DVD drive not reading my DVDs

[Mousey]

Right, question for you tech-heads out there.

My PC has a DVD-RW drive. It plays CDs fine. It plays my PC games fine. But lately, when I try to play some DVDs, I have a problem. The drive whirrs like it's reading the disc, but then nothing happens. It might whirr a few times, but still nothing. When I open the My Computer page to try to access the DVD manually, it shows no DVD to read. When I check through Windows Media Player, it says "cannot detect a DVD in your drive".

But the thing is - it works for some DVDs. It's mainly newer ones that are affected - so I'm thinking there might be conflict between the copy protection on the newer DVDs or something and the fact that I have an RW drive.

How can I check to see what exactly the problem is, and circumvent it?

[anon361]

Right, question for you tech-heads out there.

My PC has a DVD-RW drive. It plays CDs fine. It plays my PC games fine. But lately, when I try to play some DVDs, I have a problem. The drive whirrs like it's reading the disc, but then nothing happens. It might whirr a few times, but still nothing. When I open the My Computer page to try to access the DVD manually, it shows no DVD to read. When I check through Windows Media Player, it says "cannot detect a DVD in your drive".

But the thing is - it works for some DVDs. It's mainly newer ones that are affected - so I'm thinking there might be conflict between the copy protection on the newer DVDs or something and the fact that I have an RW drive.

How can I check to see what exactly the problem is, and circumvent it?

Simple solution, buy a new drive, either the laser is worn out or dirty, you could try buying a cleaning kit but they are useless in my opinion and a waste of money.
You can get one here for as cheap as €25 or if you live near a PC shop i'm sure they wouldn't be much more expensive.
Simple to install, open the side of the machine, 2 screws and 2 pull out cables, they only go in one way so you can't put them back in wrong and your PC should automatically recognise the new drive once you start it up without the need to install drivers.

Forgot to mention more than likely it's got IDE connections not SATA

This one

[Mousey]

Ah crap, it's worn out already? It's only about a year old, and I can;t figure out why it won't lay DVDs when it does play CDs and my PC games... oh well, thanks anyway

[anon361]

Ah crap, it's worn out already? It's only about a year old, and I can;t figure out why it won't lay DVDs when it does play CDs and my PC games... oh well, thanks anyway

A DVD rom uses 2 different light wave lenghts to read cd's and dvd's so it is common for a failing drive to still read one or the other, to minimise the amount of wear on a drive you should never leave a cd/DVD in the drive when you are not using it as the system leaves the device on continually Reading the disc, also using worn or damaged discs also shortens the life of a drive as it has to work harder tryi g to scan and read bad sectors.

[experienced punter]

Anon the IT Guru...

[pauli]

Right, question for you tech-heads out there.

My PC has a DVD-RW drive. It plays CDs fine. It plays my PC games fine. But lately, when I try to play some DVDs, I have a problem. The drive whirrs like it's reading the disc, but then nothing happens. It might whirr a few times, but still nothing. When I open the My Computer page to try to access the DVD manually, it shows no DVD to read. When I check through Windows Media Player, it says "cannot detect a DVD in your drive".

But the thing is - it works for some DVDs. It's mainly newer ones that are affected - so I'm thinking there might be conflict between the copy protection on the newer DVDs or something and the fact that I have an RW drive.

How can I check to see what exactly the problem is, and circumvent it?

Well, It can be caused by few more things but it really looks like your drive is dying out. And they come cheap alright.
I have seen something similar hapening on WinXP for no reason really at all, I think it was something with registers been corrupted and the reinstall of the windows has fixed the problem. But as it been said it looks like your laser is going, the DVDs have higher density of data therefore are more sensitive for any kinda errors than CD, also make sure the disks are clean, free of fingerprints and scratches, that can cause the troubles too.
Pauli