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Question Windows 10 won't read DVD's. Aleady tried multiple online solutions

J

jamesdsimone

Golden Member
My Windows 10 laptop has stopped reading DVD's. It used to read them but stopped. Device manager shows the drive is working and the drivers are up to date. I suspect one of MS crap updates broke it. I've looked online for solutions and obviously this is a big problem because there are a lot of them but not been able to solve the problem. I can tell that one of the updates changed the trouble shooting menu since the entries referred to by some of the solutions don't show up when I look for them.
 
Does it read CDs?

And do you mean that File Explorer says the DVD disc in the drive is invalid in some way, or does it react in some other way?
 
mikeymikec said:
Does it read CDs?

And do you mean that File Explorer says the DVD disc in the drive is invalid in some way, or does it react in some other way?
Click to expand...
When I put a DVD into the drive the drive tries to read the disc but drive never opens or shows up. You can't even see it in Explorer. If I put a data disc in it shows up and I can access it fine.
 
jamesdsimone said:
When I put a DVD into the drive the drive tries to read the disc but drive never opens or shows up. You can't even see it in Explorer. If I put a data disc in it shows up and I can access it fine.
Click to expand...
Just bear in mind, a DVD is a physical type of disc, just like a CD is a physical type of disc, either can contain whatever data the author of the disc pleases. When you say you put in a data disc, is it a DVD or a CD?

And when you initially said DVD, do you mean a professionally pressed DVD video disc, like one with a mainstream movie on that you bought from a shop?
 
The data disc is a DVD with files on it that I burned. Yes the DVD is a commercial movie. I tried a couple of them and neither work. I have watched DVD's on this laptop before with the same external drive but it stopped working.
 
jamesdsimone said:
The data disc is a DVD with files on it that I burned. Yes the DVD is a commercial movie. I tried a couple of them and neither work. I have watched DVD's on this laptop before with the same external drive but it stopped working.
Click to expand...

Hum, that's strange. Which filesystem are you using for the DVD with files on? I would normally expect it to be UDF, but maybe it's ISO (the older format), and maybe that has a bearing on this?

It should tell you the file system if you put the disc in, go into 'this pc', right-click on the DVD drive and select 'Properties'.

@VirtualLarry he's saying that it isn't even recognised as a valid disc in File Explorer though, unless I misunderstood.
 
Once I upgraded Win 10 to the 22H2 version in my Lenovo laptop, then I have all kinds of issues with the CD/DvD Drive. Something (ie, some process) in the OS seems to be competing for access to the subject drive.

Sometimes the drive cannot be seen in explorer until after a reboot.

The drive functions better if not on any network and the only thing the OS is being tasked to do is read the disk in the drive.

You could try couple things:

(1) In device manager, delete the optical drive then reboot.

(2) Delete the Upper/Lower filters in the registry, then reboot.



Suspicious in your case is that you cannot read a copied DvD video. It is possible that there's a DRM restriction ongoing (eg, will not play decrypted/copied commercial media).

Good luck
 
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mikeymikec said:
Hum, that's strange. Which filesystem are you using for the DVD with files on? I would normally expect it to be UDF, but maybe it's ISO (the older format), and maybe that has a bearing on this?

It should tell you the file system if you put the disc in, go into 'this pc', right-click on the DVD drive and select 'Properties'.

@VirtualLarry he's saying that it isn't even recognised as a valid disc in File Explorer though, unless I misunderstood.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what file system the data disc is. When I right click the E: drive it just closes the explorer window and won't let me check properties. I probably burned it with CDburnerXP on default settings. Correct with movie DVD in the drive the E: drive does not even appear in Explorer. The DVD drive spins up and I can hear it reading the drive then it stops after about 30 seconds and then nothing.
 
@jamesdsimone

So the drive actually disappears from 'this pc'? What does Device Manager say in that situation?

I bet that it shows the DVD drive as having an issue. This sounds to me like the classic UpperFilters/LowerFilters problem - a piece of software on your computer has a software hook into the DVD drive's device information in the registry, and that software is malfunctioning so the drive is listed as having a problem.

I don't think simply uninstalling the drive from device manager and re-detecting it will fix the issue, but it's been a long time since I last encountered this problem so I could be wrong. Normally I have to delve into the registry and delete a registry key to fix it.

Let me know if I'm right and I'll guide you further.
 
C1 said:
Once I upgraded Win 10 to the 22H2 version in my Lenovo laptop, then I have all kinds of issues with the CD/DvD Drive. Something (ie, some process) in the OS seems to be competing for access to the subject drive.

Sometimes the drive cannot be seen in explorer until after a reboot.

The drive functions better if not on any network and the only thing the OS is being tasked to do is read the disk in the drive.

You could try couple things:

(1) In device manager, delete the optical drive then reboot.

(2) Delete the Upper/Lower filters in the registry, then reboot.



Suspicious in your case is that you cannot read a copied DvD video. It is possible that there's a DRM restriction ongoing (eg, will not play decrypted/copied commercial media).

Good luck
Click to expand...
I already tried the Upper/Lower filters solution. When I checked that registry key didn't exist. It is in the 967 key but not the 965. The DVD is just a standard one you get anywhere. If there is some DRM restriction where would that be. As I said it was working before. I watched them before on the laptop.
 
mikeymikec said:
@jamesdsimone

So the drive actually disappears from 'this pc'? What does Device Manager say in that situation?

I bet that it shows the DVD drive as having an issue. This sounds to me like the classic UpperFilters/LowerFilters problem - a piece of software on your computer has a software hook into the DVD drive's device information in the registry, and that software is malfunctioning so the drive is listed as having a problem.

I don't think simply uninstalling the drive from device manager and re-detecting it will fix the issue, but it's been a long time since I last encountered this problem so I could be wrong. Normally I have to delve into the registry and delete a registry key to fix it.

