# Mat****a DVD-RAM UJ-820S Not Reading



## MAWallace (Mar 20, 2005)

I found posts all over with UJ-820S reading problems and the mention of Roxio CD Creator 5. I had them myself with my Toshiba Tecra WinXP and when I went to a store and found a Toshiba Satellite laptop with a Mat****a DVD-RAM UJ-830S that read my CD when my 820S wouldn't, I decided to do some tests before I sent the laptop back. I hope my post helps someone else because I have been helped by these forums.

I encountered problems with my Mat****a DVD-RAM UJ-820S (-RW) but only when trying to read discs created by other computers using Roxio CD Creator 5. I called Toshiba under my service contract and because the commercial discs could be read they said not a drive problem.

My conclusion is that it is both a drive problem and a disc creation problem by a different computer. I went to a store that sold Toshiba laptops and took my created disc from a Dell XP _NEC DVD+RW ND-11D0A and put it into one of their brand new Toshiba Satellite laptops with a Mat****a DVD-RAM UJ-830S. The drive read the disc with no problem!

My hunch is that UJ-820S is very fussy about the way that discs are created; UJ-830S probably fixed the problem (but recall that some computers; for example, SONY, want only certain discs and some require a last-minute writing to the CD/DVD that "validates"or "stamps" certain information to the disc.)

Many of the posts I have encountered on various technical bulletin sites mentioned problems with the UJ-820S and the Roxio Creator 5 CD program and I think this is where the problem lies. I went and bought CD's, DVD's of both forms since my Dell was +RW and my Toshiba Tecra was -RW to systemically test each method of creating a CD or DVD.

Conclusion 1: If you use Roxio Creator 5 and choose CD Direct (a method of copying and pasting), you must format first and before ejecting the CD, you must choose to convert to the most compatible format (the third choice). (The default is to leave as is). (Only "CD Direct" has you choose to convert to a choice of formats, "Projects" do not)

Conclusion 2: If you use Roxio Creator 5 and choose CD Project or DVD project you must set your defaults to *finalize and close the CD/DVD(third choice). Finalizing the Session and leaving CD open to add to is not good enough. I think this is the most probable reason for Roxio users having problems reading their CD/DVD's by other computers. (Only CD Direct has you format first, Projects do not format separately but within the process and only Projects have options on finalizing sessions/CD)

Conclusion 3: Done correctly, it doesn't matter whether you use cheap CD's or expensive CD's, DVD's or R or RW on the Mat****a UJ-820S. I thought maybe it was because I was using cheap CD's. So I bought expensive CD's and DVD's, followed a set protocol, found they worked and then went back and used the cheap ones and found they worked also on the UJ-820S. Conclusion: I had failed to set the correct defaults on the program when creating the CD's originally.

Conclusion 4: If you are at your wits end, consider alternatives: An external CD/DVD drive that plugs into a USB port or a flash drive to back up files from one computer to another. I was ready to do this until I solved my problem.

Those of you who are discouraged with the UJ-820S - do a controlled test.
1. Can you read commercial discs?
2. Can you write and read CD or DVD discs created by the UJ-820S on the same computer?
3. Under what circumstance can you not read the disc? If it is when a disc is written by another computer, then go into thé other computers CD/DVD disc creator program and examine every menu and choice to find where you finalize the CD/DVD (not session) or where you convert to a compatible format for other drives. The answer most likely lies with that other computer and the defaults in the program you used.*


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