 Vista Won't Recognize Dvd But Can See Cd, Vista won't even recognize the disk when a DVD is inserted |
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 Dec 1 2007, 07:57 PM
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New Member  Group: Members Posts: 1 Joined: 1-December 07 Member No.: 173,855  |
Is this a driver issue or something. I don't know much about Vista because I only use Linux at home, but my friend has Vista, and this problem. Thank you, ik |
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Dec 2 2007, 07:22 AM
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 Still visually handicapped, new avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,706 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Check the Device Manager to see if the DVD is properly recognized there. Go to Start and type in "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
Also, you may want to right click on the drive after clicking on "Computer" in the Start Menu. Select "Properties" and see if there's anything on one of the tabs that might cause this behavior (on my Toshiba laptop there's a "Recording" tab that is used to switch between CD and DVD recording). -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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Dec 20 2007, 06:02 PM
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#3
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 7 Joined: 20-December 07 Member No.: 177,843 |
There is a known issue similar to this. I have it myself. Drive is recognised and correctly installed but will not access any files and will come up with an error such as no such application or similar. Usually though this manifests itself in absolutely no access to the media insterted as if there is no disk. In fact the drive will not try and re-engage itself properly to find it. Based upon the posts I have been reading it seems to happen more when people have just installed or updated anti virus software such as AVG or McAfee. In my case I believe it occured after installing a few windows updates and this is also something others have experienced. No idea why and it seems no one else has either but rather than reinstall I wait patiently for a solution. No patch or fix available and for me personally the only possible fix would be a total reformat and reinstall. I have tried the entire IT departments of 2 large corporate organisation I work with on this one as well as microsoft themselves. If this is the issue your going to have to reinstall or wait to see if a fix materialises.
It sounds in your case that there might be hope as at least it will read cd content. personally my drives are visible but will not access anything. If you find a solution please post it and enjoy my eternal gratitude.! ) This post has been edited by Arioch13: Dec 20 2007, 06:04 PM |
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 Dec 21 2007, 01:28 AM
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#4
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 Forum Member  Group: Banned Posts: 1,614 Joined: 20-September 07 Member No.: 157,913 |
I also happen to have the same problem occuring with my DVD drive, I too have no idea either why it does this, but, maybe it might be because my DVD burner is old (about 3+ years) and I might need to get a new one. Also my problem isn't that recent, it has been happening for about 10 months now.
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Dec 21 2007, 01:32 AM
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#5
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Forum Member Group: Banned Posts: 1,614 Joined: 20-September 07 Member No.: 157,913 |
Oh yes, I just remembered! When you put the DVD disc in and it doesn't load, take it back out and then re-insert it, if it still doesnt come up on the computer then just keep ejecting the and inserting the DVD and eventually it should come up in My Computer, however if it doesnt, then I dont really know what is really going on with yours.
 Also, when you re-insert the disc let the computer try and read it for about 20 seconds. I hope this helps! 
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Dec 21 2007, 04:09 PM
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#6
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 7 Joined: 20-December 07 Member No.: 177,843 |
update on the total non visiblility of DVD / CD files issue. Spent some hours on the phone with microsoft today and they spent quite some time looking at this and trying to diagnose the issue. Final diagnosis: appears to be some sort of malware we dont know about yet. Try contacting your antivirus / spyware provider. I use AVG + Windows Firewall. + Have defender running usually if its not causing issues.
This mystery piece of malware slipped past all and refuses detection by the 3 different spyware programs I have also tried today. Personally not convinced its malware but if thats what MS tell me thats the way I have to look at it. Does seem to change something on the key relevant to the DVD in the reg file but the MS guy helping me was unable to resolve the issue. Right now I am still stuck but possibly getting warmer. Looks likely I am going to have to do a full reformat and reinstall at this point. All thats holding me back is that I dont know the cause so it could just happen again almost right away. |
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Dec 21 2007, 05:05 PM
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#7
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 Distinguished Member Group: Members Posts: 820 Joined: 5-January 07 From: Australia Member No.: 104,783 |
Post a Highjack this log in the appropriate form http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/to...ools/hijackthis
The team will then help you resolve any infection issue. --------------------  |
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Dec 21 2007, 06:37 PM
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#8
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Forum Member Group: Banned Posts: 1,614 Joined: 20-September 07 Member No.: 157,913 |
Personally, I think Microsoft just said it was Spyware/Malware because they didnt actually know what the problem is and they didnt want to spend any mroe tiem on it maybe. I too doubt it is Malware.
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Dec 21 2007, 10:06 PM
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#9
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Distinguished Member Group: Members Posts: 820 Joined: 5-January 07 From: Australia Member No.: 104,783 |
Like any problem solving issue all things should be looked at but personally I would agree that I doubt an infection is to blame.
