DVD RW wont read - Computer Support & PC Help Forums

alp · 10-19-2008, 12:16 PM

I have a ASUS DRW - 2014 L1T DVD-RW installed on a Vista-32 sp1 desktop PC. Recently it has stopped reading or recognising data DVDs (game, data, etc). It does recognise and play movie DVDs or CDs though. Nothing wrong with the failed DVDs as they work fine on different PCs.

When I insert a game DVD, I see the green highlight on "my computer" window indicating it is reading the , then either of 3 things happen:
1) nothing happens at all
2) nothing happens and cd tray ejects with a message "insert disc"
or
3) windows explorer fails to respond

I have downloaded and flashed the manufacturer's latest firmware. Nothing.

I had also an issue with a certain Vista update that randomly gives me a blue screen which I will ask in another thread. I don't know whether it's a coincidence or related to this problem.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

**Kelly** · 10-19-2008, 01:01 PM

Has the drive every read the DVD that you are trying to read?
Are the games on disks that came from the manufacturer or are they home-made?
Also are the DVD's of the RW type meaning that you can erase them or are they the write-once type?

Asking because sometimes the RW type is not accepted by some DVD drives.

alp · 10-19-2008, 01:15 PM

First of all the game DVDs are brand new and manufacturers DVDs, earlier versions of which worked fine on this drive. Also some dvds I tried that come with pc magazines and contains data of trial software etc that previously worked on this drive do not work either. However a couple of DVD movies I tried and normal cds work.

My D drive recognises the DVD Writer as "DVD RW Drive". Device manager recognises the brand name/driver of the dvd drive and indicates that the device works properly.

Only when I insert a non-movie DVD in the tray, nothing happens. If I right click on the D drive then green light on the harware flashes and the windows explorer stops responding.

**Tootech** · 10-19-2008, 05:02 PM

Hi Alp,

It can be faulty and still show up as a working drive, and will work sometimes, and will read CD's.

I would guess at this point your drive is faulty or the read head is very dirty.

Replacement is normally the best policy.

Tootech.

Jack Hackett · 10-20-2008, 04:47 AM

A firmware update may do the trick, what firmware version does the drive currently have? 1.02 is the latest and is available from ASUS site or direct download from this Mirror
Nero Info Tool will tell you all you need to know about the drive

disclaimer: update the firmware at your own risk, I will NOT be held responsible for any problems arising from using the update, got that! good

alp · 10-20-2008, 05:25 AM

Hi Jack,

As I mentioned above I already updated the firmware and you're correct, it is version 1.02. This machine was put together not more than 6 months ago and I really have doubts that the problem has anything to do with the head being dirty.

A problem I am concurrently having is that when I turn on the PC I get a blue screen saying "a problem has been detected..............the BIOS in the system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your vendor for an updated BIOS"

Then when I restart the PC in safe mode and then normally, everything works ok except for the DVD RW. This started happening when I downloaded a windows hotfix (to fix the windows search index error I was getting). This could be a separate issue but wanted to mention in case it may have anything to do with my DVD RW's strange performance.

**Dalo Harkin** · 10-20-2008, 07:29 AM

Have you flashed the BIOS to the latest version - if the PC was put together 6 months ago then it is likely that the MOBO and components are 6 months or more older and MOST ASUS boards need a flash within 2-3 months.

alp · 10-20-2008, 08:51 AM

I don't have any experience flashing the BIOS. I downloaded the latest update from ASUS. However ASUS website instructs that the update done via a floppy disk. I don't have a floppy disk drive on my PC. Any help appreciated.

**Tootech** · 10-20-2008, 11:32 AM

Hi Alp,

Can you still write DVD's on your drive, if yes, are they readable in another drive.

Have you tried connecting your drive to another SATA port?

Are your motherboard chipset drivers up to date?

Tootech.

**Dalo Harkin** · 10-20-2008, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alp

I don't have any experience flashing the BIOS. I downloaded the latest update from ASUS. However ASUS website instructs that the update done via a floppy disk. I don't have a floppy disk drive on my PC. Any help appreciated.

Asus Motherboards have the ability to do this from within a windows environment - gone are the days of loading a BIOS onto a floppy and having to mess with it.

alp · 10-22-2008, 01:38 PM

I have successfully flashed the BIOS to latest update but this did not solve any of the issues mentioned above.
So I will try and write a dvd and see what happens, try connecting it to different sata before tring a different device. Will keep you posted.

alp · 11-03-2008, 04:05 PM

I appologise for noy having responded earlier as I was travelling. I tried everything as suggested above but apparently the problem was with the hardware and problem was solved once I replaced it with a new dvd-writer.

The amazing thing is that how quickly (apprx 6 months) the driver became useless.

Thanks to all for your help and support!

**Dalo Harkin** · 11-03-2008, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alp

I appologise for noy having responded earlier as I was travelling. I tried everything as suggested above but apparently the problem was with the hardware and problem was solved once I replaced it with a new dvd-writer.

The amazing thing is that how quickly (apprx 6 months) the driver became useless.

Thanks to all for your help and support!

I dont know what you mean by the above (in red) I presume that you are meaning the firmware - and some writers need firmware updates to recognise new media - in the same way that BIOS's need updating to recognise new hardware -
The reason this is done is because the hardware or the media is newer than the drive or MOBO and they need to be MADE to see the media/hardware

**Goku** · 11-03-2008, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalo Harkin

I dont know what you mean by the above (in red) I presume that you are meaning the firmware - and some writers need firmware updates to recognise new media - in the same way that BIOS's need updating to recognise new hardware -
The reason this is done is because the hardware or the media is newer than the drive or MOBO and they need to be MADE to see the media/hardware

Dalo, I think it was just a typographical error. Alp must have been remarking about how the old drive which was only 6 months old, as I understand it, became faulty so soon.

-- Goku

**Wolfeymole** · 11-03-2008, 05:23 PM

I have to agree with Goku and I think Alp inadvertently put an R in the word drive to make it Driver.

**Tootech** · 11-03-2008, 07:54 PM

Thanks for posting back Alp, glad you got it sorted.

**Plastic Nev** · 11-05-2008, 09:02 PM

Just a final point, if the DVD drive is only six months old, it may still be under warranty, so send it back and see how you go from there.