Seems it's my turn to have DVD problems :gag:

Recently, whenever I insert a blank DVD into my DVD Writer (Sony DW-D22A), all's well for about 5 seconds, then it BSODs with:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x806FF94F, 0xA52DD024, 0x00000000)

When this first happened a few weeks ago, I reinstalled the firmware and that seemed to fix it. But it started happening again last night, and the firmware trick did not work...

The drivers are up-to-date; Googling so far has thrown up mixed information varying from DVD Registry hacks and software uninstallation to graphics card issues :huh:

Has anyone else experienced this behaviour? Or have a clue as to what on earth is going on...?

First things first - borrow another DVD Writer and plug it in in the exact same configuration. Insert a blank DVD and see what happens. If you get a BSOD then Windows is corrupted. If not then it is drive specific.

If it is drive specific, you may well find that it is not the firmware at fault, but instead the Windows driver. Attempt to completely eradicate the driver completely and re-install it.

check and see if windows updates have installed a better driver if so go back to the origenal i had this problem with a toshiba and a sony dvd
but maybe its days are numered

Thanks for the replies, but I got heavily diverted...

After more searching, I decided to have a look at the minidump that was created by the BSOD - a new area for me :rolleyes: I followed the instructions from here (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246).

Running Windbg seems to indicate that the failure was in amon.sys - a component of Nod32 :gag: Think I'll try uninstalling it and trying AVG-free to see if that makes a difference...

UPDATE: false alarm about amon, it seems. I uninstalled nod32 and still got the BSOD. But this time Windbg showed the culprit to be vsdatant.sys - part of Zonealarm... So, I stopped ZA, put in a blank DVD... and all was fine... Guess it's time to find another firewall - or turn it off when I want to burn a DVD!

Excuse me for just one second...
BBWWWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAHAHAHAAAHAAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA *breath* AAAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAHAAA


How much do I have to educate people on the evils of ZoneAlarm before they will listen?

Gloating does not become you :P

I've used ZA for years without any problems whatsoever - but those days are over! Closing down ZA allowed me to insert a blank DVD peacefully. This afternoon, I tried to actually burn a DVD, but as soon as I opened Burn4Free I got the BSOD - again, vsdatant.sys was the culprit, even though ZA was closed down :loopy: I'm burning a DVD - I don't need firewall protection for that!! :rant:

So... I uninstalled the thing, burnt the DVD successfully, and am now running Comodo. Installed quickly and smoothly, straightforward configuration, even for the ICS connection to my laptop. Zonewhat? Never heard of it....

Oh... and I can now safely insert a blank DVD!