DVD dual layer drive not playing DVD's

cerbeus

Has any one had the problem where a DVD drive would play CD ROM's but not play DVD's.

XP reports the drive as working fine and as I say it plays CD ROMs with no problem but put in a DVD, movie or game, and the drive just sits there as if it's reading the disc.

Drive looks to be a generic LG drive in a Compaq Presario PC. Have updated to the latest firmware but has had no effect.

The fact that it can read CD's and is not being reported as mechanically faulty by the OS leads me to think that there is something else wrong but cannot for the life of me think what.

Any ideas ?

astrofool

I had a plextor dvd writer that would read DVD's fine, but not CD's, turned out to be a power regulation issue (Plextor picked up the drive and fixed/replaced it free of charge).

I'd imagine its something similar. Are the DVD's you're trying copies or originals?

cerbeus

It doesn't do anything with the disc. Doesn't read discs and doesn't burn discs. It just looks like it is reading the disc but does nought else.

And when viewed in Explorer even with a disc present all it shows is the assigned drive letter and no label of the disc inserted.

It's a really strange one.....

8T8

Actually {& sadly} this is pretty normal it sounds like the DVD part has died an all too common occurrence. Although modern DVDRW drives use a single laser for CD & DVD the switching mechanism that makes it switch wavelength intensities to read either format are prone to failure most likely from the cheap components being used.

A quick test you can do is remove the drive from the device manager and let Windows -reinstall it upon reboot, other than that chuck it in the bin and buy a new one they go for next to nothing these days.

cerbeus

I have removed it and allowed XP to discover it again but to no avail, the problem still persists.

I'm going to try reseating the cables etc but I doubt that will have any effect and may end up replacing the drive.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.