dvd: cd rom driver doesnt recognise anything is in it

[kroqster]

Hi

I assume I have a hardware problem with my DVD RW DRIVE (E) and will have to spend money to fix it or most likely replace it, but when i insert a cd into it i can hear the noise of what sounds like the driver trying to read the cd but thats it... nothing else happends. I have a dell M1330 XPS (5yrs old) using Vista 32bit. The drive is MATSHITA DVD +-RW UJ-857G ATA and its status is "This device is working properly." (which i certainly take issue with).

If anyone can shed any light on possible solutions I'd be greatly appreciative.

thanks
Kroq

 

[fireberd]

This is very unlikely a "driver" issue. The ONLY driver for CD/DVD drives is the built in default Windows driver.

If "auto play" is not selected, when you insert a disc it will do exactly what you describe. If you click Start/Computer and then click on the drive does the contents appear? If they do, then the problem is just auto play has been disabled.

This can be a drive hardware problem, but can also just be a Windows status corruption, even if the Device Manager shows it as "working Properly". In fact, go to the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for the drive to highlight it and then LEFT click "uninstall". Then restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the drive. This fixes a lot of device problems.

I checked the Dell downloads for the M1330 CD/DVD drive firmware and there is nothing listed for the drive you list.

 

[kroqster]

Thanks very much for your reply.

After i posted this thread, i inserted a CD that came with my computer; it was Roxio DVD creator 9.0 or something like that. Anyway it actually fired up. A pop up box gave me two options to run/install, or to autoplay. i click install (i think it was preselected). It ran and said i needed to uninstall something related to it, so i cancelled at that point. I then inserted a tv show DVD (it has previously a long time ago), but original problem happened again. I inserted the Roxio cd again and it didnt run this time; the original problem happened again.

This also happened with a security CD that came with the computer. It ran this first time, but subsequent attempt resulted in original problem ie nothing happened. I tried with my original microsoft office suite CD and it ran, but i cancelled the install, and then the icon for the E: disappeared all together from 'My Computer'.

Anyway... i have just managed to get the icon back. When i double click the icon a small box appears with a red cross in the top left corner and it says "application not found" (It does this when i have a CD in the drive and when i dont).

If i right click on the DVD drive icon i get a list of options. The same error message appears if I select "install or run program", 'configure', and 'install'. If i click on "Open Autoplay..." the error message doesnt appears but nothing happens.

So I guess i should try the uninstall option you gave? I am a bit nervous doing this though.

Its strange that the CD's i mentioned above actually ran (and then subsequently didnt); this would suggest the drive has life in it?

Is there a way to set it to auto play (as mentioned when i right click the icon and click the "open autoplay..." option nothing happens) ?

thanks
Kroq

 

[fireberd]

If you search for "autoplay" it will show you the options and how to enable disable it.

As far as program problems, this sounds like something else and not a CD drive issue.

This is the Windows 7 forum, but have you updated to all the Vista Service Pack updates?

 

[kroqster]

it updates automatically.

i have selected a media player for each type of media, in the autoplay options. I suspect that even if i hadn't the default would be "ask me" which would mean when i put a cd in the driver it shouldn't do what its currently doing, but give me a pop up asking me what i want to do.

double clicking on the E: icon, as well as selecting "open" from it, return's an error message "application not found", as do other options selected. this suggests to me something is seriously wrong with it.

thanks for your help
kroq

 

[fireberd]

If no "application" is found on the disc, but the disc is known to be good, that suggests a hardware problem with drive. And, as some work or work intermittently it suggests a problem with the Laser intensity. When you first load a disc the first step the drive does (independently of Windows) is to calibrate the Laser to the disc, so it can reliably read data from it. If its not calibrating the Laser it can exhibit problems like you are having. This is not 100% but most likely what is happening. Unfortunately the only way to test an optical drive is to replace it with a known good drive.

 

[kroqster]

thanks for your help!