CD/DVD drive plays video but not audio or data

I have a HP Pavilion notebook dv6000. All of a sudden my CD/DVD is not working correctly. It plays video but not audio or program disks.

When I insert a program disk, like the one that came with my digital camera, or an audio disk, the DVD drive makes a clicking noise and nothing opens or plays.

It can't be the disks because I've tried them on my husband's laptop and they work fine.

The last time I was able to use my DVD/CD drive was about a week ago when I installed the software from the CD that comes with the Panasonic DMC-ZS3 (for high definition video). The first time I tried the drive since then is today.

I tried to update the CD/DVD driver via the device manager (Windows Vista) and it says I have the latest version. I even removed the driver completely and it reinstalled itself. Nada. I did a system restore and also uninstalled the Panasonic software, but nothing has changed.

I don't understand why the drive plays video but not audio and data disks. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

Anybody? Or should I post this in the HP forum?

 

Did it make the clicking noise before?

 

So if I follow correctly DVD movies work, but data/audio CDs dont, have you tried a data DVD? Someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but from what I understand drives use different lasers to read CDs, DVDs or BDs. Sounds like the laser for you CDs is failing.

 

You're wrong. They all use the same diode.

 

That isn't the case for all drives. I know the Wii drive wont read CDs just DVDs. Also don't CD/DVD drives use a red laser whereas a BD drive uses a blue laser (hence the name)?

BD: "The name Blu-ray Disc derives from the blue-violet laser used to read the disc. While a standard DVD uses a 650 nanometer red laser, Blu-ray uses a shorter wavelength, a 400 nm blue-violet laser, and allows for almost ten times more data storage than a DVD."
Source

DVD: "The wavelength used by standard DVD lasers is 650 nm;[4] thus, the light has a red color."
Source

CD: "780 nm wavelength"
Source

Sure seems different to me. So while they may use the same physical laser it will be focused differently and it may not be focusing correctly for the CDs. The simple test would be to try a VCD and if that fails but a data DVD works then it is an issue with reading CDs and not the drive reading different types of data.

 

Thanks for the replies. No, the drive never made the clicks before. There are no clicks when I insert a video disk, which plays fine. When I insert an audio or program disk, nothing launches and there is the clicking sound. I've also tried the reverse; open a program like iTunes to see if the audio disk is recognized: nada. Can't burn to it either.

I'm not into the technical aspects of these things but what jakejm79 said makes sense. Guess it's time to call tech support and/or bring it in for repair.

 

Are all the program discs you have tried on CDs or did you try some that are on DVDs?