Thread: Weird issue with new SATA DVD-R drive and Vista 64

I just got a new DVD-R drive, a Samsung S203N (my first SATA optical drive). It worked great under XP 32-bit for the first week. But then I upgraded to Vista 64-bit and while it technically works (it can read and write), there is something wrong.

When you load a disc, generally you expect 3 things to happen:

1) icon on disc drive updates to reflect disc
2) volume label updates to reflect disc
3) right-click context menu updates to reflect type of disc

This is not happening. For example, if I boot the computer up into Vista and then put a data DVD into the drive, these things are not happening. BUT I can still open the drive and browse/use its contents.

However, if I restart the computer with a disc in the drive, it WILL show as in the drive once Windows starts. But if I then take that disc out of the drive and either replace it or just leave the drive empty, it still shows the previous disc as being in there (and its relevant context menu).

So in other words the "Computer" explorer only seems to scan once at reboot for the contents of the disc and disc type, to update the icon, volume label, and context menu. Other software (such as DVDShrink) does recognize the volume labels of newly inserted discs, even if Windows Explorer doesn't.

I've only had this drive for a week... and I don't have this issue with my 3+ year old Lite-On IDE drive if I try to use it with Vista.

My mobo is ASUS P5W DH Deluxe. I updated all my JMicron RAID drivers from the ASUS site for Vista 64 and so should have the SATA working fine (I see the SATA controller listed as OK in installed devices). Any ideas?

One thing I noticed in 3DMark system info was this info for my drive:

Interface Typeunknown
Device Bus TypeATAPI

For my other SATA device (my HDD) it is listed as interface SATA and bus type IDE, I think (my BIOS is configured to make SATA operate as IDE, if I understand it correctly).

Aagh, this is driving me so crazy. I've spent every bit of free time I had the last 3 days in front of my computer either searching for info about this online, or updating my BIOS and trying every possible solution.

Somebody on a different forum suggested that the Windows SATA driver could be bad, but I don't know how that could be the case. I am able to communicate with the drive, and OTHER software ( DVDShrink for example) will recognize newly inserted discs by updating the volume label. It is only the Windows explorer file browser which will not recognize volume labels unless I reboot the whole machine with the disc in.

I have spent the last 5 days doing NOTHING with my free time but troubleshooting this issue. Very annoying.

It's not DVD drive (firmware is up to date, AND I even bought another totally different model cheapie SATA DVD from Fry's and it does the same thing).
Chipset (ICH7R) drivers are up to date from Intel
Vista is SP1 plus all other updates
Mobo BIOS is newest available

My newest theory is that this is related to Vista somehow. I have found out that all I have to do is log out and then back in to get Windows explorer to refresh the drive contents. So Windows CAN scan the drive, it just won't do it upon disc load or with F5. It will only scan at login, which makes no sense. And other software (DVD copiers) will scan the disc properly every time it is inserted, so the communication with the SATA controller is ok... Windows explorer just isn't requesting that info when it should be (at disc load or when I hit F5).

Argh!