Hitachi GD-5000 DVD-ROM Problems

Every drive of any popularity has users who report problems. The GD-5000 is not rife with complaints, but there are a few problems worth mentioning. Please remember that you apply any advice involving upgrading, plugging, unplugging, registry modification, etc. AT YOUR OWN RISK! If you are not very comfortable with such things, enlist the aid of your local computer geek before proceeding.

One generic problem worth nothing is that the GD-5000 can read DVD-RAM discs, not just DVD-ROM discs. Some of the problems I see posted on various forums seem to result from not realizing that a DVD-RAM disc is quite a different animal from the more common DVD-ROM disc.

Reading DVD-R Discs

Alas, it appears the Hitachi GD-5000 was born before the 4.7GB standard for DVD-R. Thus, it can read 3.95GB DVD-R discs, but not necessarily the more modern 4.7GB DVD-R disc, as explained in this thread.

Reading DVD+R and DVD+RW Discs

Note that various places such as Meritline.com claim the GD-5000 also can read DVD+R and DVD+RW discs. It would not be surprising if this were somewhat dependent on what machine burned the discs and what type of media was used.

DVD-RAM Cartridges

This drive is not equipped to handle cartridges. To use a DVD-RAM, it has to be the type that lets you remove the disc from the cartridge.

Annoying Pause Fixed with New Firmware

This post in comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom says that his GD-5000 would pause for about five seconds when switching layers. He reports that firmware version 0110 exhibited the problem, while upgrading to firmware version 0215 fixed the problem.

Enabling DMA

Recall that if you need to enable DMA for this drive, that's a setting in the IDE controller in Device Manager, not a setting in the entry for the drive itself.

Watching DVD Movies

This drive did not normally come with MPEG hardware or software. To watch movies using this drive, most people would have to obtain a software decoder, such as WinDVD.

SB16 Emulation Interferes with DMA

This thread discusses a problem getting DMA enabled for the GD-5000 under Windows ME. The user was apparently able to remedy the problem by disabling SoundBlaster 16 emulation from Device Manager.

Upgrading to Windows XP

There are some reports of people having trouble using their Hitachi GD-5000 DVD-RAM after upgrading to Windows XP. This thread discusses a possible solution to the problem. Basically, the idea is to unplug the drive (turn off and unplug your PC first!) and reboot to convince Windows XP that there is no DVD drive there. You may also have to delete the appropriate entry from the Device Manager. Rebooting then gives Windows XP another chance to correctly recognize the drive, hopefully getting it right this time.