DVD-ROM reads CDs but not DVDs

[SuperSparks]

Yup, what you got was the CD laser packing up. In each optics unit there are two laser diodes, using common lenses, one for CD's (780 nm), and one for DVD's (650 nm). If one or the other fails then you get the inability to read one type of disc or the other. Cleaning the lens is unlikely to help, as the same lens is used for both lasers, though it never hurts to try.

[SmokeRingHalo]

you might try reinstalling your dvd software. without a decoder you won't be able to read comercial dvd's.

Ive tried many different decoders, none worked.
Thanks for all the replies, Im just going to get a new drive soon.

[SmokeRingHalo]

Not soon enough.

I was in my bios menu and noticed that:

The hard drive is the primary master
My CD drive is the Secondary Master
My DVD drive is the secondary slave

I know weve decided my laser is toast but could this setup have any ill effect on dvd recognition?

[SuperSparks]

None whatsoever. It would have an effect on drive recognition, but as long as Windows can see the drive then it won't make any difference to recognising the media.

[dillmagoo]

my dvd player just stopped playing dvds and only plays cds everyone tells me to get a new decoder but i have a dvd burner thats connected to my computer and it will play the dvds just fine any help


Thanks

[greendesert]

I ve faced this identical problem when the drive would read cds but no dvds.
It has gone dead, pls dont waste money on any drive cleaners. NOthing would help ! Telling you this by my experience.

[SuperSparks]

Yep, I agree, just replace the drive, especially as they're so cheap these days.

[Byan]

my pioneer drive did the exact samething a while ago, but I wasn't reading DVD's at the time so I never got around it fixing it...; I did spend a few hours trying different disks are uninstalling, ect. but no dice.., nothing worked..

well, I put it into an old computer for use as a CD-ROM drive and for whatever reason the drive worked on that computer.., *shrug*, got a DVD-/+RW no.., so it really doesn't matter...

[callme_charlie]

Yup, what you got was the CD laser packing up. In each optics unit there are two laser diodes, using common lenses, one for CD's (780 nm), and one for DVD's (650 nm). If one or the other fails then you get the inability to read one type of disc or the other. Cleaning the lens is unlikely to help, as the same lens is used for both lasers, though it never hurts to try.

I love how "experts" always assume it's a hardware failure. So... what you're trying to say is that without testing the unit in another machine you've positively identified this as a hardware issue. Awesome.

Never mind that it could be any one of a number of software issues. Easiest way to tell... other than testing in another machine... is to try to boot off a bootable dvd I.E. Win Vista or 7. If it will boot off of the dvd then your problem is most likely a corruption in your os. I've seen viruses that will do this.

Unfortunately there is no one easy fix if it is software related other than os reload. It could be, but not limited to: a filter not set right, a bad/incorrect group policy setting, registry corruption, or conflicts with burning software.

Not trying to through anyone under the bus here, just wanted to point out that when dealing with pc problems, hardware failures do occur, but the issue more likely than not resides in software.

[Steve R Jones]

Good thing your quoted him...Cause after FIVE YEARS he probably forgot he posted in this thread

[SuperSparks]

Never mind that it could be any one of a number of software issues

Do please explain how a software issue would prevent the computer from reading DVDs, but would still happily allow it to read CDs?

[SuperSparks]

And another thing, while we're at it, perhaps before having a dig at ancient advice given in a period when laser failure was quite commonplace, you should search through some of my other posts. You might find that quite often I am the one suggesting that a problem isn't hardware related, and might be software