My hp tower will not even see bluray discs now any ideas?

I have an hp tower with windows 7 home premium 64 bit, and inside it there is a dvd/bluray drive that has worked fine to play both dvd and bluray's for about 2 yrs now but suddenly isn't even seeing a disc in the system when I insert a bluray.

It still sees and plays regular dvd's fine, but for some odd reason it won't even detect there is a bluray in the drive.

I can't even recall how long ago this started but I tried a half dozen different blurays some I have watched ON this pc previously but the machine acts as if there is nothing even in the drive much less finds and starts the movie.

Any suggestions, things I should check etc, I made sure the drive was set to region 1, and went to the drivers section it shows the drivers are the most recent after searching the web for new, no conflicts in device manager, i am just stumped as to why it won't see a bluray.

Bill

Hello Bill,

It sounds as though one of the laser diodes has died. BD drives have two, one red that reads DVD, the other blue-violet to read BD.

DVD's working but BD's not is absolutely typical. Most other faults usually involve both.

What brand and model Bly-ray drive?

Have you updated the firmware?

The Blu-ray disc your playing, are they store bought movies or copies?

If copies, what brand and type of blanks are you using?

Verbatim is a good brand.

John

Device Manager says it's an HP DH12E3LH with drivers from 2006 via microsoft, I couldn't find any different drivers for it online, not sure if there is firmware I can update for it, it sounds like I might just need to pull this and buy a new drive it's about 2 yrs old but I doubt I even watched 30 movies via bluray total i don't even own that many hehe.

The movies I watch on it are just store bought region 1 usa stuff nothing homemade or out of country etc, avatar, monsters inc, tonight I was trying to watch RUSH we rented it, ended up just watching it thru the ps3.

Prices have really came down on Blu-ray drives. An average quality one costs around $80.00 without software.

I seriously doubt a driver upgrade would cure the issue your having with your optical drive.

You would go here to check for driver updates:
HP Drivers and Downloads for Printers, Scanners and More | HP ® Support

I have On Demand and Netflix to watch just about all the movies I can stand. LOL

In the earlier days, I used to burn movies to DVD. Nowadays, I just stream them.

With most new releases, I usually wait awhile for the prices to come down then order them from my service provider.

Just watched Gravity last weekend for $5.00.

I will probably just leave it and use the ps3 for the occasional bluray, the pc is 2 yrs old already, maybe next Christmas I will just upgrade and give this one to the kids or something :)

Many of my friends and family members also use their PS3's to watch movies on.

Too bad that laser took a dump so fast. But, I guess even new stuff breaks.

Tell your wife you need a new PC.