JVC DR-M10S 'Disc Error' message?
 

I am getting this message on a JVC DR-M10S I purchased recently. It recognises and plays commercial and recorded discs but if I put a blank disc in it to record I get a Disc Error message. In fact, it gives that message on any kind of blank regardless of format and I am using top of the line Verbatims--never use anything else.

I'm thinking it's the drive. Can anyone recommend a drive I can purchase to replace the one that is in it? I've searched in this (and other) forums but can't find any conclusive answers. I just need a model number of a known burner that will work in this recorder and I am set.

Many thanks.

Google around a bit if you haven't already. There are a posts here and elsewhere with respect to errors when trying to load discs in a DR-M10, from as far back as 10 years ago. One may hit your exact issue.

I've already done that.

Will this drive--GSA-4040B--work with this recorder? Does anyone know?

Have you opened the case to see what is in the JVC DR-M10 now?
The drive you listed is a standard PC drive, but does the JVC use that configuration DVD burner?
Does it have a model number or part number on the internal drive?

(I ask because when I looked inside my Toshiba D-KR10 DVR, the drive in it was not configured like a standard PC drive. The cabling, mounting holes, and connectors from the circuit boards to the drive mechanism were quite different.)

Thanks for sticking with me on this one dpalomaki!

Yes I have. The drive in it is not a standard PC DVD burner. I picked that particular drive because it came up in one of those other threads. I forget which one I've read so many.

I searched on the part number but didn't have a lot of luck.

Quoting from this thread--

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/medi...rm10-disc.html

lordsmurf please advise what DVD burners the JVC DRM10 is compatible with. Thank you. :-)

Finding units wit working drives maybe a bit problematic. A quick check of E-bay indicates the disc loading/reading issue may be common.

An approach I would take:

First get the manuals for it:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr-...0-service.html

Looking at the schematic it looks as if the unit used either a JVC DVD burner (in USA) or Hitachi-LG DVD burner (in a European variant).

Carefully remove the existing drive and its covers to see what is going on inside.
If I could identify the drive, I would try find a drive of same make and nominal capability from the same time frame.

It shows 40-pin IDE/ATA interface, probably ribbon cable rather than the external cables used in a PC. This should map pin-for-pin to the standard ATA connector used in a PC drive.

However, the power to the drive appears to be either 4 or 7 pins (7 for US, 4 for Europe). The purpose of the other three pins in the US is not clear to me. Removing the cover might shed more light on this. But it should be resolved. By doing a side-by-side comparison of the existing and proposed replacement drive you may be able to sort that out. If all it does is light LEDs or similar it may not be needed.

If you do install a different make/model drive, do not try to flash its firmware with the JVC.

The "loading" issues is almost always bad caps, not an actual issue with the disc loading. "LOADING" was a generic error message from JVC, and the unit may as well have displayed "BROKEN".

Some Verbatim DVD-R 16x media actually hate the DR-M10S, and the most suggested media (at this date) is 2x DVD-RW of almost any kind. I'd not claim it to be a bad drive without first testing it on DVD-RW 2x discs.

These Maxell should be good:
http://www.amazon.com/Maxell-635117-...6b07b95fde1f43

In fact, I may get some more myself.

Or even some Sony:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-25DMW47SP...a273086562e6ef

It turned out that this was a non-supported media issue!!

I'm a bit red-faced on this one!

Good that you have a working (and used!) unit there; I've always used -RAM discs in mine with excellent results (Even though Lordsmurf laughs me out of the room over that preference...).

The main issue here is the DVD-VR format is a pain to edit. You can't extract with IFO mode in DVD Decrypter, and you must copy the full file to HDD. And the full files has non-video junk that cause cause a lot of problems.