DVD Drive not reading... anything.

[doodler85]

Hey guys,

A friend of mine recently returned from a trip to find that her optical drive no longer reads... well... anything! She's tried a bunch of stuff, but I'm thinking that the drive itself decided to crap out and die. Ideally, I'd like her to try it on someone else's PC to see for sure if it's a drive issue, but she doesn't have convenient access.

Here's her list of attempts:

**: 1) device manager (drive listed as functioning properly)
**: 2) uninstalled/reinstalled drive drivers
**: 3) cleared BIOS, which didn't work
**: 4) system restore, which couldn't
**: 5) cleared nv-ram? whatever that means
**: either way, that didn't work either
**: minus one 'either'
**: i've recently installed alcohol and some interactive dvd or something
**: i uninstalled both
**: which is why i guess the system can't restore
**: i don't know

System restore apparently doesn't work either. Hmm.

Any thoughts? Solutions? Burn the system and move to a hut?

Thanks!

 

[Buz2b]

I'll take a simplistic stab at things here. Here's what I would try.
1) Disconnect the drive from both power and IDE cables.
2) Boot the system without the drive (boot into the BIOS first to make sure it's gone), then uninstall all applications that access the drive (Nero, DVD players, etc); then shut down.
3) Recheck, pull and reinstall the Master/Slave/CS jumper. Seems silly but do this.
4) Reconnect/reinstall the drive using a new IDE cable. (don't skip that step) Double check the IDE and Power connections. Reboot the system.
5) Try putting a CD in the drive to see if it is recognized. Check in My Computer if Windoze doesn't pop up with an options box.
Try reinstalling Nero first to see if it will recognize the drive also. If that all fails, you could be right and it might be a drive problem.
One last thing you can try is open the drive and blow some canned air into it. Not a ton either; just a quick spray or two. There could be some dust built up inside. Good luck!

 

[doodler85]

Thanks for the reply.
However, my friend read it... and promptly gave up.

Sorry 🙁

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Could be that the laser just died. Happens.

 

[doodler85]

Well that's what I thought... it'd just be nice to not have to replace the drive.

Sh!t happens, i guess!