Both DVD drives fail to read DVD-ROMs

MrLuckyPants

Senior member
Jan 25, 2005
229
0
76
I noticed a couple of days ago that both of my DVD drives (Hitachi GD-2500 DVD-ROM and NEC 3520-A) have stopped being able to read commercial DVDs. They can read CDs and recorded DVDs, but not DVDs purchased in a store.

When inserted, the drive will either (NEC) spin up, blink, the spin down; or (Hitachi) spin up, light up, and continue to spin indefinitely while the hard drive light comes on. Windows Explorer never recognizes that a DVD has been inserted. Windows often has trouble shutting down successfully after this.

Changes to the system in the last couple of months have been: new hard drive (Seagate ST3120026A-RK 120GB), new video card (MSI FX5900XT with appropriate drivers), and the latest AGP & IDE drivers on the motherboard (ECS KT600-A w/AMD Sempron 2500+) to support the new video card.

I suspect that it's software/driver/etc. related -- I can't see both drives failing in exactly the same way at the same time, losing just ability to read DVD-ROMs.

Any suggestions?

Update: On a hunch, I decided to simply uninstall the DVD drives in the Device Manager and reboot the system. After rebooting, the PC saw the "new" drives, configured them, then after another reboot, everything worked fine.

Things ran fine for a few days, then yesterday the drives again began failing to recognize a disk. I repeated the sequence above, and again they were fine, but very soon after they failed again.

*Something* is screwing up the drivers, but I can't figure out what...

Update: Updated the firmware on both drives, problem still occurs on both drives

Update: Pulled one of the drives and tested in another PC -- no problems, so it's not the hardware.

Update: Fixed! Looks the version of InCD included with Norton 7.0 was causing the problem. After removing that and performing occasional tests over the last couple of weeks, everything seems to be fine.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
I'd try a bootable Linux DVD, like Knoppix. Google for how to get it decrypting DVDs and playing them. See if it works.
 

Arcanedeath

Platinum Member
Jan 29, 2000
2,822
1
76
make sure your DVD drives are set to be region 1 and not some other region and make sure your using region 1 dvds
 

MrLuckyPants

Senior member
Jan 25, 2005
229
0
76
Originally posted by: Cerb
I'd try a bootable Linux DVD, like Knoppix. Google for how to get it decrypting DVDs and playing them. See if it works.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll save that effort for later if nothing else works...

Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
make sure your DVD drives are set to be region 1 and not some other region and make sure your using region 1 dvds
The drives are set to Region 1, and DVDs are Region 1.

The Hitachi's been running fine for years, and I've had the NEC for about 6-8 months. I've played dozens of DVD on the drives, but both are suddenly failing to even recognize a pre-recorded DVD. Pre-recorded DVDs copied to a DVD+RW *can* be read.
 

MrLuckyPants

Senior member
Jan 25, 2005
229
0
76
Quick update: On a hunch, I decided to simply uninstall the DVD drives in the Device Manager and reboot the system. After rebooting, the PC saw the "new" drives, configured them, then after another reboot, everything worked fine.

Things ran fine for a few days, then yesterday the drives again began failing to recognize a disk. I repeated the sequence above, and again they were fine.

*Something* is screwing up the drivers, but I can't figure out what...
 

Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
0
Look out for DRM-infected movie DVDs. Germany for example is currently being plagued by yet another pathetic attempt at rootkit-style DRM, this time on a movie DVD. And I'm sure we're not alone.

(Of course, this DRM software is just as useless against actual copying attempts as any other. It just fscks up legitimate user's machines. Great move, dear movie industry. NOT.)
 

MrLuckyPants

Senior member
Jan 25, 2005
229
0
76
No, but I do have InCD running, plus Norton AntiVirus, MS Antispyware, Acronis TrueImage Monitor.

Just for laughs, I tried one of the drives in another PC and had no problems, so it's definitely not the hardware.
 

Tarrant64

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2004
3,203
0
76
I had a siimilar post about this not too long ago. Hope you get it worked out. I haven't gone back to mine as I just decided to use my laptop for now.

I have been using Nero...and tried Sonic as well. Both are DVD-RW drives, both stopped working same time. Pretty much same problem.

EDIT: I was going to link you to my post, but I can't seem to find it. Browsing right now is getting a little slow here, so I will wait until I am home. It'll be a lot quicker...
 

MrLuckyPants

Senior member
Jan 25, 2005
229
0
76
Fixed! Looks the version of InCD included with Norton 7.0 was causing the problem. After removing that and performing occasional tests over the last couple of weeks, everything seems to be fine.