LG Blu Ray drive disappearing from My Computer

[DivineRamza]

I recently purchsaed an LG BE14NU40 external blu-ray drive.
I'm on my second one in the past 2 months because it keeps messing up.

I'm using Windows 8.1 64bit, the drive is updated to the newest firmware...at least what's on the LG website...and it is hooked up with USB 3.0

The prblem is that, from what I'm observing, whenever I have a disc in there, whether CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray, when it spins down, the drive disappears from teh My Computer screen.
Which happens a lot.
We all know that when ripping, installing, playing movie, etc, thedrive will spin up and down several times. Well, this screws up several things for me.
If I'm ripping a CD, and it spins down on one track to go to the next, the ripping will stop because the drive disappears.
If I'm installing a game, and it spins down, it will mess up the install because the drive disappears.
If I'm ripping a DVD, it will stop and say, give me a 15 minute file, because it spinsdown and disappears, thus stopping the process.
I mean, when it works, it works fine. But it hardly ever works fine doing anything.
I rarely get through ripping an entire disc because of this problem.
I have to pray and pray some more when installing something because of this.

----
Note how I didn't say it happens when I'm ripping blu-rays.
Yeah, the blu-ray drive won't play blu-rays. Well, it will....but I'm trying to play them using VLC, and rip using DVD Fab...but yeah, I don't have the keys, or aacs or whatever...and when I try to use the ones out there, it won't work...
I could use the shovelware that came with the drive...the Cyberlink suite...and hopefully those would allow me to play blu-rays and rip them. But whatever.
I'm getting mad at this drive.

 

[The Original Ralph]

for the "keys" to rip dvds or BDs, if you go to DVDFAB's FAQ page, there's a note about having to download an app called woookao.exe ( http://www.woookao.cn/ ) - it strips out the AACS protection.

i think it's part of their liability shell, ie that their software doesn't enable copyright violation, and woookao is a totally "arms length" app

when you download it, it doesn't do much other than install itself - be sure dvdfab is not open when you install it, then open dvdfab after installing it and it'll let you copy what you want

the other issues i suspect are dvdfab related - it is the biggest pc of crapware out there, and not surprisingly they keep finding new ways to divide the software's service functions so you have to "buy" another pc of crapware from them - i used it for awhile and gave up. The software would loose functionality, like fail to verify a burnt disk, then there'd be 3 updates that on the 3rd update it would correct the fail to verify issue but in the meantime 4 new ones have crept in.

you might try downloading MakeMKV, it's free for the first 30 days and fully functional, and see if that corrects the other issues - i use it and with the woookao.exe installed, it lets me copy blu-rays to my library

 

[DivineRamza]

for the "keys" to rip dvds or BDs, if you go to DVDFAB's FAQ page, there's a note about having to download an app called woookao.exe ( http://www.woookao.cn/ ) - it strips out the AACS protection.

i think it's part of their liability shell, ie that their software doesn't enable copyright violation, and woookao is a totally "arms length" app

when you download it, it doesn't do much other than install itself - be sure dvdfab is not open when you install it, then open dvdfab after installing it and it'll let you copy what you want

the other issues i suspect are dvdfab related - it is the biggest pc of crapware out there, and not surprisingly they keep finding new ways to divide the software's service functions so you have to "buy" another pc of crapware from them - i used it for awhile and gave up. The software would loose functionality, like fail to verify a burnt disk, then there'd be 3 updates that on the 3rd update it would correct the fail to verify issue but in the meantime 4 new ones have crept in.

you might try downloading MakeMKV, it's free for the first 30 days and fully functional, and see if that corrects the other issues - i use it and with the woookao.exe installed, it lets me copy blu-rays to my library

Well, thanks, I'll try that. But I guess, that really wasn't the point to my question...just a sidenote.
The real issue is the blu-ray drive always disappearing from My Computer whenever it spins down.

 

[DivineRamza]

So guess the question is. does this happen because it is USB 3.0? I've hooked both drives up via 3.0 and 2.0, and they still disappear when the drive spins down.

Is it the LG brand name?

Is it more blu-ray writers do this?

Should I try a different brand?

Or just get a blu-ray reader and say to hell with blu-ray writing?

 

[The Original Ralph]

have you checked under Device Manager for any devices showing the yellow alarm triangle?

also you might post your system specs, if a factory computer then the model, if a DIY computer, then mobo etc