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CD Drive wont read specific Disks

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14 replies

by mamies

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A CD that was given to the organisation with important information but when inserted into the computer that needs that info it wont read. The disk works in every other drive within the organisation.

I thought the CD drive might be broken so i tried another disk and Woolah up it came with what it was supposed to. I thought it may have somethin to do with the multisession that some burners use when burning disks

The CD Drive is a TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-L632C

14 replies

by symon.l

I have had this problem before and i have never found a sure fix for it...first time it happened i just replaced the DVD/CD drive it self which was fine then it started all over again a few months later.
You could try removing the hardware uninstall the drivers reboot the PC with out the hardware run CCleaner on the PC
www.ccleaner.com
Run the registry cleaner a few times until it find no more problems shut down put the hardware back in and reboot and install.

This is the last thing i tried and it worked a treat it's a rather long way to do things and there maybe a quicker solution but its what works for me.

Hope this helps.

by oh smeg

But as it's a fairly generic type question this is more to do with the Blank Disc's that are used to record than the actual Drive that is used to read them.

The Dye Layer may be incompatible with the actual Drive so the Laser Beams are not being reflected back to the optics at a high enough level to be read by this particular drive. If it is one of the older drives the Dye Layer could be completely Incompatible with the Color of the Laser Used in this drive so it is absorbing all of the light and not reflecting any back to the Optics. This was very Common with the Kodak CD Burners when Kodak stopped making Blank Disc's. These previously good burners could not read or burn the new media.

It could also be that the actual drive is on it's way out here as the Laser Intensity may have drooped and this particular Disc isn't reflecting enough light back to be readable. If the drive has disc's left in it commonly this shortens the life of the drive considerably as the Laser LED burns out and this stops any light being emitted effectively rendering the Drive Unusable. If the LED that generates the Light has started to loose intensity the same thing can also happen. Quite often when this happens the drive can read Manufactured Disc's but not recorded ones as they are made differently.

Col

by older mycroft

My old Acer Aspire 1363 WLMi, was fitted with a TSST TS-L532A DVD+/-RW optical drive, from the same family as that detailed in the OP.

I concur with you regarding the dye colourant problem.

As soon as the recordable optical discs stopped using Yellow dye, my TSST drive exhibited the same problems. Even now it can still read commercial discs including magazine cover discs, but is inherently unstable attempting to read discs recorded on other computers.

I would guess the dye colour is a major factor in this case.

by oh smeg

Or more correctly the Wavelength of the LED that generates the Laser Beams.

The LED's that where used years ago where a different Color and they relied on the color of the Blanks to reflect the light. Unfortunately the Blue and now Silver Dyes that that are currently used actually absorb the light from those old CD Readers so there is no reflection to the Optics to read anything. Even the Blue Dye had problems as they changed the color over time and one color caused heaps of problems. This got so bad that many resellers here refused to accept any Blanks with the B Dye Lot Color the A & C worked just fine but the B was a disaster and most Drives couldn't read these disc's even if they recorded them. :D

Ain't Technology Grand. :^0

Col

by Former member

http://cdburnerxp.se/testeddrives.php?search=tsstcorp
See if you drive can recognize the drive after you have this on board.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by Former member

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Click on the box that says "click here to download", and run it, it will take a bit of time to go through your computer. It will list what you have on your computer. Then look at the disk carefully and see if it is a "-" minus, or "+" plus. Your drive might be of the opposite format of the CD-disk. If possible get a multi-dvd/cd read/writer, then you can have what ever disk you want or need.
If it comes with blue-ray then that will be a bonus.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by mamies

Hi thanks for your reply did use the tool however it may come in use one day although i am not trying to read a DVD although a CD

by oh smeg

The Make & Model of the CD drive and the Make & Model of the Blank Disc's. Unfortunately the name on the sticker on the drive and the name on the label of the Blanks may not be the makers just the company who sold the particular units. They tend to buy these in and have then made buy a Outside Contractor in China now for the cheapest rate possible while still working properly. Sometimes things just don't work at all and sometimes the manufacturing tolerances are too far one way on a drive and too far the other way on a Blank to be usable on a individual Drive.

If you want to dig into things your welcome but honestly for the few cents involved with the Blank it's easier to just do it again or copy the problem Disc on another computer and then use the copy on the problem system. If that works just keep the copy out of direct sunlight and ideally out of any sunlight as it will go off to such an extent that the drive will be unable to read it again sooner rather than latter.

Col

by mamies

Hi
Sounded like a good answer and would have been nice although when another disk out of the same packet with the same colour dye was used it worked fine.
Thanks tho

by oh smeg

Not enough to stop it working but enough to degrade it sufficiently to stop that particular drive from reading it.

Or it just may have been a faulty Disc.

Anyway no matter what that Particular Disc isn't compatible with that drive if you have the Data there burn it to another Blank from the same batch on a different computer and you'll be OK.

Col

by mamies

I have done this but my only main concern is that he is always in the field and if he is given a disk and needs to use it in the field and his notebook cant read his disk what is he able to do then

by rob miners

As previously suggested copy and burn the CD to another brand of CD preferably one with a slower speed. EG: 4X
Make sure that the PC has the latest Chipset software installed by checking the manufacturers site for Updates.
Check to see if there are any Firmware Updates for the CD/DVD by checking the manufacturers site for Updates.
Seeing that there does'nt appear to be any firmware updates for TS-L632C you may have to try A BIOS Update.

by oh smeg

And let him use that. Provided that the HDD works he'll have access to the data just as if it was a removable CD. While it will take up space on the HDD most of these programs allow compression and quite a lot of it to the HDD and even with that the Virtual Drive is still at least 50 times faster than using the optical drive with less power drain on the battery. It's a win win all round that way.

http://tinyurl.com/3sblhk

I do this a lot with Earthmover's who can not be trusted to take anything out of the office and not loose it. With a Virtual Drive if the NB works they have access tot he Data and better still there are no big upset Earthmover's wanting to beat the crap out of me because something doesn't work for them.

Col

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