Windows CD Burning not working?

[Mercutio]

I have a whole lab of PCs where, for some reason, Windows integrated CD burning has stopped working. These machines all have Nero 6.3 installed on Windows XP, and Nero works just fine, but when I try to burn a CD with Windows Explorer I'm told to that the media I'm using is not writable and to please insert a different disc.

Removing Nero or updating Nero to version 7.7 did not have any effect, nor removing the Nero Fast CD Burning plug-in (which I thought replaced the built-in component).

The IMAPI CD Burning service is set to manual by default. Changing it to Automatic and Started does not help either.

Anyone seen something like this before?

 

[ddrueding]

If it did them all, my first guess is a windows update?

 

[Mercutio]

Those machines don't get any. Since we re-image them every couple days, I don't bother to update them unless I'm making a new image.
I have no idea how long the PCs in question haven't been able to burn, either.

 

[ddrueding]

No idea. I would blame it on Nero, but I've never tried to burn in Explorer after installing Nero, so I don't really know.

 

[CityK]

Anyone seen something like this before?

Yes, in back in mid-Dec I couldn't get a laptop to burn. Same messages. Changed software, no effect. Chalked it up as the burner gone bad. Might have to revisit that assumption given your recent experience.

 

[Bozo]

Look in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

NoCDBurning > If set to 1, it disables XPs built in CD burning but allows other software to work.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Mercutio]

I am just getting back to this.

Looking at the differences between PCs that have working CD burning and PCs that don't, it looks like the common factor is actually Media Player 11 vs. v9.

Has WMP11 messed up CD burning on anyone else's PC?

 

[ddrueding]

When did WMP11 come out? I remember having this same issue almost a year ago? I know I have some clients that have WMP11 (religious about their updates) and at least one of them uses XPs CD-Burning regularly...

 

[sechs]

Honestly, there's no reason to use past 6.4, so upgrading is really useless.

WiMP isn't a required update, which is really a sign that you need to tell your clients that not everything listed needs to be installed. If it makes them itchy, set automatic update to download and notify, and have them only install those; they'll get a gift at least once a month.

 

[Mercutio]

OK. It drove me nuts but I did figure it out.
When I install WMP11 and run sysprep, my optical drive is detected as a generic "CD-ROM drive." The drive still works as a DVD drive and as a burner, but Windows itself won't let me burn until I uninstall the device, redetect it and then disable and enable the CD recording feature on the drive's properties sheet.

I've never known the particular "name" for a CD drive in device manager to make a difference but it did that time.

An image that is almost identical, but with WMP9, does not have that issue.
Weird.

 

[sechs]

Isn't syspreping supposed to trigger a reID of the hardware?

 

[Mercutio]

Yes.
Which is one of the reasons I'm so surprised that it seems to have been a factor.

 

[sechs]

Maybe you can work around this by deleting the optical device before syspreping.