Notebook drive help - it won't burn but I doubt that it is broken

[healimonster]

My emachines M6809 continues to troop on and I still love it, but recently I haven't been able to burn any thing with the combo drive. I am not sure when this happened because I usually use another computer to burn things. The CD/DVD drive, optical drive, what ever you want to call it.

The drive is the same drive that came with the machine and have never been refurbished or replaced. I am fairly certain it still has the physical capability to burn something, and it is not a hardware malfunction. I am guessing it is a software/driver malfunction.

I think the problem lies in the fact that "MY COMPUTER" lists two drives there.


Screen Shot
http://picasaweb.google.com/healimonster/NotebookComputer/photo#5154623426063020722

At one point I was running software the required a virtual drive, and that might explain the two drives. But I am fairly certain I have done a clean install of XP and did not reinstall the virtual drive. I am not certain which drive is the virtual one and which one is the actual disc drive. I am guessing it is the one that starts with HL-DT-ST.

Screen shot
http://picasaweb.google.com/healimonster/NotebookComputer/photo#5154623430357988034

I have gone into the device manager and deleted both drives separately at different times and that didn't help, and oddly enough the both always come back.

Any suggestions on how to get my drive situation back to a singular drive that is able to burn again.

The drive will play DVDs and CDs, but it seems the computer gets confused sometimes with the two drives and does not kick into autoplay mode when a disc is inserted into it.

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edit: fixed links (i think... what is the best way to post pictures in a post?)

[Broken]

"D:\" should be the physical drive CD drive when only one hard drive and one optical drive is installed (unless you actually re-lettered the drives, which I doubt).

The only reason "I" know of that explorer would show an extra drive that isn't present, is that the extra drive is virtual drive, as you said. Whatever program created the drive is either still present on the computer or was not un-installed properly. I would think that it's still on the computer. I.E. Alcohol 120%, Daemons Tools.

Regardless,
I don't see how the presence of a virtual drive could interfere with your ability to burn Cd's/DVDs. I'd un-install whatever program is creating the virtual drive (if it really bothers you), un-install and reinstall whatever program that you are using to burn. And if that fails, try another burning software. If the problem persist I would start looking at hardware fault.

[clocker]

My emachines M6809 continues to troop on and I still love it...The drive is the same drive that came with the machine and have never been refurbished or replaced. I am fairly certain it still has the physical capability to burn something, and it is not a hardware malfunction... I am guessing it is a software/driver malfunction...

That's funny, my first guess would be that the drive has malfunctioned.
Temporarily hook up another drive and see if it works.