Let me know if I'm right and I'll guide you further.
Click to expand...
Yes when I have a DVD in the drive the drive does not appear at all in explorer. Device manager shows everything is working fine. Drivers are are up to date. If I disconnect the drive and reconnect it it refreshes in device manager.
 
jamesdsimone said:
I already tried the Upper/Lower filters solution. When I checked that registry key didn't exist. It is in the 967 key but not the 965. The DVD is just a standard one you get anywhere. If there is some DRM restriction where would that be. As I said it was working before. I watched them before on the laptop.
Click to expand...

DVD playback issues would not make the drive disappear.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with 967 / 965 because that doesn't sound relevant to what I'm talking about (the key isn't called that in my VM for example). Here's how I find the correct registry key:

Fire up regedit
Navigate into HKLM > SYSTEM > CCS > Control > Class
You've then got a shedload of subkeys with CLSID type names. Use the cursor-down key to steadily move down the list of keys while watching the right-hand pane, reading the (Default) key each time. You'll find a subkey whose default is labelled 'DVD/CD-ROM drives'. If I'm right, there'll be one or two Upper/LowerFilter string keys there.

Feel free to export that registry key if you want to take a backup first, maybe create a system restore entry first.

Delete any UpperFilter/LowerFilter keys, reboot, end of problem most likely.

Alternatively, the drive is having a complete meltdown only when a specific type of disc is inserted and its hardware stops responding. I've never seen this happen.
 
4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 is the one with class labeled as CDROM. Upper/Lower Filter doesn't exist so I can't delete it. I found this fix for the DRM issue but wait for it.....the Advanced tab is gone probably from one of Microcraps updates.

Disable the DMA mode of the optical drive​


To disable the DMA mode on the optical drive, follow these instructions:


  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box.
  2. In the Run dialog box, type devmgmt.msc then press the Enter key.
  3. In the Device Manager window, expand DVD or CD-ROM drives.
  4. Right-click the optical drive and select Properties.
  5. Click the Advanced Settings tab.
  6. Under Device Properties, clear the Enable DMA checkbox.
 
Not sure what's going on here.

DRM is "Digital Rights Management'

DMA is "Direct memory Access"

You dont want to disable DMA !

Interesting out of all of this as Im having my share of issues with Win 10 (version 22H2) with Optical drive. Ya, sometimes the dive cant be seen & I have to reboot. It does seem that the drive performs better when the machine is off line & dedicated to "ripping."

There are still issues, and now I would suspect some kind of caching issue.

Now re-checking "Trim" , prefetch & page file sizing.

Let you know if I find something seeming worthwhile.
 
By all means try disabling DMA temporarily but if it helped, that would be incredibly screwy.

Is there anything in the event viewer > system log around the time that the drive disappears?
 
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C1 said:
Not sure what's going on here.

DRM is "Digital Rights Management'

DMA is "Direct memory Access"

You dont want to disable DMA !

Interesting out of all of this as Im having my share of issues with Win 10 (version 22H2) with Optical drive. Ya, sometimes the dive cant be seen & I have to reboot. It does seem that the drive performs better when the machine is off line & dedicated to "ripping."

There are still issues, and now I would suspect some kind of caching issue.

Now re-checking "Trim" , prefetch & page file sizing.

Let you know if I find something seeming worthwhile.
Click to expand...
When I first bought the external DVD drive it worked fine. Then it started to be picky which DVD's it would read. I just thought maybe scratches or something. Then it stopped reading DVD's completely. The same DVD's are read just fine by my internal DVD drive in one of my Windows 7 boxes. I'm being to think this is deliberate on MS part to prevent you from using your computer to play DVD's. Maybe something imbedded in the new drive? I'm going to get an old external DVD drive and see if that works.
 
jamesdsimone said:
When I first bought the external DVD drive it worked fine. Then it started to be picky which DVD's it would read. I just thought maybe scratches or something. Then it stopped reading DVD's completely. The same DVD's are read just fine by my internal DVD drive in one of my Windows 7 boxes. I'm being to think this is deliberate on MS part to prevent you from using your computer to play DVD's. Maybe something imbedded in the new drive? I'm going to get an old external DVD drive and see if that works.
Click to expand...

If you like I can boot up Win11 and test your theory of conspiracy to stop you accessing 20th century tech that hardly anyone uses any more (and that's coming from a person with a fair size DVD/BR library). I think you're barking up the wrong tree.

DVD drives do just fail; it's been a long, long time since they were considered premium tech. I'm not saying that has happened here but it's certainly a possibility.

One other thing you could try along with my previous suggestion is to fire up a live CD/USB of say Linux Mint on the same machine and see whether it has any trouble reading DVD video discs.

- edit -

win11 dvd.png

win11 dvd playback.png
 
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DVD drives do just fail; it's been a long, long time since they were considered premium tech. I'm not saying that has happened here but it's certainly a possibility.

The drive is fine it reads everything except commercial DVD's. I'm going to get another one anyway in case there is something wrong with it. They are only 15 USD. And I've been googling this for days and there are a lot of people with the same problem.
 
C1 said:
RockstarGirl
"I just cleaned the laser with a Q-tip, and now it's working. I still think the whole thing is just weird, why it would still read everything other than commercial DVD's."

https://www.techguy.org/threads/drive-wont-recognize-commercial-dvds.1059827/

LOL - Suppose it's worth a try.
Click to expand...
Her problem makes more sense though - the drive simply didn't recognise the disc. The OP however is saying that when a DVD video disc is inserted, the drive disappears from the 'This PC' view entirely, while remaining as 'OK' in Device Manager. It's a bizarre mix of symptoms.
 
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