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Dec 22 2007, 01:50 AM
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#10
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Member Group: Members Posts: 21 Joined: 15-December 07 From: Jaxsonville AR Member No.: 176,802 |
i hav a dvd/cd-rw drive and can read dvd's fine but i can't read blank dvd-r disk for some reason any one know the answer... also i hav mcafree trial
-------------------- Joshua Gretzmier
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Dec 22 2007, 07:04 AM
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#11
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Still visually handicapped, new avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,706 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
EDIT: Found this link in my bookmarks and haven't seen it mentioned yet. It may help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/
While it's possible that a new piece of malware could be responsible for this - I wonder about the odds of you being one of the first to be infected (before the anti-malware folks devise a detector). I also wonder about the odds of it being the only infection on the system as nearly all infected systems that I've seen have multiple issues. Also, if there's nothing wrong with the system other than the drive - then what's the malicious activity that this malware is supposed to be performing? The issue here is that the DVD can't read properly. The possibilities (IMO) are: 1) Malware 2) Bad hardware/connections 3) Bad drivers 4) Bad software 5) OS corruption The first step is the anti-malware scans. This is because troubleshooting relies on the system behaving in the way that it's expected to behave. Malware causes the system to do things that it wasn't expected to do - so it interferes with the process. But, after multiple malware scans have found no issues - then I'd assume that the system was clean. The next step (IMO) is to uninstall the device in Device Manager and reboot to let Windows redetect it. After that, I'd try another DVD drive in the system to see if behaves the same way. If it doesn't, then there's a problem with the old drive and it's interface with the system and OS. If the new drive does misbehave - then you've effectively ruled out the drive as a source of the problem. Then I'd update your motherboard/chipset drivers (to include the drive controllers) to the latest available version from the chipset manufacturer's website. You may also want to run this free utility to see if it can identify any issues that may relate to this problem: http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir...n=sware_dl_3264 After all of this, I'd continue to monitor the problem and use the built in troubleshooting tools (Error Reporting, Reliability Monitor, and Event Viewer) to locate errors related to the use of the DVD drive. It may also be that a piece of seemingly unrelated software is causing the issue (such as McAfee or another program malfunctioning) If that doesn't work, then I'd suggest falling back on the trio of "fix it all" tools: 1) SFC.EXE /SCANNOW 2) repair install of Windows 3) format and reinstall of Windows This post has been edited by usasma: Dec 22 2007, 07:51 AM -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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 Dec 22 2007, 05:38 PM
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#12
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Forum Member Group: Banned Posts: 1,614 Joined: 20-September 07 Member No.: 157,913 |
Thanks for the information Usasma
 Do you think that if all else fails, that maybe the DVD Drive is faulty and that it might be time for a new one?
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Dec 22 2007, 06:27 PM
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#13
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Still visually handicapped, new avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,706 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Trying another, known good drive, will tell you if it's the drive or not (as long as everything else in the chain is good - such as the cable and the mobo controller). Replacement drives are fairly cheap - and it never hurts to have a spare laying around for the time that you really need one.
-------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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Dec 23 2007, 09:29 PM
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#14
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 27-September 07 Member No.: 159,527 |
QUOTE(Linkman101 @ Dec 22 2007, 01:50 AM)  i hav a dvd/cd-rw drive and can read dvd's fine but i can't read blank dvd-r disk for some reason any one know the answer... also i hav mcafree trial I have something similar on my Vista PC. It seems if I try to look at any burned DVDR, no matter if DVD-Video or data disc format, in Explorer, I get a pop up asking me if I want to format the disc. So what I do is insert the disc, wait for the access LED to quit blinking, then bring up FreeCommander.exe and look at the drive the disc is in. It shows the files no problem. Weird but true. Since Free Commander is free it might be worth a try before getting too involved with other solutions. (btw I have AutoInsert Notification and AutoPlay disabled so that stuff doesn't try to start playing before Free Commander can do its thing. If you play media discs on your PC you can always load the software player manaully.) This may not be the same issue but it sounded close enough that I thought it may be related. -------------------- "How come we don't know the I.Q. of the guy who invented the test?"
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Dec 27 2007, 07:35 AM
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#15
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 2 Joined: 27-December 07 Member No.: 179,150 |
Hello. I have just found this forum and spotted this thread which relates to the same problem I have recently experienced.
Mine is a new PC bought only a few days ago with Windows Vista Home Premium. Everything loaded up OK and all facilities worked until suddenly, after a day's use, I found that the DVD/CD drive would not read or otherwise act on the contents of any DVD or CD. I tried a variety of different material (music, programmes, games, data etc) but I got the same result each time. The PC could see the drive and the CD/DVD but refused to action anything. All that happened was that the drawer kept opening and shutting, but nothing else. It was most infuriating, as anyone who has suffered this problem will know. But read on .... I'm not an expert but nor am I a computer novice. After trying everything I know and after consulting the "Help", and looking for a solution on the Microsoft website, I eventually gave up. I then went back to the shop I bought the PC from ("PC World" in the UK) and explained the problem. The tech guy recognised the problem straight away. He said that in all probability I must have tried to load a driver which Vista didn't like, and suggested it might possibly be an XP driver. I agreed that this was a possibility, as I had found trouble with two items: a Canon scanner and a Creative Labs external sound card, for both of which Vista had no suitable drivers and could not find any on the Web. In these cases I used the original installation CDs which contained only XP drivers. I recognised there might be a problem so I then instructed Vista to read them in XP Service Pack 2 "compatibility" mode. The tech guy said that loading XP drivers is what probably caused the trouble. He said that Vista is "very unforgiving" if you do things like this, and usually there is little you can do to rectify the problem other than do a full or partial recovery of Vista. He said that System Restore doesn't do the trick. It was good advice. That's what I did - a full recovery. Then it all worked again. The moral is: be very careful what you load in the way of drivers as it could well mess things up very badly to the extent that external drives cease to function, etc. Obviously, this is something that Microsoft should deal with immediately as it could affect a lot of people who would mistakenly think that the external drive itself has broken when in fact it's a software issue. |
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