Help! Thinkpad DVD-rom drive woes!

[green2]

Okay... Since the IBM Tech Support can't help me, thought I'd try my luck on this forum... Please help...

I have a T22 with a hitachi gd-s200 drive... I was running windows 98 on it (old I know ^_^ ), but upgraded to a windows XP as the hard drive crashed and the tech support guy told me windows 98 is old and all that stuff and that the hidden partition for restoring has been lost etc. etc. So I upgraded and then my dvd-rom stopped working. I can still use it as a regular cd-rom drive but now it won't read dvd data disc or regular dvd movie discs. So I called up IBM again, they said we don't support software if you changed OS. So I reverted back to windows 98, in hopes that the dvd-rom drive will work. ALAS! It did not! Now I'm getting really angry and frustrated at IBM as they had me do a bunch of stuff and it is still not working... PLEASE can someone help me? I already did the firmware upgrades... I might be missing a driver but there's no where to get it. Also the laptop sees it correctly as a DVD drive in the device manager but when I look at driver details it only says cdrom.sys or something like that... SOMEONE.. PLEASE!!!

Thanks in advance....... REALLY ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED....

 

[johnjkr1]

Your DVD rom will not read DVD's without some type of dvd software (powerdvd, windvd, etc). Do you have DVD software installed? Also, make sure DMA is enabled for your dvd drive in device manager.

 

[green2]

I'm using windvd2k.... i'm trying to download a trial of powerdvd.... i also tried the genric drivers for hitachi like hit-dvd.sys or something like that... I hear it spinning but when i try to open the contents it still says no disc.. (

will let you know if powerdvd works... thanks..

 

[johnjkr1]

Drivers are native to the OS, so if it works as a cdrom, you do not need any drivers. PowerDVD trial is a good idea, let us know how it turns out. Also, its entirely possible the DVD portion of the drive is broken, it uses a different laser from the cd part, or so I have been told.

 

[green2]

No good... It's saying " a disc with unsupported format is in drive ".... tried all original dvds... the drive just keeps on blinking...

I'm not sure if the dvd is dead already... but if it is why does the cd-rom work? it's so weird....

 

[johnjkr1]

You try a movie DVD? When was the last time it worked? I've been told that DVD drives have to lasers, one for cd's, one for dvd's, so its entirely possible the dvd laser is dead.

 

[green2]

Oh... I see.. Well the last time it worked was when I was running windows 98 and then the hard drive crashed (while I was playing a dvd movie)... which is why I upgraded to winxp... then found out that there were issues with winxp with this drive so I downgraded again.... looks like i'll be asking ibm to replace this... do you have any experience about RMA? Do I just go and ask them... It's still in warrant till july or august I think... oh well... (

Thanks though for your help... It's the first time I heard that there's two lenses so that could probably be it...

 

[johnjkr1]

It could be a broken dvd laser, I cant really think of anyway to test that theory though. But formatting your hard drive and installing the latest powerdvd sounds like a good test. IBM will probably have you run through a bunch of hoops to get a new one. Also, you might want to consider XP again, my laptop likes it a great deal more than 98, and IBM saying its "not supported" just means they wont help you with software issues.

Just tell the IBM rep everything you have done so far, dont even mention XP. Just say you got a new hard drive, loaded 98 on it, and now the DVD portion does not work but the cd portion does. You have loaded the latest DVD software and it doesn't recognize discs. Then they will tell you anything else you need to do (this is the "running through hoops part").

 

[green2]

well... it's not like they did not make me do that before... *sighs* At least hopefully in the end they'll send me a dvd drive.... *sighs again*

Thanks!