hi a couple of days ago i installed ashampoo burning room , i was burning a cd then all of a sudden it said there was n error, then i tried to open the DVD tray but it didnt open well i didnt pay much attention n left it like that for a while , later on it opened normal , right now each time i put a CD/DVD in the tray n browse from start in to computer, it hangs n says it stopped responding , after a short time it responds again but nothing appears in the CD drive , no matter which CD i put it doesnt read it , it says i should insert CD, in the past i had a problem when i uninstalled some programs of toshiba , the CD drive was gone from computer, but i learned that deleting some filters it appeared again, but in this case the CD drive is not gone , in the past even if the CD drive was gone i could format, now i try to format n it doesnt read it, i take to option to booth from CD n what i get is a message saying that vista cant start , n gives me some options like safe mode etc, also suggest to put the vista DVD in the tray n repair, i dunno what to do im so desperate, i wanna format n i cant , i wonder what can i do.

my laptop is relatively new i got it on november n was released by toshiba in october so has only a couple of months, this is a toshiba satellite a215-s7472
the CD drive is a :

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K17LF ATA

i tried to updated the driver but it says is already uptodate i also tried uninstalling the driver but nope , nothing happens :<

plse help im so desperate , i dunno what to do

test it with known bootable cd or dvd, if that works we can investigate software/driver conflicts

i tried to boot from a vista dvd, also tried to boot from the recovery dvd that toshiba has , i wanted to format , but it didnt work
each time i tried to boot it apeared as if it was going to but then it said n error starting
windows n suggested to insert vista cd to repair the problem or gives me
the option to boot in safe mode or normal , i click normal n it boots as it always does
from the hard drive

PS. i already uninstalled the program ashampoo , i also uninstalled the other programs i installed recently
also tried to do a system restore but is not working, all the times i tried it gave me n error n said nothing was changed, so i deleted the restore points

Hi Johannly, and welcome to BleepingComputer.

Have you tried a last known good configuration? If you need instructions you can find them here.

did you ever see a screen where it said press any key to boot to cd?

or any sign that it was reading or trying to read the disk before booting to the hard drive?

the disk needs to be in the drive and then you reboot?

yes i tried , i also tried using restoration points, but it didnt work , i wonder what is wrong, it started to restore n everything looked normal, then when finished a warning message said that system restore could restore the laptop , that no file was changed or something like that



yes but in my laptop is not like that , i have to press f12 on the first screen then choose the device i wanna use to boot , i choose the dvd rom
the the screen gets black as it should n this appears " _ " but doesnt say press any key , i dnt remember if it said it before, the fact is i tried both ways letting it alone , n pressing the space tab n pressing other keys n it seems like it was going to boot from cd but then a black screen with some messages come, before it just started to load the files from the vista dvd, now the message i get says something like windows couldnt start , n suggest to insert the vista CD n try to do a repair, also gives the options of start in safe mode , start normal, i click in normal start n it boots from the hard drive as usual n everything loads normal, with no problem

i dunno what to do , i hope u can help me find a solution

thanks in advance

I am having a similar problem trying to fix a toshiba laptop myself, if you have stock I would sell it!

If it's on warranty and you can understand the accent then call them.
Chewy bad!

Or take it back to the seller and say fix it.

My vista sp1 boot cd wouldn't even access it?

i wish i could do that , the little problem is that i live in colombia, the warranty only covers us , the seller amazon , i cant sell my laptop
i work on it, i really need it, that's why im so worried

look when i try to boot from the vista dvd or from the recovery disk i get this message

that doesn't look like a failed boot from the cd/dvd, but a failed boot from the hard drive

no well dunno, the only i know is that i can boot normally from the hard drive, right now im typing from the laptop
n is working normal , besides the dvd drive everything seems to work , well not the system restore
but anything else is fine

the repair directions for a 205 say to hold down the C button when it's booting to disk 1 then release when you see the toshiba scrren

warning, this formats the C partition and writes the restore image to the hard drive

my laptop is a215 even thos it is the same hold c , but no , is not working, was the first thing i tried to do n it doest delete the c drive, it gives u the option to delete them all, or just to repair, the fact is that it doesnt work either, it doesnt read any CD/DVD

that 205 I set up for a client had a combo dvd burner hd player/reader, it wasn't a very good drive at all

da chew any other suggestion ??
i've been paying attention to the DVD rom , i can hear the lens moving when trying to read the CD/DVD but i cant hear it spin , it used to make a noise when it spins now is not making it, i thought was not spinning at all, but i open the tray when is trying to read n the CD/DVD is spinning a little , i guess it spins but not like it used to , its spinning slow

is there any possible solution that is not replace the CD/DVD drive, i live in a country where is not easy to do it, here everything cost 50 to 100% more than in the US n we dnt have little incomes

you might blow it out with compressed air, if that doesn't fix it then you need a new drive

laptops are expensive, hard to work on and break easily


not a good choice for people on a budget