DVD will not recognize disks - no success with normal fixes.

[k@rt]

HI All.

I tried asking this question in another part of the forum, but after getting no responses at all, I thought I would try here.

The problem is my DVD drive fails to read, write or even recognize any disk that I put into it. Whenever I put any disk in the drive (data, movie, burnt or store bought) Windows behaves as if there is no disk present, opens the drawer and asks me to put in a disk.

The problem persists even after physically replacing the drive with a different one and connecting it up to a different s-ATA ports, so I am sure the problem is software related and not hardware related.

I have tried every fix listed here twice: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

And I have also searched (with no success) through a old forum threads here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/s/dvd+drive+won%27t+read+...

I ran the Microsoft FixIt program here: http://support2.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problem...

After running the program the problem persists and I get this message from Microsoft Troubleshoot:

We detected some problems with your system and were able to successfully apply the fixes. However, our verification shows that the problem still exists. Click "Next" for other options you can try to troubleshoot the problem.

They seem to be saying, "Hey yeah, we fixed it, but sry, its still broken"

I have tried every other fix Microsoft recommends, including changing registry entries and reinstalling drivers...



I am at a total loss what to try now. Does anyone please, please please have any suggestions?!?! The only place left for me to go is to completely reinstall windows, which I really would prefer not to do right now if I can help it.

SYSTEM:
Win 7
i7 2600K
Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 Mainboard
16 GB 1600Mhz RAM
GTX580
Dives: 2x Corsair 128Gb SSD and 1x WD-HDD500

 

[Mattios]

After all those fixes I think regretfully the only way to go is to reinstall.

Place your personal files on a different drive, un plug it, fresh install windows and reconnect the drive.

 

[k@rt]

Thank you for the reply... I was basically thinking the same thing

Re-installing shouldn't be too much of a problem - I have windows on a separate SSD drive from my main files. The biggest pain is that I have so much software to replace including tons of autodesk products running under educ licences, just a massive pain to get it all back again.

One thing i was concerned about however is that as my DVD drive isn't working in windows itself, is there any danger that it will not work as a boot device? I wanted to test this by making a boot disk for memtest or similar, but as I cannot burn DVDs I can't. Is there any other way I can test the DVD as a boot device? If I look in the bios can I determine anything?

I was also thinking about flashing the bios, is it better to do this before of after reinstalling windows?

 

[Mattios]

If the BIOS can detect a disc inside the drive then it will work as a boot. Try to use a USB instead though, just to be sure.

Can you try a different drive in there to ensure it is a software problem? Save you fresh installing and finding it still doesn't work.

 

[k@rt]

How do I tell if the bios is detecting the disk? Is there somewhere specific I can look in the bios pages for that?

I have tired using 2 totally different DVD drives and I get exactly the same results with both (as well as having dismantled one of them and cleaned the laser head too) so I am 99.9% sure that the problem is software and not hardware. They were both being powered by the same power cable and connected using the same SATA cable, but I can't believe the problem would come from there.

Thanks again for the advice!!

 

[Mattios]

I don't have experience with your motherboard, just browse through the pages until you see something like 'SATA' or 'SATA devices' or something.

 

[k@rt]

Okay, I will do that.

Thanks for taking the time to help me with this, much appreciated )

 

[Mattios]

No problem. Keep us informed