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Vista 64 SP2 DVD Drive

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DVD drive stopped reading Installation CDs, Music CDs and Blank CDR media. Below is what I have tried already without success:

1- Deleted lower and upper filters that other burning software installed (recommended by Microsoft).

2- Disabled and uninstalled the drive several times.

3- Removed Nero and Roxio completely. Tried other 64 bit burning software hoping that it will install a new driver
on either lower or upper filter.

4- Copied a working version of cdrom.sys (which is the driver that Vista uses)to the default drivers folder
just in case the existing one was corrupted.

5- Ran sfc /scannow but it didn’t fix anything related to the drive.

6- Uninstall Service Pack 2 and didn’t work either. Installed it again hoping the original install went bad but
nothing…

7- Noticed that cdfs does not run as a service anymore but is currently installed. I know that Vista uses UDF now
but decided to enable the service to be running throught the Registry.. Nothing worked again!

8- Checked AutoPlay settings for Blank media with several options but nothing…

I don’t really want to do a system restore to factory setting and rather wait for my Windows 7 upgrade and see if it fixes the problem.

Thanks!

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Clarifications

In reply to Vista 64 SP2 DVD Drive

Clarifications

If it reads DVDs alright, the CD LED Laser has probably died …

In reply to Vista 64 SP2 DVD Drive

You could always remove the CD/DVD drive and try it in another computer, just to be certain.

What age is the drive?

Another way to test the Drive itself

In reply to Vista 64 SP2 DVD Drive

Is to place a Boot Disc in it ideally a CD here like the Ultimate Boot CD set the BIOS to boot off the Optical Drive first and see if it opens the Boot CD or a Live Linux.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

http://www.livecdlist.com/

If that doesn’t work insert a Boot DVD and try again. If it now works the most likely explanation is that the LED used to generate the Laser Beams for the GD has failed or lost sufficient intensity to no longer be able to read CD Disc’s.

There are 2 LED’s or at least 2 different color LED’s inside a DVD Optical Drive one is used to read/write DVD and the other for CD media. If you constantly leave one type of media in the drive it is being read all of the time that the computer is running and this cause the LED that is concerned with that Media Type to eventually fail/Loose Intensity and be unable to read Disc’s.

When this happens you need to replace the Optical Drive.

If you need one type of Disc in the drive a lot of the time use a Virtual Disc Software Package and copy the Required Disc/s tot he HDD where you’ll get much faster performance and it will not wear out the Optical Drive. It’s much cheaper/ 😉

Col

Laser Beams!

In reply to Another way to test the Drive itself

Ha-ha! I thought these drives had only 1 beam and never thought about this because it always read DVDs fine… Computer still under warranty so instead of trying the drive on a different system I already asked Acer to send me a replacement drive..

Cheers from New Jersey, USA!

RE: “..asked Acer to send me a replacement drive” …

In reply to Laser Beams!

Does the drive arrive complete with a Tech Engineer?

If not – I’d like to know what kind of warranty you’ve got with ACER. 😉

Acer Tech Support

In reply to RE: “..asked Acer to send me a replacement drive” …

Just be very very persistent with Acer and they eventually bend for you. I can tell by the names used that the online tech support routes all the email transactions to reps in India. I did what they asked me to do to obtain the Advance Exchange drive but nothing was working for them. I.E. Provide credit card over an online eMachines link (they own that company apparently), call their 800 number. After a few emails back and forth they decided to send the drive but I have to send the defective one back to them within 2 business days. I only have the 1 year standard warranty!

Cheers,
NJ

Maybe things are different your side of the Pond …

In reply to Acer Tech Support

ACER UK sell their laptops with the proviso that ALL their laptops are business machines, so they all have International Travellers’ Warranty (which is nice) but even I couldn’t get that sort of deal from them.

I can be quite vociferous if I put my mind to it (you might have noticed some of my posts are a bit wordy 😀 ) and telephone conversations do not weaken my resolve.

However, they did pay for the Collection and the return Delivery so I couldn’t really complain. The duration of the repair was not helped by my living in the Highlands of Scotland and their repair facility being in Devon, in the far south-west of England. 😉

Thank you!

In reply to Maybe things are different your side of the Pond …

Thanks OldER Mycroft for your assistance with the optical drive. I would’ve wasted less of my time had I known that these optical drives have 2 different laser beams to read/write to both types of media..

Cheers from NJ USA!
camachoh

[Author]

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