1749 CD/DVD drive issues

My CD/DVD drive had quite reading DVDs. It has no probelm with CDs...both data and audio read/write/play fine, but not DVDs. It won’t even recognize there is a DVD in the drive. I tried movies, data, and blank DVDs but the drive just won't see them.

I don't know when it stopped working with DVDs but I watched a DVD movie on the laptop when power was out after hurricane Irene so it worked then. That was the last time I used it

I checked drivers. Dell had a firmware upgrade so I tried that...didn't help, it still reads CDs but not DVDs. Windows Device Manager reports it's operating properly.

I haven't installed any new hardware/software in the last few weeks. I have had a few Windows updated since then though.

Some basic info:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
• Intel i3 , M 330, 2.13GHz
• 4.00 GB, RAM
• TS-T633C DVD/CD combo drive, 8x

I did a search but couldn't find anything similar to this.

Mike

 

Try to boot from a bootable DVD. If that doesn't work, then you've got a hardware issue, and you'll probably have to replace the drive.

 

Dang...tried that and it didn't work.

Thanks for the confirmation. I guess it's time for an upgrade. I see a Blu-Ray drive in my future.

Mike

 

Have you tried the Windows 7 Upper/Lower filters fix or download the Microsoft FixIt tool?

 

Yes. Removing the Upper/Lower filters did nothing.

The FixIt tool sees CDs just fine and gives me the message “We did not detect any problems and therefore no fixes were applied” and when I run it with a DVD it get “The disk is not recognized by the drive...”

It’s the weirdest thing. I’ve been installing and troubleshooting PC hardware and software for twenty five years and I’ve never seen a drive do something like this. All I can think of is there’s something wrong with the laser and it doesn’t output the correct wavelength for DVD and thus can’t properly detect the media type. Beyond that I got nothin’.

Mike