CD/DVD RW Drive is reading DVDs, but not CDs

[Marshe Valias]

I noticed this a few minutes ago, I just got finished watching a movie, and was putting music on when I was about to load World of Warcraft, I brought up winamp with the tracks from the CD that I had saved to my playlist, and it'd skip right over them to the next track I'd saved on my hard drive, I'd tried deleting the filters as I'd seen in other threads, and even shutting down, unplugging it, and re-plugging it back into my power supply, but still to no avail.

Does anyone have any tips on how to remedy my problem?

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

1. How old's the drive (if it came with the machine, how old is the machine)
2. Does it not play ANY CDs of ANY kind? (software but not music, etc etc)
3. Do these CDs work on other machines?
4. Can you burn CDs (if you have the ability)?

 

[Marshe Valias]

I don't think the drive's that old, 2 years at most, and I've tried 6 different cds, they all worked, 3 dvds all worked as well, and the cd's worked just fine on my xbox, and I haven't tried burning a cd lately, but I could before.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

You said 6 CDs all worked. I guess I'm unsure of what you're asking about, then.

 

[Marshe Valias]

Er, I meant they didn't work, my mistake.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Do you know the manufacturer of your optical drive? Hit up their Web site for updated firmware if any. I found that to be my solution with my Sony Vaio laptop I have lying around somewhere. It wouldn't play most discs until the firmware updated. Thing is the firmware fixed something that another update to Windows broke on that particular drive. It was odd.

Samsung: ODD Support
Lite-On: Lite-On IT Corporation Global - Firmware and Others
Asus: http://support.asus.com/download/model_list.aspx?product=2&SLanguage=en-us
LG: LG Welcome to LG Customer Service & Support
Sony: Sony eSupport - Electronics - Select Your Model

 

[Marshe Valias]

Hmm, the properties show it's name is TSSTcorp CDW/DVD TS-H492C ATA Device.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Hmm, the properties show it's name is TSSTcorp CDW/DVD TS-H492C ATA Device.

TSST is Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology. Firmware can be found on the Samsung site I gave you.

SAMSUNG ODD SERVICE

Do you know what revision/version you have of the device?

Also, it could just be the drive mechanically failing. It's not highly possible but still possible. When it reads one type of disc, the laser has to tilt ever so slightly to the correct angle for the type of disc it's reading. If it can't tilt just right (it won't really know it can't) then it can't read the disc you gave it.

And it looks like it's more like 4-5 years old, given the dates of the firmware for each revision of the device.

Because of how cheap optical drives are today (pickable for $16-20) you may just want to consider getting a new one.

 

[Marshe Valias]

Well, I'll see what I can do, worst comes to worst, I'll have 2 cd drives, one just for dvds until it finally craps out completely.

Thanks for the help dude.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Well, I'll see what I can do, worst comes to worst, I'll have 2 cd drives, one just for dvds until it finally craps out completely.

Thanks for the help dude.

If you find a solution, please come back and let us know. You never know if someone else may benefit from it!

Happy New Year!

 

[Marshe Valias]

Well, it's not even registering DVD's anymore, I don't think it was a driver problem as much as just a worn out piece. I'll be getting another soon from my friend's cousin, and I'll see if that works. Thanks for all of your help though dude, if someone else sees this thread, they're most likely gonna find what they need, unless theirs is worn down too.

 

[mumford68]

As many people have and will have cd/dvd combo drives at least for a while into the future I thought it might be pertinent to mention that combo drives contain two lasers. One for the CD-rom operations and one for the DVD operations. Apparently aside from the fact that dirt/dust/etc can build up and it might help to clean the lens.

I had been reading some about a stated issue where the cd-rom laser is not engaging quite to the height that it should and that fixing it involves using a multi-meter and minute(sp? mine-nute) changes. I have not read enough to properly understand, try and report on this at this time though.

What really stinks is the fact that if my cd-rom/dvd drive is just dirty and thus having issues with the cd-rom portion it is a real pain as I have a lens cleaner disc however it is a cd-rom disc and therefore the drive only engages for a few seconds for which I doubt it has done any good

It's too bad that there are not programs to tell people how well the laser is reading a disc and one could know about the impending dirt buildup or failure of a cd-rom/dvd drive.