Question Windows10 laptop won't read external DVD drives.

[jamesdsimone]

I've been using two external DVD drives for about 10 days. Last night my Windows 10 laptop stopped reading one of the drives. I thought that maybe I got a defective drive so I tried the second drive and that didn't read the DVD either. One of the drives has USB ports and SD cards slots and they seem to work fine. I connected the drives to my other laptop with Win7. Both drives worked on that laptop. Any idea why this would be happening?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Options are hardware or software. Do other USB devices work on the laptop? Have you tried rebooting laptop? Have you updated any drivers on the laptop? What model laptop?

 

[C1]

Do the DvD drives use independent/external power ?

Check BIOS for USB port setting. "Legacy" is what it should be set for, but try other settings.

Also, while the USB drive(s) are connected, check USB device status in "Device Manager."

You may have gotten into trouble by trying to pull too much juice thru the USB ports if you dont have external power. (The card slots require very little power, but the DvD drive requires lots & if it's USB 2 you only have half an amp max.available)

A possibility is to use a USB connector that supplies power from two USB ports (in parallel; these are commonly available & worth a try).

 

[albi56r]

Have you checked the USB port? Might be due to issues with the USB port of the Windows 10 laptop.

 

[solidsnake1298]

Have you added any additional devices, software, or network drives that used a drive letter those DVD drives used to use?

I had an issue some years ago where I connected a USB flash card reader, with multiple card types (each card type had its own drive letter), and at the next reboot the memory card reader took the drive letter my USB blu-ray drive used. For some reason, the blu-ray drive couldn't/wouldn't auto-negotiate with Windows for a new drive letter and only wanted to use what it had historically used. I opened computer management and changed the drive letter of one of the card reader slots occupying that blu-ray drive letter to something else and then the blu-ray drive popped up in My Computer.