Help! My Dvd Drive Stopped Working

My DVD drive just stopped working one day and I have no idea what's going on. I haven't changed any settings or anything, but it's just not reading anything. The weird thing is that it's only like that when I'm in Windows. I have two partitions of Windows on my computer and it stopped working on both of them, but I decided to re-format on of the partitions and forgot the the drive wasn't working so I put the Windows CD in it. It booted up and installed Windows perfectly, but once it was installed and rebooted into Windows, the drive stopped working again. So basically, it was able to read the CD to boot and install Windows. But once I'm in Windows, it doesn't read anything, CD or DVD. Can anyone offer any help?

Hi, Sorry to hear of the problem with your DVD drive. The fact that you were able to install/reinstall Windows with it indicates that mechanically its OK, so the problem most likely lies in the configuration within Windows. Have you installed/reinstalled or made any changes since your DVD stopped working? if so these are the first things to check/everse and this may solve the problem. Before you get too involved, be sure to set up a System Restore Point, so at least you stand a chance of being able to return things to how they are at the moment! Now Have a look in Start> Control>Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager check carefully for any yellow or red "flags" and install/roll back/update any drivers required Particularly Expand the DVD/CD+ and see if the drivers are correcly installed and up to date. (note you will generally have the option to Update/roll back to previous driver and it is generally wise to begin by rolling back if it was working satisfactorily before.) Let us know how you get on. Don't forget if you have a System Restore Point set up at a time when everything was Hunky Dory or a Disc Image taken using for example, Ghost, Paragon, Drive Image Acronis, or similar disc imaging application, (at a time when everything was working Ok) then these are other options open to you. Regards paws

Sorry for taking so long to reply. The phone lines in my house were down for the past few days so I had no access to the internet at all. As far as installing or reinstalling anything, I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything there. All I know is that it was working fine one day, then the next day my brother tries to use the DVD drive and it doesn't work. I also tried to roll back the driver but it says it can't do that since there's no previous driver to roll back to, and the update also failed to find anything. And system restore isn't doing anything. Is there any other methods I can try? Thanks.

Hi, If your system won't let you roll back your driver then it indicates that there may be no driver installed or an out of date or even damaged one. Check in Device Manager for any yellow/red flags and let us know what you find. In any event I would recommend you visit the website of the DVD manufacturer and download and install the latest drivers, reboot your machine and see if this does the trick. regards paws

I checked the drive in device manager but it shows that it's working fine, there's no flags beside it. I also tried looking for a driver update, but all I found was a firmware update. But when I tried updating it following the instructions given, it keeps on saying it can't find the gdr-8161b0102.dld file even though I put it in the same directory as the execution files just like the instructions say. So now it's still not working.

Hi, You will probably need to uninstall the existing driver AFTER downloading a fresh copy of the most up to date driver from the manufacturers website. Reboot and then reinstall the driver and see how you go. Note its important you download a fresh copy of the driver. Regards paws

Try "Uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager and then rebooting. Windows should detect it upon rebooting and load the necessary drivers for it automatically. Also, if you think the drive has physically failed, new ones are cheap and easy to install. ** Edited to apologize*** I would like to apologize for my lapse in judgment in posting a link that was overly promotional. That said, is it possible to remove the names of the other writers mentioned in the following response to my post? These individuals did not overstep any boundaries; rather, I was the one who was overexuberant in posting a link to an article that I wrote for a client earlier that day. They, like me, are freelance writers - not owners of the site linked. Thank you. Celeste

Hi Celeste, Kate, and Susan

You have a nice free and paid service website that provides a similar service that we provide here on a volunteer interactive basis.
Except for you, it's a business.
Since we are "all" volunteer, we do not allow, nor appreciate attempts to place advertising in our Forums.
If we did allow advertising, hundreds of our long-term members would be our first preference to allow…. but we don't.
And our regular members know better and don't rudely try.

Since you took the time to Register, in order to gain the opportunity to post, I hope you will also take the time to read our Terms Of Use.

