Problem with SATA Drives and 64-bit OS?

[LanceG]

Speaking of the Drives dialog, has anyone else experienced having their drive(s) DISAPPEAR while troubleshooting? I've had them disappear and reappear a couple of different times, and don't know what I have done to cause this. Wondering if it has anything to do with my "unable to read" problem.

Anybody?

[GregiBoy]

Nope!!!

You appear to definitely have a gremlin-infected box....

[martythebrit]

I had an issue a couple of years back, I traced it back to the SATA cables. They're dirt cheap so I replaced all and never had another problem.
If you do this make sure you get the new style cables with the clip on the end to stop the cable coming out.

[LanceG]

I had an issue a couple of years back, I traced it back to the SATA cables. They're dirt cheap so I replaced all and never had another problem.
If you do this make sure you get the new style cables with the clip on the end to stop the cable coming out.

Good thought. I'll definitely give that a go. It HAS to be something bizarre. The SATA cable is original to the box, and is the old type without the clip.

[LanceG]

Well, it wasn't the SATA cable. Still the same problem. Every time I put in a DVD and click on the Open directory button, DVDFab hangs. The only way to recover without a reboot is to remove the CD, wait until the app closes and then wait until I can close DVDFab*32.exe. When I start the program with no DVD, Open Program shows all of my drives including the DVD drive and doesn't hang. Only problem is -- I can't use the program!

[CBR929]

Hi LanceG
Have you also checked the power cables and or swapped them with another set if you have on on the power supply?

You say you have ImgBurn installed, please Open ImgBurn > Tools > Filter Driver Load Order and post what is listed.
CBR929

Another thought, have you turned off all auto play settings in Windows 7

[LanceG]

My ImgBurn settings for Filter Driver Load Order are:
===============================================
Filter Driver Load Order - ImgBurn v2.5.7.0
===============================================

Upper Device Filter: [None Found]
Upper Class Filter: [None Found]
Device: CD/DVD-ROM Device
Lower Class Filter: [None Found]
Lower Device Filter: [None Found]

I had NOT disabled all AutoPlay settings, so I researched the process for Windows 7. I learned about AutoPlay vs. AutoRun, and about 3 different ways to turn them off:

1. Edit with the General policies Editor (gpedit.msc) in Windows 7 (except Home Edition)
2. Disable AutoPlay in Control Panel
3. Edit the Registry to disable AutoRun

I have now done all three of these things. Now, when I put a DVD in my system, no dialog box pops up as before. Unfortunately, however, DVDFab still does not respond after I click the Open Directory button.

I haven't yet tried swapping the power cables, mostly because I can play DVDs with Media Player every time, and can burn DVDs with ImgBurn. Seems to me that a power problem would not respond differently to one program than to another.

[martythebrit]

Mine look's like this;

Upper Device Filter: [None Found]
Upper Class Filter: GEARAspiWDM
Device: CD/DVD-ROM Device
Lower Class Filter: iaStorF
Lower Class Filter: AnyDVD
Lower Device Filter: [None Found]

[CBR929]

Hi LanceG
You have a very strange problem.
@ martythebrit
Yours may be different because of the software you have installed on your computer.
The reason I was asking LanceG to post the Filter Driver list, is sometimes a software will take control of the drive and not release them to other programs.
CBR929

[martythebrit]

CBR929: I thought it might help him.. very strange problem though.

LanceG: Are you using DVDFab 8 or 9, does it happen with both?

[martythebrit]

Did you format the hard drive and do a clean install of Windows 7 from the DVD, that part wasn't very clear?

Which chipset is on your motherboard and which CPU?

Is your SATA running in legacy mode or AHCI?

[LanceG]

Hey, y'all......I'll try to cover all those questions.

I installed Windows 7 as a clean install, formatting the disk before adding the OS.

I had the same problem with version 8 in 64-bit Vista and 64-bit Windows 7. I decided to try version 9 on the off chance that the s/w might have a better chance of communicating with the drive in its latest version. As best I can recall, I have never been able to communicate between DVDFab and the DVD drive on this computer.

The computer is a Dell Precision workstation T5400 with a 2.0 GHz Xeon quad-core CPU. I think the chipset is ICH10R -- with Dell mobos they don't tell you a lot about what's on there, and I haven't really scrutinized it completely. I have tried 2 different DVD-ROM drives (one Windows 7 certified and one not) with the same result. Mobo BIOS is the latest (A11) and the LiteOn iHAS124 has latest BIOS, though results with both old and new BIOSes have been the same. I suspect that either there's something wonky with the mobo or some other hardware connected to it. Pretty much every log I've looked at indicates that DVDFab cannot see a DVD, or at least cannot get the DVD type or max lba. They all either end with "opening drive E" or the sensekey messages about being unable to get the DVD type and max lba, depending on when I put the DVD into the drive.

As I've said previously, Media Player can show movies on the drive and ImgBurn can read from and write to it.

I have an old XP box sitting right next to the wonky Dell which is running DVDFab 8.0.4.5 IIRC. That one has never missed a beat, and hasn't required any TLC to keep it working.

IIRC all drives are SATA and are using AHCI, though the BIOS does not indicate anything about AHCI for the DVD-ROM. The 2 hard drives both specifically say AHCI (as opposed to RAID) in the BIOS settings. I checked into this and as far as I can tell, there's no setting for SATA-2 (the DVD-ROM) that can select AHCI or anything else.

[martythebrit]

Did you go to Dell's website and download and install the Intel chipset software and the Intel rapid storage software? Both may help you.

[LanceG]

I did install the Intel Chipset s/w and had hoped that it would help with SATA support. Unfortunately it didn't seem to matter. BTW I uninstalled and reinstalled the DVD-ROM afterwards in the hope that I would take full advantage of the SATA improvements. No such luck.

I don't know about the "rapid storage software" but will try to find out more about it. What does it do for SATA DVD-ROMs?

[martythebrit]

It's Intel's software for various SATA chipset controllers, such as your ICH10. It may or may not help, it's worth a shot.