Hi!

I'm desperate. My problem is short. I have Pioneer DVD-116 and ofcourse XP. This drive is working in DMA-2 mode (but changing to Pio4 gives no difference). I just cant read ANY file content of ANY cd or DVD! Everything what has autorun mechanism or is played via external software (like DVD movies or autorun games) - works. Audio CD's works too. But If I want to display file content of the cd something is preventing me to do so! Any method of acces to files on cd fails (via My Computer and then doubleclick on drive or Windows Explorer or any software requester like those in Winamp). What is strange - I could acces the files from command line or Nero (!). I have latest ASPI drives installed, and latest 1.22 firmware.
I thought that some software like WinDVD or Nero is patching something in WinXP, but I have unistalled anything what could mess with cd settings and nothing happened.

Please Help... i'm desperated........

Greets,
Tommy

Shoot up windows explorer (or My Computer) and right click on the DVD icon and choose "explore". (instead of AutoPlay or Open)

I tried, and everything failed. Explore or doubleclick on drive icon gives no result. What is interesting - it seems to work ok right after installation of XP.... 4-5 runs and after that - no access to DVD drive... Pioneer is alone on the first IDE channel. If I plug it off and plug Teac W54E recorder everything is working v. fine!!!

Some ideas:

A) Try the patched Region-free Firmwares for DVD-116 & DVD-116R:

http://www.inmatrix.com/articles/win2000.shtml
http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/

B) Disable the built-in Xp CD-burning engine:

Control panel
Administrative services
Services
Imapi CD burning
Doubleclick and disable

C) Check aspi layer or replace it with Nero aspi driver:

http://www.nu2.nu/aspi

Ok, thanks a lot, but I've already tried every of that methods, excepting disabling recording service (magically, I have none here!). Anyway, problem is now solved. What was wrong. There was a problem with swapping of cd devices. I have 2 : one Teac recorder and Pioneer dvd drive. So, when both of them were plugged on one connection tape (40 pin) - both were not working. But, somehow, XP was still remembering that DVD is E not D, and recorder is D. After unplugging recorder, ofcourse - drive letter has changed to D (for DVD) but it causes system not to access files via system mechanisms (why?). After connecting DVD together with HDD (80 pin connector) and TEac recorder alone everything went back to norm. Still, I have no clue where XP stores information about connected removable devices and their letters....

Just thought I'd mention, for those that don't already know about it, that there is a facility in XP whereby you can force XP to use whichever drive letter you choose [as long as it's not already taken] for a drive. Just right-click on My Computer & select Manage, then under Storage select Disk Management.