DVD drive doesn't read DVDs

ender140 · #1 02-06-2006, 03:10 PM

I have LG-DRD8120B on windows xp sp2 pro. I recently noticed that it stopped reading DVDs. it was good and just stopped. it reads all kind of CDs, but doesn't any of DVDs. it is recognised by windows. I installed the newest adaptec aspi drivers and nothing happened. when I put DVD it tries to read and says that there's no cd. please help!

fritzi93 · #2 02-06-2006, 04:58 PM

How old is the DVD writer and how hard has it been used? When a writer's about ready to die, it's typical for one thing to go first. That is, it'll stop recognizing either CDs or DVDs. One or the other.

Another possibility is dirt on the laser lens. Perhaps you'll get lucky and a shot of compressed air will fix it. Or a lens cleaner.

If it's a fault in your system, someone else here will be more qualified to help. Good luck.

ANZAC_ELITE · #3 02-06-2006, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldtimer

Do you mean read contents or play dvd movies ?

Is this a dvd burner or a player ? I heard burners do both but was never sure.
I might buy a burner,but only if it plays dvd's too.

DVD burners will read/write both DVD's and CD's.

Back to the original question:

Another thought ....... have you changed the regions more than 5 times? If so you may be stuck with a region setting incompatible with the DVD you are trying to read.

fritzi93 · #4 02-07-2006, 05:11 AM

I've had a couple burners die in that way, and if you spend much time at, say, CDFreaks or Videohelp, you'll see the subject comes up from time to time.

But perhaps I should have said "it's not uncommon", rather than "typical".

Never had much success myself with those cleaning discs, but some people say they've worked for them, so...

ender140 · #5 02-12-2006, 10:57 AM

no changings of regions. the reader doesn't read any dvds, even with data, not movies.

skribla · #6 02-15-2006, 06:47 AM

mate similar problem:

Right so my computer is less than a year old and it has two dvd drives on it - one is just a reader and the other is a re-writer.

Up until about 30mins ago my reader drive was reading DVD's fine and then suddenly it stopped working. i ejected the disc and put it back in again. the status light goes on and the disc appears to start spinning but then stops.

I went into My computer and other programs and it seems that the drive thinks that there is no disc in there. I have tried restarting my computer, changing the DVD's that I put in the drive, putting the same DVD's in the re-writable drive and they have worked, and put CD's in the reader drive and they have read fine.

I am left with the situation that it appears that my DVD rom reader drive will know not read DVD's but will read CD's.

I have tried updating the drivers, unistalling and re-installing the device, cleaning the lense. Just about everything apart from getting the new drivers from the site, but I have tried updating them before and it says that I have the most up to date ones - even if i didnt it wouldnt explain why it works one minute and not the next. The drive is about 6months old and its a: HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8163B which i am lead to believe is made by LG?

fritzi93 · #7 02-15-2006, 07:18 AM

For skribla:

Only found a couple things to look at.

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=37527
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=1871

You could try re-flashing the firmware of the drive itself, as distinguished from the OS drivers. BUT!! If you're still under warranty, send the damn thing back rather than trying to re-flash the drive.

Also, you could try uninstalling the IDE channel the drive is on, and reboot. If you have a spare ribbon cable, you might give that a go as well. Doubtful, but worth trying. Your best bet if the above fails is to post your question in the appropriate subforum at cdfreaks.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/index.php?

Good luck.

fritzi93 · #8 02-15-2006, 07:42 AM

For ender140:

Yeah, you got a DVD-ROM, pardon me.

Same suggestions apply as with skribla. The only firmware I could find is a region-free patch:

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.ph...&manufactor=16

Not helpful. Try cdfreaks LG forum.

skribla · #9 02-15-2006, 08:49 AM

cheers guys, its about 6 months old but basically what happened is that I was making a back up of one of my DVD's and the reader was reading it, then my phone was on top of the PC tower and about 30seconds after it rang i got an error message, clicke ok and from then I haven't been able to use it.

Is this a sign of the device dying/ mobile phone having inteference?

If I send the device back ( its a Dell PC, am I likely to have to send the whole computer back or should they just come and replace it for me - I have no idea what I would be doing if I were to take apart the computer myself)

Kevin_gibson · #10 02-16-2006, 02:30 PM

Try and uninstall the drive from device manager along with the secondary and primary IDE controllers, restart when prompted.
If this doesn't help, try and boot from some kind of recovery CD / XP, Norton Anti virus, 2004 and later, if it doesn't read, the lens has failed and you will need to get a new drive.