dvd drive problem

[Chris_]

My dad is having a problem that I haven't encountered before. His PC has two internal DVD drives. Neither of the drive will recognize discs. Any disc that is inserted (both DVD and CD) results in a "insert disc in drive" message when you try to access the disc. Windows explorer lists the drives. Both drives will spin-up when a disc is inserted. Any ideas?

[Zafod Beeblebrox]

See if there is any firmware updates for the drives and if that doesnt work then you could have bad drives.

[Chris_]

See if there is any firmware updates for the drives and if that doesnt work then you could have bad drives.

But wouldn't it be strange for both drives to go bad at the same time?

[Zafod Beeblebrox]

See if there is any firmware updates for the drives and if that doesnt work then you could have bad drives.

But wouldn't it be strange for both drives to go bad at the same time?

Not if they are LITEON

If the OS detects them but when you place media in them and they dont read there is a operation error (i.e. firmware problem) or they are dead.

Try to see if there is firmware updates from the manufacture

[Chris_]

See if there is any firmware updates for the drives and if that doesnt work then you could have bad drives.

But wouldn't it be strange for both drives to go bad at the same time?

Not if they are LITEON

If the OS detects them but when you place media in them and they dont read there is a operation error (i.e. firmware problem) or they are dead.

Try to see if there is firmware updates from the manufacture

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

[PatriotGame]

Check and re-seat the cable that connects the DVD drives to the motherboard. Check both ends.
Additionally, the cable may be bad.

[Chris_]

Check and re-seat the cable that connects the DVD drives to the motherboard. Check both ends.
Additionally, the cable may be bad.

I did try that. No joy. As far as the cable goes, I'd rather have to replace both drives for him than try to get that cable out and a new one in.

[PatriotGame]

Check and re-seat the cable that connects the DVD drives to the motherboard. Check both ends.
Additionally, the cable may be bad.

I did try that. No joy. As far as the cable goes, I'd rather have to replace both drives for him than try to get that cable out and a new one in.

Ok, so what DVD's are you inserting into the drives?
They aren't blank, are they?
I have seen weird crap with DVD drives in that if a bad or blank disc is inserted in it and you have the same error as you listed, you have to reboot before it will recognize a new disc.

[Zafod Beeblebrox]

Check and re-seat the cable that connects the DVD drives to the motherboard. Check both ends.
Additionally, the cable may be bad.

You would think that but if its IDE cable and OS registers the drive then the cable it still good, there isnt a way to register a drive with a bad IDE.

[Zafod Beeblebrox]

Check and re-seat the cable that connects the DVD drives to the motherboard. Check both ends.
Additionally, the cable may be bad.

I did try that. No joy. As far as the cable goes, I'd rather have to replace both drives for him than try to get that cable out and a new one in.

Ok, so what DVD's are you inserting into the drives?
They aren't blank, are they?
I have seen weird crap with DVD drives in that if a bad or blank disc is inserted in it and you have the same error as you listed, you have to reboot before it will recognize a new disc.

The only way for that to happen is is the disk is missing the base boot sector (usually found on cheap disks but still rare) or if its a old RW disk.

[Chris_]

Check and re-seat the cable that connects the DVD drives to the motherboard. Check both ends.
Additionally, the cable may be bad.

I did try that. No joy. As far as the cable goes, I'd rather have to replace both drives for him than try to get that cable out and a new one in.

Ok, so what DVD's are you inserting into the drives?
They aren't blank, are they?
I have seen weird crap with DVD drives in that if a bad or blank disc is inserted in it and you have the same error as you listed, you have to reboot before it will recognize a new disc.

Several different DVDs, CDs, and even a music CD. None were blank. I did a reboot after everything I tried.

[Chris_]

Check and re-seat the cable that connects the DVD drives to the motherboard. Check both ends.
Additionally, the cable may be bad.

