[The-Hitman]

I've been having some problems with the audio and playback while playing DVDs on my DVD-ROM drive is slightly jumpy (although the video is not quite so noticible unless watching closely). It's extremely annoying. CDs work fine except some CDs tend to mess up in different ways (skipping, stopping or just slightly jumpy).

The CD problem started weeks ago but I never thought too much about it and the DVD problem started a few days ago.

I've tried other software but it's very tempromental. PowerDVD is what I usually use. Windows Media Player and a lot of other software won't play DVDs (they crash if I try). I tried Blaze DVD earlier and that worked to play DVDs but I had no luck solving my problem. I think it's something to do with other software sharing PowerDVD's decoder which is set as the default DVD decoder.

I don't really suspect the software as I have a seperate DVD burner too and everything plays fine with that but I tried altering settings such as disabling hardware acceleration on the device in hope that it would help but it didn't.

I tried using a DVD lens cleaner today on it too. That didn't help at all either.

I looked last night for a driver update (it's currently using one XP assigned it) but I had no luck finding one.

Anyone have any ideas or know where I can get a driver update?

I'm not expecting much because it sounds like a fault with the actual device. If that's the case I'll probably end up replacing it.

It's a:
HLDS GDR-8161B DVD Drive
Name: GDR-8161B
Product: 16x DVD-ROM / 40x CD-ROM drive
Manufacturer: LG / HITACHI, HLDS group

Thanks for any help in advance.