DVD Drive - detected, but can't read or write

[Arashikage]

Hi, I've searched the forums for dvd drive issues, but the majority of them are about not being able to see them.

My problem is that I can see the drive, but I cannot read any discs or burn. The drive is visible in the Bios, and Device Manager. The drive is a Lite-On LH20A1L ATA. The firmware is updated to the latest, which only addressed media compatibility. In device manager I've already tried updating the driver, but Windows says it already at the latest.

I have the latest Daemon-tools installed (SPTD 1.62 I think), and the latest ImgBurn.

When I try to read a disc, I see the HDD light click fully, and the Green status bar in the location bar takes forever to finish or loops.

When insert blank media into the drive when I'm about to burn in ImgBurn, the HDD light does the same thing, and ImgBurn will not even detect the media.

Also if it matters, this is the same drive used to install my Windows 7 64bit upgrade. I did a clean install though. But the installation took a long time (few hours).

 

[Orpheous]

Can you boot from the DVD drive with say, the W7 install disc or some other bootable media?

 

[Arashikage]

Yes I was just able to boot to my Win 7 disc. I suspect it may be Daemon tools, as this is the only PC I have with this problem and with Daemon installed.

If I uninstall Daemon, will that remove SPTD 1.62 from my PC?

 

[Orpheous]

Ok, that's good news, it indicates that it's a software/driver issue.
You might not need to uninstall DT just yet...

Got to your device manager - CD/DVD Drives right click your drive and uninstall it, then reboot. W7 will re-install your device drivers.
Sometimes drivers will get messed up by other software installation, this may fix it.

 

[Arashikage]

I just tried it, still same problem. I even tried removing the second HDD (IDE) which gave problems in my earlier attempts at installing Windows 7...

What's weird is that the HDD light is on, but the PC isn't frozen and I don't actually hear the HDD clicking that much.

Could it be that the drive is just not compatible with Windows 7? Might need a new drive.

 

[Qdos]

There are lots of posts about CD/DVD drives giving up the ghost.

The forum could do with a sticky that shortlists the models seemingly effected and any workarounds, firmware links, etc.

It could also help to identify common factors like particular controllers/chipsets.

 

[Orpheous]

Have you changed any settings in bios? (other than boot order) If so, can you reboot, enter setup and reset to defaults, then only change the settings that you know are necessary.
If you haven't changed anything, then please go to control panel, administrative tools, event viewer. Check in System for red exclamation marks and yellow warnings at around the last time you tried to open/burn a disc.

I don't think it would be a compatiblity issue, generally if it's in bios and recognised in device manager it will run ok.

 

[Orpheous]

There is also the possibility that the drive is just dead, but it's worth trying a few options before forking out for a replacement

Lastly, try uninstalling DT, testing the drive, then IMGBurn and re-test. If that doesn't work... I'd start looking for a spare drive to test

I have the same version of DT as you installed, but I'm running CDBurnerXP instead - only because I had the install file handy when I installed W7. I haven't had a

 

[Arashikage]

I've tried resetting to fail-safe settings in the bios, and the problem still persists.

I've also tried uninstalling Daemon Tools and SPTD 1.62. To uninstall SPTD I had to download/run its installer. Still has the same problem though so it wasn't Daemon. The drive was able to boot my Windows 7 Pro disk, which leads me to believe the drive isn't dead, just not compatible.

On my brother's PC, his Lite-On drive works perfectly...so I'm thinking again this model is not compatible within Windows 7

 

[Zidane24]

I've tried resetting to fail-safe settings in the bios, and the problem still persists.

I've also tried uninstalling Daemon Tools and SPTD 1.62. To uninstall SPTD I had to download/run its installer. Still has the same problem though so it wasn't Daemon. The drive was able to boot my Windows 7 Pro disk, which leads me to believe the drive isn't dead, just not compatible.

On my brother's PC, his Lite-On drive works perfectly...so I'm thinking again this model is not compatible within Windows 7

Did it work right after you installed Windows 7 the first time??

 

[Arashikage]

Did it work right after you installed Windows 7 the first time??

LOL, after I finished installing Win 7, the only things I needed to install were downloadable, i.e. Spybot, Kaspersky, ImgBurn, Daemon, CCleaner, etc.

I assumed the drive worked until I tried to burn today.

 

[Zidane24]

Did it work right after you installed Windows 7 the first time??

LOL, after I finished installing Win 7, the only things I needed to install were downloadable, i.e. Spybot, Kaspersky, ImgBurn, Daemon, CCleaner, etc.

I assumed the drive worked until I tried to burn today.

Hm...that would have been a valuable clue...

That would have told us if an app caused the issue or if it is a geniune bug concerning Windows 7

Do a repair install
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

...and see if the drive works afterwards

 

[Arashikage]

hhmmm, reading that link it looks like you need to be able to read the disk while still in Windows, which I can't do...

My brother's Lite-on is IDE, mines SATA (which gave me no problems in XP). I google my drive, and read that a guy had problems with this drive in Vista, which again makes me think about compatibility.

My brother has agreed to let me try swapping in his IDE Lite-on. If my SATA Lite-on works in his much newer PC, then its either that I screwed up my Win 7 somehow installing things, or that my motherboard is having SATA issues within Win 7.

I'll post the results after we swap drives tomorrow.

 

[Zidane24]

hhmmm, reading that link it looks like you need to be able to read the disk while still in Windows, which I can't do...

My brother's Lite-on is IDE, mines SATA (which gave me no problems in XP). I google my drive, and read that a guy had problems with this drive in Vista, which again makes me think about compatibility.

My brother has agreed to let me try swapping in his IDE Lite-on. If my SATA Lite-on works in his much newer PC, then its either that I screwed up my Win 7 somehow installing things, or that my motherboard is having SATA issues within Win 7.

I'll post the results after we swap drives tomorrow.

Do you have an image of Windows 7 on either your computer, a flash drive, or your brother's computer?

 

[Arashikage]

Just to update, we switched drives. I now have his IDE dvd drive, and he's got my sata dvd drive.

Although I had to remove my secondary HDD (IDE). It seems that my motherboard could not detect both the IDE drive and IDE HDD unless one or the other were disconnected.

He got my sata dvd drive working on his newer pc, although he had to use a sata-ide connector (I think). So I guess it was a sata driver compatibility issue.

 

[Orpheous]

Glad to hear that you at least managed to get a dvd drive working in your machine
I just had a look at a pic of your motherboard, it looks like you have 3 X IDE connectors, is that correct? If so, the one closest to the bottom of the board looks like it shares the same controller as the SATA connections, and therefore may have issues running both at the same time (ie. either SATA or IDE, but not both on that controller)
Also, when you had the IDE HDD & the IDE DVD drive in, were they on the same cable? Did you check the jumper settings on the back of the hard drive to make sure it was in the correct position (primary master), and plug the HDD into the primary master connector on the IDE cable? (the connector on the other end of the cable, furthest from the motherboard)

 

[Arashikage]

Yup, but I suppose it's as you said, probably issues when both running IDE and SATA at the same time.

Thanks guys

 

[kirakodera]

i joined this forum because i am having the exact same problem, however i do not have access to an ide dvd burner. does anyone have any other suggestions? i do not have an image of my win7 disk, and since my dvd drive doesnt work, i cant make one

EDIT: it would appear that this problem only occurs on the first cd or dvd inserted into the drive after booting. the disc takes nearly an hour to finally show up in the drive (attempting to open the disc before it loads results in a "please insert a disc into drive E:" error). after the first disc finally loads, and is removed, any disc added afterward works perfectly fine, including the first disc inserted. does anyone know why it would do that?