DVD Drive cannot read discs.

[SparkPlugBolt]

Hi,

I have a HP G70-120 laptop with a Blu-Ray drive that can burn and read DVDs as well.


I have written DVDs before without a problem. A week ago when I tried to read or burn a DVD the following problems occurred:
1. It would say "Insert a Disc" while there is already a good DVD written. Tried with various DVDs and CDs, same thing. Sometimes it says blank disc, at other times it can read the disc.
2.Every 10 minutes or so, the autoplay window appears, sometimes saying a blank disc and at other times correctly reading the disc.
2. Upon clicking eject or pressing the eject button sometimes the drive does not eject and a message appears "could not eject BD ROM". Other times it ejects fine.
3. Tried writing on a CD and DVD. With the CD, the writing was completed without any trouble but, after opening the CD theres no sign of the Data that has been burned. For the DVD, I used Ashampoo Burning Studio 6 and it stopped working in the middle of the writing process. Now only half the files can be read from the DVD and the disc has been finalized.

Note:
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver in device manager. Also tried updating the driver, but windows says its up to date.
Tried blowing light air over the tray.

So how do I fix these problems?

 

[hang-the-9]

If you can see the drive in the system, it should not be the driver. But the pickup heads do get dirty or bad.

Try to clean them with a cotton swab, using a bit of iso alcohol on it, although a bit of water would be OK also. Just enough to wet it not soaking wet. If that does not fix it may need to get it replaced.

 

[SparkPlugBolt]

If you can see the drive in the system, it should not be the driver. But the pickup heads do get dirty or bad.

Try to clean them with a cotton swab, using a bit of iso alcohol on it, although a bit of water would be OK also. Just enough to wet it not soaking wet. If that does not fix it may need to get it replaced.

Hi,
I tried cleaning it like you mentioned. The problem persists. I would like to try software solutions before getting it replaced.
So can you suggest any software solutions like updating the driver, firmware?

 

[hang-the-9]

Hi,
I tried cleaning it like you mentioned. The problem persists. I would like to try software solutions before getting it replaced.
So can you suggest any software solutions like updating the driver, firmware?

Sure you can try and see if there is new firmware for it, but if it's not reading any DVDs the DVD pickup heads are bad, no software will fix it. It's like trying to paint your car to fix a cracked cylinder.

 

[SparkPlugBolt]

Sure you can try and see if there is new firmware for it, but if it's not reading any DVDs the DVD pickup heads are bad, no software will fix it. It's like trying to paint your car to fix a cracked cylinder.

Ohk. Btw, I checked HP and they said that the firmware updates are not for Laptops like mine which came preinstalled with software.

I was thinking about drivers. Where can I download drivers for the optical drives? HP doesnt have them, neither does Sony the products manufacture. I am on Windows 7 btw.

 

[hang-the-9]

They don't have drivers for the drive, it will be a Windows driver, maybe something from the motherboard driver from HP.

I doubt you will get anywhere with this without replacing the drive.

 

[SparkPlugBolt]

They don't have drivers for the drive, it will be a Windows driver, maybe something from the motherboard driver from HP.

I doubt you will get anywhere with this without replacing the drive.

Ok. Then before I go for changing the optical drives, are there any software that checks the problems with drivers, drives and discs? A free software would be preferable.

I have used Nero InfoTool, CDRoller, and they werent much help, since they dont identify the exact problem.

 

[hang-the-9]

Ok. Then before I go for changing the optical drives, are there any software that checks the problems with drivers, drives and discs? A free software would be preferable.

I have used Nero InfoTool, CDRoller, and they werent much help, since they dont identify the exact problem.

Benchmark utilities can run a test on the drive, but only to test how fast it is. The vendor of the drive or PC may have a utility to test the hardware, but that may not include the optical drive.