to reboot to that OS to be certain. Is radified.com the new site for adaptec products? If my [1999] version of aspichk is outdated, just let me know.

I'd like to point out that your DVD drive is sharing an IDE channel with a HD. On old mobo's the IDE channel will default to the fastest setting of the slowest drive. Basically your HD is not as quick as it could be, esp. because you set the DVD drive to PIO-4 IN BIOS.

Addionaly, the BIOS defaulting to lowest PIO mode on that channel would suggest you are using a 40pin IDE cable or a damaged 80pin cable. Go to newegg, fork over ~$5 and get yourself the proper cable. In fact, replace the other IDE cable if it's in bad shape or is 40pin. It will cost you next to nothing and will improve speed and reliability of your drives.

If you do decide to keep that HD connected on the same channel, avoid burning any data directly from it. Move any files you decide to burn to one of your 120gb hd's first or you could run into I/O issues and wind up making coasters.

I never burn from the HD on the second IDE channel. I always create an 'image' in a defragged or empty partition on the first IDE channel, then burn that image. However, you raise an interesting point about the HD on the second IDE channel. Maybe the HD is what's forcing the writer to use PIO 0? Since I thought both devices were designed for UDMA mode 2, it never occurred to me to disconnect the HD when I was investigating the poor transfer rates. (The writer is properly jumpered to use UDMA2, but the HD has no such jumper.) I should retest the 'AUTO' setting in the BIOS with nothing on the second channel except the 712A writer. Still, if transfer rate increased when I set the BIOS to PIO 4, doesn't that mean that the slowest device on the second channel is at least PIO 4? So why would transfer rate drop to PIO 0 with two devices present and both set to AUTO in BIOS?

As for the cables, I have brand new 80pin cables on both IDE channels. They came with the 120GB hard drives, and have been in use since the 712A was installed. In fact, I think I've gotten new 80-pin cables with every hard drive over 60GB, and must have a half dozen like new spares laying around. DMA is checked on all three HDs in the device manager, and on the 712A writer as well. Even so, Nero CD-DVD Speed was measuring only PIO 0 thruput on the 712A with the IDE channels set to AUTO in the BIOS. I think I left all the BIOS settings on AUTO except for the master on the second channel, which I set to PIO 4, but I'd have to reboot and check the BIOS again to be sure. I think the next step is to retest with the BIOS reset to AUTO and nothing on channel 2 except for the writer. If removing the third hard drive increases thruput, then I'll leave the BIOS on AUTO. If not, then back to PIO 4.

I do, however, need data stored on the third hard drive. It's there because the two 120's were full. If it's presence is forcing the writer to use PIO 0 instead of UDMA mode 2, then I need to move more data to DVD's, or put even bigger hard drives on the first IDE channel.

I hesitated to post link to another forum, but after puntoMX's reply, I'd recommend Plextor DVD Burner forum. Joe, there you will find everything you need to know about your plex (and more) If you're patient and turn a few pages back, you will even find posts about your exact model. Also check out the sticky FAQ in there.

And yes, cases like yours were encountered before (CD or DVD component dying, and other working fine).

I'd like to thank both you and puntoMX for mentioning other forums that might be helpful. Haven't been there yet, but hope to soon. Out of curiosity, since you recalled seeing other cases like mine in that forum, do you recall whether any of them eventually succeeded in restoring the non-working component?

[GrofLuigi]

I hesitated to post link to another forum, but after puntoMX's reply, I'd recommend Plextor DVD Burner forum. Joe, there you will find everything you need to know about your plex (and more) If you're patient and turn a few pages back, you will even find posts about your exact model. Also check out the sticky FAQ in there.

And yes, cases like yours were encountered before (CD or DVD component dying, and other working fine).

I'd like to thank both you and puntoMX for mentioning other forums that might be helpful. Haven't been there yet, but hope to soon. Out of curiosity, since you recalled seeing other cases like mine in that forum, do you recall whether any of them eventually succeeded in restoring the non-working component?

I haven't followed them closely, but I think unfortunately they were dying burners.

Another thing you could do is take the Plextor self-test and know for sure. Again my memory is failing me, but you should be able to find the procedure in the manual if you still keep it. This is a feature rarely seen in other burners and involves doing a diagnostic burn on an empty medium and some shuffling of jumpers.

You should be able to find more information either at the forum or on Plextor's official site.

GL