CD/DVD Drive Won't Work

Danny1 · 16 Nov 2013

I have a Toshiba Satellite C655 with a DVD RW drive that won't play some DVDs or video games. For example, I put in a new Sim City game I bought today and a yellow light briefly flashes but does nothing after that. When I go to the Computer folder and click on the DVD RW icon, it spits out the game and says "Please insert a disc into drive D." There's no humming sound that I normally hear when I put something in.

Here's what I've done so far:
Ran Microsoft Fixit-it found that the media is not readable but didn't fix it.
Uninstalled the driver (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT30F ATA Device) and restarted my laptop. Still didn't fix it.
Called Toshiba support-but my laptop is out of warranty and they charge for support, plus they were rude.

The Sim City has a PC DVD ROM Software icon. I put it in a Dell and it works as usual.

Any ideas on why this happens and how it can be fixed?

fireberd · 16 Nov 2013

Does the drive read any discs?

If it won't read DVD's, these require a higher laser beam and one of two things, either the laser is dirty or the drive is failing. Obviously if it is failing it will have to be replaced. There are replacement laptop drives available at sites such as newegg.com. Another option is to use an external USB connected drive.