CD Writer Works ... But Not With Blank Disc

I am getting low on hard drive space, and need to burn files to cd's. This problem even stumped Dell tech support, after 2 hours on the phone, all he could say was that it was a strange problem, but could not fix it. I tried system restore, but to no avail. My cd writer will not write to blank discs. It will read and play files, the problem is writing only. It was working fine just a few days ago. It is only blank discs I am having trouble with. While troubleshooting on my own, I tried a disc that had files written already, and these discs will accept and write new files. So, the writer is working, but just not with blank discs. The writer goes through all the motions. The writing wizard appears, does the job, message appears that the files have been successfully written, but then the cd remains blank. I tried writing video with divx, and same problem. Same goes with real player and windows player. Thank you in advance for any help or advice.

Assuming that the blank disks are compatible with the drive here are a couple things you might try:


If you feel comfortable editing the registry, here are some steps:

Click the Start button, click Run. In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK.
Click the plus sign (+) next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Click the plus sign (+) next to SYSTEM.
Click the plus sign (+) next to CurrentControlSet.
Click the plus sign (+) next to Control.
Click the plus sign (+) next to Class.
Click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

Once here click File in the upper left corner and choose: Export (this key)
Export to your Documents as a backup. If needed you can go back to this file and Import it back.

Then:

On the right hand side of the window, click UpperFilters.
Click Edit on the menu bar.
Click Delete, and then click OK.
On the right-hand side of the window, click LowerFilters.
Click Edit on the menu bar.
Click Delete, and then click OK.
Click File, and then click Exit. Restart the computer normally


Also check UDMA/PIO settings under your IDE channel in the Device Manager.

If set to DMA try changing to PIO.


Another idea is to manually Format the CD prior to burning.

Insert > Right Click under My Computer > choose Format.

Please reply to the forum: not PM. Thanks.