VioletMonk

Here is how I just fixed my woes:



In short: Go into Device-Manager and Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers: Try changing to "PIO Only" mode instead of "Ultra DMA Mode" on the IDE Channel which your DVD-Drive is using, namely the Secondary IDE Channel (since the 1st is probably your disk). It should say "Location 1" on the tab of where the drive is NOT zero.

Ultra-DMA is obviously newer and faster and better, but I think that it still gets the specified performance from the PIO-mode. Took me around 10 minutes to write around 3 gigs.

(1) uninstalled manually every device driver which looked even remotely connected to "Matshita" or "DVD" or "CD" INCLUDING "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" and "Secondary IDE Channel".

(2) ensured a hard restart (power-off)

(3) allowed Windoze to auto-detect whatever hardware it pops up after reboot commences

(4) one of those items was the "Secondary IDE Channel"... or in any case... go into Control Panel->System->Hardware : Secondary IDE Channel.
(a) Change from "Ultra DMA mode" to "PIO Only mode"

(5) Go back into the Control Panel->Hardware->Device Manager->IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers->Secondary IDE Channel : Transfer Mode = "PIO Only" to make sure that this reinstallation you just experienced kept that setting, if not, set it as such, and again, DO NOT change your "location 0" setting, the tab displaying your secondary ide channel should say "location 1".

(5) hard-reboot again

(6) system should come up and auto-detect your CD-ROM / DVD-ROM / Optical Drive / DVD-RAM drive all at once on the next restart.

It should then function.

vicseptember

If 3.3 megabytes per second is okay for burning a DVD to a multisession, then I guess PIO mode is okay??????????

Who knows...

My biggest issue with this drive is the fact that it doesn't play all my discs. I have some audio cd's that it doesn't recognise and if the audio cd is one of those multimedia ones you can forget trying to do anything with this drive. Even trying to access some burnt cd-r's that have mp3 and mpg no good.

I've taken this to a Toshiba tech who tried the same scenario on his notebook, and he reckons XP SP2 fixed this problem on his machine. Mine still exists with SP2. Yay!

Klyment

http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/cont...e15dvdramx.exe

It's a big download and it's from Toshiba but my friend said it also works for the Fujitsu S7010DC-2 that he's using. Hope this helps. =)

- K

thirteen

I personally have 1ClickDVD($49) and Copy to DVD. I have had no problems recording different styles of DVD's (i.e. -R, +R or +/-RW). Some of the older movies that were made years ago or the newer ones do have some problems. I then use DVD Decrypter (free, found through google) and DVD Shrink (free, found through google) and then DVD reburn software such as Nero, Roxio, Copy to DVD, etc. Hope this helps.
I have also been looking for firmware for the MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-820S burner and have been unsuccessful so far even after contacting Toshiba.

richardhula

I have recently bought an Acer 8006LMi laptop using same Matsushita DVD-RAM UJ-820S drive. I have also found it very choosy about blank media when writing DVD+/-R. Not so bad with RW although slower with DVD-RW. So far have found no updates to 1.00 firmware. Often get failure just as its writing lead-out. Reducing target file size in DVD-Shrink to 4240Mb (95% of max) seems to help.

One interesting? point that's come to light. It doesn't work with any of the several "region free" software progs available. The reason I have found, is as follows:

Regional restriction (RPC II) works by not revealing the title key on CSS protected discs IF the region code of drive & disc do not match. Usually this brings up prompt to change region, but you only get to change drive five times before firmware locks it onto last region (Nero drive info tool will tell you present state). Regional free software works with a brute force attack on the scrambled sectors containing the title key. Unfortunately Matsushita (Panasonic) have exceeded the MMC standard on this drive by not allowing even the scrambled title key to be read. Few if any other drives behave this way which is why the software manufacturers often claim it will work with ALL DVD drives

Seems like I will have to hope for a firmware update that turns off the RPC II regional code restriction, which to my mind is an unfair restriction on consumer rights. Wish I'd known this before I bought laptop.

motocamp

Hi,

I also own an Mashita DVD-RAM UJ-820S in a Toshiba Satellite P20. My problem is to burn normal CR-Rs. Everytime I get an error "power calibration failed".
By trying different CD-Rs I found out, that CD-Rs with a higher speed than 40 times will fail. I had no problems with CD-Rs up to a maximum speed of 40 times.

Ok, now it works, but where can I buy such old CD-Rs?

Which CD-Rs are you using? Does anyone have a compatibility-list?

Thank you.

René.

motocamp

Here ist an information I got from Toshiba Germany:

Rohlingempfehlung für Matshita DVD-RAM Laufwerke:

CD-R media:
-RiCOH Co., Ltd.
-Hitachi Maxell Ltd.
-Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
-Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
-TAIYO YUDEN Co., Ltd.

CD-RW media:
-RiCOH Co., Ltd.
-Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

DVD-R media:
-TAIYO YUDEN Co., Ltd.
-Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
-RiCOH Co., Ltd.
-Pioneer Video Corporation
-Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd

DVD-RW media:
-Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
-RiCOH Co., Ltd.
-Victor Company Of Japan, Ltd. (JVC)
-TDK Corporation

DVD-RAM
-Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd

Now I know which CD-Rs are possible, but I don't know where to get these. :-((

Sluggo

Hey guys, I called toshiba, The guy asked me If I had nero installed, I did, So he told me to uninstall All 3rd party Programs, and reinstall what came with it, I did and it works fine now.....

motocamp

which programs came with? Drag'n'Drop?

richardhula

Ok everyone knows about the RPC II region change limit (default 5) after which the drive is region locked. What about vendor resets though? This is set to default of 4 - does that mean (with a little help from your drive vendor??) you can actually change regions 25 times. Searches reveal little about this - has anyone managed even one rest?

Carlos

Hi I got the same problem as you do, have you been able to figure out how to solve it?

Thanks a lot for any help!

M@D M@X

If you are from germany try ALDI CD-R worked fine but i didnt found DVD-(+) or DVD -(+) RW to burn on.

Ziggy

I was having this problem with CDRs and DVDs which I had applied a paper label to (as my previous computer/DVD burner was fine using them). It appears over time, the paper heats up and starts to slightly warp the disk creating the imbalance in th drive. It has taken me up to 10 attemps to copy data off a CDR with breaks to cool the CD back down. in the Toshiba manual that comes with it, I eventually read up it, they recommend not to use paper labels.

I to have had power calibration problems with 52x disks on this drive, but I also found 80+ worms on the machine at the time. Removed the Worms, re-installed Roxio and also downloaded the firmware update for A70 from toshiba and now do not have power calibration errors.

Phil_TC

Hey, guys. Same problems with the drive for me.

It does not always read burned CDs (sometimes you just have to open and reclose the drive so that it works...). When burning I have a similar problem. It suddenly encounts an error and stops with the burning process (bad burned CD turn useless and I have to just throw them out).

I have been looking for the firmware everywhere just that I dont even have the support from my laptop-maker, which is ADVENT, doesn't have a website, and has no way of being contacted.

So no new firmware (which would probably solve the problem...).

If anyone knows a way around the problem (I tried yours VioletMonkey; problem persists),
PLEASE contact me at filip_tc@ya.com.
I would really be greatfull.

Thanks,

Phil