DVD drive won't recognize DVDs

Nondoc

Well, like the topic says, I'm having trouble with my DVD drive.

I just recently tried to install a game that came on a dvd, but the drive just spins for a bit and nothing happens.

Now, I have used this drive before, both to watch movies on dvd and install games from a dvd, but currently it can read cds but not dvds.

When I check My Computer, the drive is listed as a cd drive, but when I go to the properties window, it is identified as being a dvd-rom, an ATAPI DVD-ROM STAR2000.

So, any ideas on how to get this thing working again?

japan

Does the computer correctly identify the drive during POST?

If you have any kind of bootable disc (preferably a DVD, since that's what you're having trouble reading) hanging around (Linux LiveCD, OS install CD, OS recovery disc, etc.) try booting from it. That'll at least narrow it down to either a software or hardware problem.

I hate to say it, but this sounds a lot like what happened to my optical drives after installing a game with Starforce copy protection. There's a removal tool for it, but I couldn't get the drives working right without re-installing Windows.

Nondoc

What is POST? I'm afraid I'm not fantastically computer literate.

Strange news otherwise, though: I've found that the drive will work about ten percent of the time. I managed to get it to read the game disc accidentally by hammering on the eject button in frustration, and it works as long as I don't get it to try and read anything else.

pacbowl

I'm having the nearly same problem. It will see CDRs but not blank DVDRs. It will only see them about 25% of the time, but only after repeatedly ejecting/inserting them. When the problem occurs, the read light will stay on and any DVD burning software will say "initializing disk" and any attempt to burn something to it results in an "insert blank CD" error. Pushing the eject button over and over will usually clear it up. I've been meaning to try one of those CD drive cleaning disks. The ones with those little hair-like brushes on them.

japan

Nondoc wrote:

What is POST? I'm afraid I'm not fantastically computer literate.

Sorry, POST is short for Power On Self Test. You know when you turn the computer on, there's a half second or so delay, then you hear a beep? That's the motherboard running the test, a single beep almost always indicates everythings fine.

Usually you'll see a device listing on the screen while it runs the test. Mine says (excluding the brackets, they're just for explanation):

Primary Master:      MAXTOR 6Y080L0              (My main Maxtor 80GB hard drive)
Primary Slave:       WDC WD1200BB-00DAA3         (My second Western Digital hard drive)
Secondary Master:    AOPEN COM5232/AAH PRO       (My Aopen DVD/CD-rw combo drive)
Secondary Slave:     LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-4515      (My Lite-on DVD burner)

If you can figure out which listing is your DVD drive (it should be fairly obvious if you know the brand name) see if it matches the listing in the device manager (Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager) there will be a listing for "DVD/CDROM Drives."

While you're there, follow the instructions for the primary method on the boycott Starforce page