Toshiba Laptop: Can burn CD's but can't read DVD

[PawNtheSandman]

It is a Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303 Laptop.

It has a combo CD-RW/DVD drive.

It can burn cd's fine, but cannot read any DVD's.

The drive seems to click when trying to read the DVD.

Help?

 

[fbrdphreak]

First question is are you SURE it reads DVDs also? Google for & download Nero InfoTool

EDIT The reason I ask is 'cuz the S303 sounds like one of their cheapie $500 models, I could see them not reading DVDs

 

[PawNtheSandman]

Well it is a 2 year old laptop that has viewed DVD's before. And it says DVD on the drive.

Thats why I said it was a COMBO drive.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Gotcha

Try cleaning lens? Verify DVD's play on other drives? Update firmware?

 

[Abhi]

My dell's combo drive had a similar problem...

I had to get the drive changed under warranty.

 

[w0ss]

This is a common problem I see. The CD and DVD specs are at different frequancies. Sometimes the laser will be on it's way out so you will lose one. usually you have to replace the drive unless you can adjust the voltage on that one but even that is not likely to help.

 

[PawNtheSandman]

Turns out the customer installed a digital camera. When you boot windows you get a nice little window that says the following drivers will not be loaded, then lists a bunch of drivers associated with the burning software and combo drive.

I am guessing that is the problem otherwise a new drive it is. Customer gave me a power cable to a different laptop so I won't tell you if this works until I get it.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

On my Dell CD-RW/DVD drive you need to have a special process running for it to read CDs/DVDs. It will burn just fine without the process, but Ive heard you need it for disks to read. tfwsctrl.exe is what its called. Search it on google, because Ive read that it is also used in other companies laptops.

 

[fbrdphreak]

That is weird.............drivers needed to READ DVD's??? Odd

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Searching brought up this:

Drive letter access to HP's and Veritas' version of DirectCD. Does the same thing as DirectCD. From HP - "This is a needed file as it controles the readability of the Combo drives. Without this file loading the end user will be able to burn CD's but wont be able to read them. The drive itself will be able to read store bought master Cd's without the file but not burnt ones"

This is different from what I have seen before, but it is still very strange.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: PawNtheSandman
Turns out the customer installed a digital camera. When you boot windows you get a nice little window that says the following drivers will not be loaded, then lists a bunch of drivers associated with the burning software and combo drive.

Installing a digital camera is not a good idea. The last time I did that was in 1994 - never again. There's no need to ever do that. Use a media reader/writer.

If that is what happened . . . uninstall the digital camera software. Then use System Restore to get back to a date before that install action happened. If the hardware is OK, that should get it back to normal.

 

[Hiruko]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
That is weird.............drivers needed to READ DVD's??? Odd

That's definately not wierd. I think the drivers for things like that are just hidden to the end user. Of course there's a driver for it though.