DVD RW DW D-56A Drive Disc recognition

[dtrive]

Dear All, Hello, I am new. I recently bought Vaio PCG-K415S with Sony DVD RW DW D-56A optical drive. It worked OK for few days. But after I did system recovery due to crash, it seems to have stopped recognizing any optical media in this drive. Explorer comes out with please insert disc in drive F:.
I checked the device manager and it say drive is working perfect. I downloaded and installed the Optical driver update for it PFS3-2 from vaio link.
Also it takes longer to execute the simple commands now like opening my computer or any applications etc.
At present the optical drive does not read any disc at all. CD, DVD new, recorded nothing at all.
Please help.:smileyconfused:

[tonybeard]

Welcome to Club Vaio, Try this diagnostic tool .TuneUptrial and see what the results are and fix them. Personally I feel the crash you had may still be causing problems. Another way is turning off the system restore to remove the offending driver error then re engage it. Then reinstall the driver or update. Finally if all else fails recover C drive completely. Defragment then install the SP2 for XP then defrag again and install the sony updates in that order. Good Luck

[rich912]

Another member, Senor Felt, reported exactly the same problem with the optical drive and found a solution.
The DW-D56A is a rebranded LiteOn SOSW-852S and he downloaded the stock LiteOn firmware PFS3 which apparently cured the problem.

He obtained the firmware update from
here.
This, hopefully, will solve the CD problems but not the speed of execution of commands.

[dtrive]

Dear Tony,
Thanks for your help.
I tried with Tune it UP. It did not show any problem with C or D hard drive. However with F drive where my optical drive is it said NO ACCESS. I did not understand it. May be I am doing things correctly with TUNE IT UP.
However after performance on C drive the optical drive now reads DVD but not CD/CD-R. It reads DVD-R blank disc as CD-R. and command execution has improved.
The other ways do not work. I have Nero 6.6.0.13 on its drive diagnostic it says drive can read/write everything it is supposed to. It has updated drive PFS3-2.
I am still at loss.
Hope you can help.
Thanks.
dtrive

[TygerTyger]

Before trying the firmware update (not to be taken lightly!) have you tried simply reinstalling the drive? All you have to do is uninstall it via the Control Panel, and then immediately restart the computer. It should be automatically picked and and reinstalled. Restart again. See if it works?

[dtrive]

Dear Rich,
Thanks from Northern half of world.
I could get driver update for Lite on SOSW-852S on Lite on web site.
However when I run the .exe file a dialogue box comes up this update is only for Lite On SOSW-852S and you have Sony RW DW D-56A drive.

As for other link you sent. I downloaded the driver both for Lite On SOSW-852S and Sony RW DW D-56A drive. They are in .rar formatt. I tried Unrar and other rar reading programs but this files won't open.

As per my drive after system performance now it reads DVD but no luck with CD/CD-R. DVD-R are read as CD-R.

Any suggestions?
Thanks again
dtrive

[rich912]

As for other link you sent. I downloaded the driver both for Lite On SOSW-852S and Sony RW DW D-56A drive. They are in .rar formatt. I tried Unrar and other rar reading programs but this files won't open.

That is strange, I have downloaded Sony.D56A.PFS1-PFS2-PFS3.stock and it opens with WinRAR. If it will help I can convert it to WinZip and email it to you (1.13MB).
Have you tried TygerTyger¿s suggestion?

[dtrive]

Dear Rich, Thanks. I could open the rar file now and have patched my drive but no change. Still does not read CD/CD-R, even the original ones bought from shop.
It does read DVD/DVD-R and writes DVD-R. Have not tried DVD+R yet.

I do not know what sort of problem is this. I have latest firmware now in place. Nero Info tool says it should read. But it does't.

Thanks anyway
dtrive

[TygerTyger]

My suggestion would be if the Lite-On driver recognises the drive as something else, to not flash the firmware. Sony may have updated the drive or altered it in some way from the original rebadged model if it is being detected differently to the Lite-On drive, which means the wrong firmware could permanently cripple the drive. It might not of course, but it's positively not worth the risk if it's putting up a fight. See if the Sony firmware works, if Rich can help you out with it or you can get it working yourself.

Oops, please disregard :smileygrin:

Did you manage to get the Lite-On firmware working or the Sony?

[dtrive]

Dear Tyger,
Thanks
I could manage Sony PFS3 firmware working through Sony VAio site as well as from the link that Rich had sent.
But the problem remains.
I was about to flash with Lite on but thanks to your advise I will not and seek other solution.
Dtrive