DVD Burning Issue

Hi

I have a HP DVD Writer (HP dvd635) which I got less than a yr ago and Im using original HP DVDs for writing (though the manufacturing, marketing etc is now done by Moser Baer). Im using Nero Express 6.x OEM edition.

So far I had no issues writing CDs and DVDs. But recently. around a month ago I started facing issues and now its still not rectified. Sometimes it would write successfully and at other times it wouldnt.

At first I used to get Power Calibration Error etc and after searching the net I still couldnt come up with anything except that it seems to be a h/w issue like DVD Writer gone bad or something.

Now I get 1 out of 3 gets written successfully and shows Burn Process failed at 8x. (Also shows with 4x, 12x and 16x) - shows end of disk-at-once error.

Any clue to what might be the issue ? Im ruling out low-quality DVDs problem and Nero s/w/version issue. I dont think its either of these.

Do I need to get DVD drive checked for on a hardware level ? Or is there something else I can check for ? [ No setting or anything was changed so far since installation of Nero OEM ]

Thanks

try and burn with some other software and see if it still doesn't work properly

if not then it sounds like the drive is broken...

Try and see if you can find firmware for your drive (I know I've updated my Plextor 755-A, and it helped with some issues)

How am I supposed to find the firmware ?

http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Lookup?h_lang=en&h_cc=uk&cc=uk&h_page=hpcom&lang=en&h_client=S-A-R135-1&h_query=dvd635&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

select which one, select software and drivers, download and install

It got updated from JPS3 to JPS5. (Screenshot was taken after update)
Still shows the same error.

Sometimes data gets written to disk, sometimes it doesnt (blank disk even after 100% complete only after which it shows Failed).

I just bought an external USB DVD Writer ( Sony DRX-S70U) and uninstalled Nero 6 OEM (which came with my HP DVD Writer) and installed Nero 7 OEM.

I tried writing once again using my HP DVD Writer and still same old story. So its definitely not a s/w problem.

The Sony DVD Writer works fine and have writter a couple of DVDs using the same DVDs that I bought earlier (so it cant be the DVDs), but since its USB based, I still wouldnt know if the firmware of the HP DVD Writer is the one with issues. Im now 99% sure that its a h/w issue.

Someone who works on drivers looked at my system and said that there is a good possibility that one particular driver that was installed later (from another s/w) is messing up the write commands. The driver is pxhelp20.sys

He wanted to remove it (including from the LowerFilter registry) but wasnt sure if the system would boot after that. Moreover the USB DVD writer works 100%.

I dont know how I got pxhelp20.sys as I have only Nero, iTunes & some adobe apps installed.

Is there some way to confirm that pxhelp20.sys is the one thats stopping from burning ?