G4 rejects or fails to initialize any DVD I offer it

Question

Any help on this would be super-appreciated...
I am running OS9.2.2 on my G4 (silver door) and it has always burned data CDs easy peasy. I tried to burn a data DVD yesterday and I'm really running into problems:
When I put a blank DVD and close the tray the G4 tells me:
"This disk is unreadable by this computer. Do you want to initialize the disk?"
It gives 3 options for initialization:
Mac OS Standard 4.3GB
Mac OS Extended 4.3GB
Universal Disc Format 4.3GB
If I click "Mac OS standard" the G4 says "disk initialization failed because the disk is locked"
If i click "Mac OS Extended" the G4 gives me a pink progress bar and says"Updating disk" It shows a very big Kilobytes number scrolling very fast and then freezes when the number is at about 261056K. The whole computer freezes up at this point requiring a restart.
If I click Universal Disc Format, I get "disk initialization failed because the disk is locked".
The internal DVD drive is described like this:
DVD-R/CD-RW
driver ver 1.4.8
Product ID: DVD-RW DVR-105
I've tried 3 types of blank DVD with the same results:
Verbatim DVD-Recordable 8x certified
Verbatim DVD-R 2x
TDK DVD-R 1-8x
I have also repeated the above with an external firewire DVD drive (LaCie R/RW) and the only option for disk initialization given then is
"Pro DOS OK" which, when selected, results in the same message: "disk initialization failed because the disk is locked".
I have toast 5.2.1 installed, but I can't get a blank DVD accepted by the G4, so I'm stuck, I think
Perhaps I'm missing something ???
If anyone can shed any light I would be so grateful....
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi
You need to have Toast 5.2.3 open before inserting the disc.
All you should have to do is specify in Toast what it is you wish to burn.
If you let the Finder "see" the disc before Toast, it will not work, since the OS does not know how to handle DVD media.
You do not want to initialize or format the media, that will basically render it useless.
Since the DVR-105 is a 4X burner, it may not accept just any 8X media; check the link for tested/supported media.
You may also want to update the firmware, if it is not the last iteration for that drive, to improve range/speed of accepted media.
rpc1.org had links to FlashKit, a mac-based flash utility for Pioneer drives, which is needed unles you have a PC to run the updater.