2013 Archives

[frederiko]

Hi,

When i'm trying to create factory restore backup disc, my pc wont recognise the disc in the disc drive.

Windows pops up message,,

"Please insert a blank DVD into the optical drive, then press ok to continue".

I do this and it just spits the disc back out.

Here are my lap top specs.

Operating System
                 
Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (Australia)
Installed: 18/05/2013 11:54:38 PM


System Model

Acer Aspire 5560 0.1

[edited for privacy]
Enclosure Type: Laptop


Processor                  
1.50 gigahertz AMD A6-3420M APU with Radeon HD Graphics
512 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board
Board: Acer Aspire 5560 A11
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies Ltd. V1.15 12/05/2011



Drives              
482.18 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
437.88 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT32N SATA CdRom Device [Optical drive]

TOSHIBA MK5059GSXP [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 32TCT1W1T, rev GN003J, SMART Status: Healthy

BTW, device manager does not show any problems with the disc drive.

The disc drive can read an old cdrw disc that i have data on fine.

ATM, i am trying to create/burn the factory recovery on CDR discs from TDK. (obviously without success), these discs are brand new/never used.

I am a little (not totally, computer illiterate), as such please phrase any replies in simple terms.

TY

[RonMackintosh]

Problem: When upgrading to Windows 7, (32 & 64 bit versions) the optical drive/device becomes extremely unreliable and often intermittently disconnects from the system (sometimes it is not even properly displaying in both the Device Manager and in the My Computer windows). Sometimes the drive repeatedly remains inactive after a CD is inserted. Sometimes the drive is active immediately, then it disconnects, the application freezes and the system crashes. Often the disk will spin down to idle and then will disappear from the system.

Cause: There is an incompatibility issue with Windows 7.  This only happens when you upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows Vista. The drive works properly in laptops with the original system configuration of Windows Vista. Windows 7 introduced a new “Adaptive Link Power Management” (ALPM) feature which is responsible for telling the drive when not to run in order to save laptop battery power. CD/DVD Device/drives designed only for Windows Vista will have this fault when you upgrade to Windows 7.

Solution: I have found no firmware update available. I have also found a work-around involving editing the computer registry, however this disables the Adaptive Link Power Management (ALPM) feature. I am not prepared to disable this power-saving feature because this simply cures the symptoms while not fixing the underlying cause. My Acer laptop was sold to me 4 years ago with the free offer to upgrade to Windows 7. Thus, for me, this is an Acer warranty issue (even though I have only this week discovered the reason for this design fault). However, if Acer originally only provided Windows Vista for your computer, the sure way of solving the problem is to purchase a new CD/DVD Device/drive. Make sure you only purchase a drive that is described as compatible with Windows 7 and later. There are still available some brand new yet older version disc drives that are not compatible with Windows 7.

Note: ALPM (Adaptive Link Power Management) is a feature that puts a hardware device into sleep state after 100 ms of idle time. This is a power-saving feature. After you disable ALPM, you can still configure the drive to run in Power Saver plan, however, you then can no longer benefit from the additional battery power saving that is provided by ALPM.

[frederiko]

Hi,

Well what you have mentioned is interesting.

More info from my situation:

- i purchased the laptop, brand new, 3 months ago, with windows 7 pre installed.

- I am pretty sure windows vista was never installed on this machine.

- I am not really bothered by any battery saving measures, battery mode run time is of little concern, as i use the laptop on mains power 100% of the time.

- What are the risks of the ALPM (Adaptive Link Power Management) work around you have found.

Could you provide more information/instructions on how to apply this workaround.

TY

[RonMackintosh]

Hi frederiko,

Your problemmay not caused by the issue I described however, you might find these interesting:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-7-RTM-Can-Render-DVD-Drives-Inaccessible-121924.shtml

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/395fcf4c-8eec-4b63-b538-71a3a69cf592/incomp...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975270

Ron

[frederiko]

Thanks Ron for your continued help on this issue.

situation update:

1. I downloaded "burnaware" free disc burning software.

2. I was able to burn an excel file i have on my harddrive to the disc using burnaware.

These are the same new discs i am trying to create a factory backup with, using the acer eRecovery Management interphase.

3.so, i now know,,.

a) This is not a disc model/cddriver incompatability issue. Apparently some disc brands dont work with some drives.

b) This is not a faulty disc drive issue. As the disc drive burnt successfully with burnaware.

c) This is probably related to the acer eRecovery Management not recognising the disc in the drive for some reason.

    I am not computer advanced enough to know whether the acer eRecovery Management interphase is part of windows 7 and burnaware diverts around windows 7, hence burnaware works and acer eRecovery Management does not. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on this issue.

4. My main aim is to create a recovery disc should my laptop crash in the future.

5. As a work around, Should i just create a Bootable iso image of my drive using burnaware ?

 Will this work ?,

(is an iso the same thing as "what the acer eRecovery Management' tries to create ? )

 Is there anything else i need to burn with burnaware to have a proper backup/restore solution created.

 Is there anything else i need to do, to have a proper backup/restore solution created.

Obviously my windows7 version is an oem, as it came pre installed on my laptop.

Does restoring from an iso work for oem's ?

Notes: I have 24 /750mb new blank discs available, will that be enough, assuming 5. above is a solution.

6. As long as i can create a backup/restore discs  with burnaware, i don't really care whether the initial problem is never resolved. (acer eRecovery Management not recognising the disc).

That is i am happy to use the workaround in 5. permanently in the future.

AT this stage i would just like a bit of help with the workaround in 5.

TY in advance

[RonMackintosh]

It looks like you are getting someware now.

Neither am I computer-advanced enough to answer your questions. I simply have been repeating information obtained elsewhere.

Good luck.

Ron.