I'll help you out with an excerpt:
The posting of links in signatures to rival tech sites is not permitted. If you do your post will be subject to editing by a moderator or administrator of What the Tech. Continuing to do so will be treated as spam and result in the termination of your membership.

I don't suppose you would appreciate having one of the big box tech shops or even a small regional shop owner come over and start posting links in your site to draw business away from you.

We don't, either.

We get lots of attempted advertizing. You will probably recognize the term SPAM, which applies to your own attempted advertisement in your very first post. It's just not nice. And it is against our rules.

Because you may be struggling to open or expand your business and because you haven't been particularly rude, I'll just warn you and ask you specifically to KNOCK IT OFF.

I'll also do you the kindness of informing you that you have an important "typo" in the help topic that you linked our users to.
Such typos can lead users to make both minor and serious mistakes.
Since you are college educated technical writers, I'd expect better.

You referred to "located the old hard drive and remove any screws holding it in place."
But of course, the Topic of the article is about "optical drives".

Your post is being edited to remove your advertising link.
Your ability to post here at WTT is being suspended for one Week.

If you want to come back and play nice as a volunteer, in this "volunteer" Forum, use that week to think about and amend your ways.

Best Regards

"

Try "Uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager and then rebooting. Windows should detect it upon rebooting and load the necessary drivers for it automatically.

Also, if you think the drive has physically failed, new ones are cheap and easy to install."

Greetings all - I am also having problems with my CD-RW/DVD-R Drive for my laptop and was looking for solutions when I came across this thread. I have to say that the above is NOT my experience. When my optical drive died on me I searched through various forums and tried various pieces of advice, including uninstalling/reinstalling the hardware and the drivers, AND the deleting upper/lower filters thing in the registry. I have since concluded that my old optical drive is knackered and a trip to a local repair shop confirmed this. This drive was a TEAC DW-224E-85.

I tried to buy a replacement drive - new ones are extortionate but second hand ones are readily available. The only problem is that they come with a plethora of minor differences - mostly in the last part of the part number (which most vendors fail to quote). I bought a replacement drive that is a TEAC DW-224E-C93, which the vendor told me was working. Indeed, it does show some life when installed in my laptop such as ejecting the tray and a blinking light, and it sounds like it spins the disc when one is inserted. However, it is not recognised by Windows - i.e. it does not appear in device manager. Now, FYI you should know that if I put the old drive back in, it is recognised by windows no problem. It just doesn't spin the discs or read them. I am baffled! Software for this model series also seems to be extremely difficult to find.

I was wondering if the new drive is also duff, but I have recently read that laptop optical drives do not have physical master/slave setting switches on the back, but these are included in the drivers or firmware (NB I have not the faintest idea of the difference between these or what they do), and that confusion over master/slave settings can stop a drive being recognised (do correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore I am wondering if this new drive is physically fine, but that the software on my laptop is incompatible. Do you think that this is correct, and if so what can I do about it (apart from buying an identical drive to my old one - which I have not found available so far)?

FYI my laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 1130-Z25 bought in 2003 and running XP Home version 2002, SP3.

All suggestions welcome!

Hi and welcome to the WTT forums

Sorry to hear of the problems with your machine.
Here are some thoughts for your consideration.

1 Reinstalling the drivers for the drive is usually the first port of call, however as you have tried this without success, try using the Toshiba drivers that come on the Installation discs usually supplied with the machine. ( if you do not have these then you will need to do some research with Toshiba to locate copies of them)

2 If you have tried editing the Registry to deal with the filters without success then it might be worth going to the Microsoft site:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/EN-US/
and clicking on the "Fix it for me" option and following the onscreen directions.

3 With the advent of cheap flash memory sticks the need for a dedicated CD/RW drive is often restricted to installing software…..If this applies to you then a cheap IDE external desktop type CD/RW drive can be bought for a pound or twp or a dollar or three and placed into a portable USB external drive case( that are equally cheap to buy….)
this way practically any old desktop drive can be put to use with your laptop.

4 There are repairs that we have done by making physical alterations to the drive's connectors to achieve the required results…however these should only be attempted by experienced technicians in the workshop so we will refrain from giving details here.
Regards
paws