Optical Drives Stopped Working - DPChallenge Forums

02/23/2007 07:42:42 PM · #1

Ok, ok, i know this is a photography site, but there are some tech whizzes here awell, and i've tried googling, and other tech sites, to no avail so here goes;

Both of my dvd drives have just stopped working.
I haven't messed with them physically to pull an IDE out or anything.
I did uninstall Nero, and reinstall it, i have changed the IDE cable to make sure it wasn't that at fault. I've tried one drive on it's own, then the other. I've tried uninstalling them in Device Manager and then rebooting to let windows detect them again, i've tried reinstaling my motherboard drivers, as i can only see it being an IDE controller fault, but nothings worked.

Both drives show up in both BIOS and My Computer, i can eject them, but the don't read disks, nor write them.

Any idea?
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

Simms

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

02/23/2007 08:00:10 PM · #2

OK, not one to condone such things, but have you run any software to `hide` your drives.. Some cracked software uses this method to get around copy-protection, (which is very bad and against the law). A friend of a friend of a friend who I have never met(!) used such a program once and he forgot to re-enable his drives. even removing the drives and reinstalling them didnt help.. I know you havent done this. but just thought I would mention it.

RainMotorsports

Nikon D60

02/23/2007 08:32:13 PM · #3

I could set half a DVD/CD rom drive on fire and it still show up in the BIOS.

1 of two things that are completly normal could have happend.

1 - Its dead yes i said it's dead. It can read as a drive and open and close and still be dead.

2 - The Read Head has alot of dust and dirt on it get a cleaning CD.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II

02/25/2007 07:32:36 AM · #4

I'mm going to assume neither drive are dead, as they both stopped working simultaneously.

Yes a friend of a friend of a friend did come by and install some evil 'virtual drive' software (think Daemons), i didn't 'disable' either of my real drives though, and have since uninstalled and even reinstalled daemon tools.
I'm stumpted. Going to try resetting the CMOS on the board, because i'm sure it's something to do with an IDE controller on my mobo, not sure if resetting the CMOS would help, but i'm out of options.
Thanks.

pacpinto

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

02/25/2007 08:14:49 AM · #5

Well I guess it is probably one of those "vodoo" windows problems. If you want to be sure the drives are ok you could (if you have the means to do it, i.e. if you have another cd or dvd drive still working, or you can boot from a USB drive) boot with a "live cd" (win or linux) and see if you can access your drives. If so, then it is certain its some windows mess up, and then you can try to restore your system using "system restore" or something.

Hope this helps...

hahn23

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM Lens

02/25/2007 08:52:36 AM · #6

Did you upgrade to Vista? I've heard some horror stories about DRM.
//www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

02/25/2007 11:55:08 AM · #7

I haven't upgraded yet, although i do have it here on... you guessed it DVD. :P

I have tried system restore, but perhaps not far enough back? I'll try again.

RainMotorsports

Nikon D60

02/25/2007 12:08:45 PM · #8

I hadnt read that post drives stopped... thats odd, id hate to bring up there could be a problem with the onboard controller....

Have you tried hooking one of them up to the same cable as the hard drive (assuming ur still usining a pATA 100 drive). Make sure the optical drive ur using is set to slave by the jumperr on the back.

If it works on the same cable as the Master Hard disk then you could be facing a bad cable or a bad motherboard.

SLightly unlikley but not unheard of.

02/26/2007 05:40:17 AM · #9

Ok update, it can actually play Audio CD's but doesn't recognise DVD's, when i try and open, it just shows an empty disc.

colema19

Canon EOS-20D

02/26/2007 09:58:26 AM · #10

Are you having trouble with pressed and burned discs or just burned ones? If it's just burned ones, it could be the media is degrading. I've run into it myself recently where one drive could read a disc and another couldn't. Which was surprising because it was the cheaper drive which would read, and my fancy burner that wouldn't.