You would think that but if its IDE cable and OS registers the drive then the cable it still good, there isnt a way to register a drive with a bad IDE.

Actually, now that you mention that the cable can't be bad. I forgot to mention that I did unseat each cable individually and reboot. Then checked to see if the still connected drive was showing up. After each reboot it recognized the drive still attached.

[Uhhuh35]

You haven't mentioned if the computer came with two drives or one was added or it was homebuilt.
The drives "spin up" because they are getting power, so far so good.
Check the settings on the drives themselves, usually little jumpers on the back next to the power slot. One should be "master" the other "slave".
Check your BIOS, accessable by a combination of keys pressed on start up before the operating system loads, look in your owners manual for that combination. Then scroll through the tabs to see if your computer is recognizing the drives. You can usually assign drive priority in BIOS. Make sure the first drive, or boot drive, has your operating system on it.

Sorry, I realize this may be information overload but I hope it helps. 

[Chris_]

You haven't mentioned if the computer came with two drives or one was added or it was homebuilt.
The drives "spin up" because they are getting power, so far so good.
Check the settings on the drives themselves, usually little jumpers on the back next to the power slot. One should be "master" the other "slave".
Check your BIOS, accessable by a combination of keys pressed on start up before the operating system loads, look in your owners manual for that combination. Then scroll through the tabs to see if your computer is recognizing the drives. You can usually assign drive priority in BIOS. Make sure the first drive, or boot drive, has your operating system on it.

Sorry, I realize this may be information overload but I hope it helps. 

The computer came with two drives. The jumpers shouldn't be a problem. This was my old computer. I had used it for a year or so with no problems. Gave it to dad about two years ago, and he's used it since with no problems until today. I did check the BIOS. Everything appears to be fine there.

[PatriotGame]

Ok, try this: I presume the motherboard has two IDE connectors on it. One is used for the hard drive(s) the primary, and the other for the DVD drives, the secondary IDE controller.
Try each DVD drive separately, one at a time on the secondary IDE controller. Be sure to set each to master when trying them individually. If this does not work, set each to slave and pair each one with the boot hard drive which should be connected to the primary IDE controller. If you can get either one to work as a slave with the hard drive as the master on the primary IDE controller, you may have a faulty secondary IDE controller.
If neither DVD drive will work on either of the IDE channels, I would borrow one from someone or buy a new one. They are relatively cheap and can be had for 30 bucks at some places.

[Chris_]

Ok, try this: I presume the motherboard has two IDE connectors on it. One is used for the hard drive(s) the primary, and the other for the DVD drives, the secondary IDE controller.
Try each DVD drive separately, one at a time on the secondary IDE controller. Be sure to set each to master when trying them individually. If this does not work, set each to slave and pair each one with the boot hard drive which should be connected to the primary IDE controller. If you can get either one to work as a slave with the hard drive as the master on the primary IDE controller, you may have a faulty secondary IDE controller.
If neither DVD drive will work on either of the IDE channels, I would borrow one from someone or buy a new one. They are relatively cheap and can be had for 30 bucks at some places.

I'll give this a try PatriotGame. It'll probably be this weekend before I get back over there to do it. With the week I've had thus far I really don't feel like doing the contortions that it will take to get to those cables for a day or two.

[Zafod Beeblebrox]

Ok, try this: I presume the motherboard has two IDE connectors on it. One is used for the hard drive(s) the primary, and the other for the DVD drives, the secondary IDE controller.
Try each DVD drive separately, one at a time on the secondary IDE controller. Be sure to set each to master when trying them individually. If this does not work, set each to slave and pair each one with the boot hard drive which should be connected to the primary IDE controller. If you can get either one to work as a slave with the hard drive as the master on the primary IDE controller, you may have a faulty secondary IDE controller.
If neither DVD drive will work on either of the IDE channels, I would borrow one from someone or buy a new one. They are relatively cheap and can be had for 30 bucks at some places.

I'll give this a try PatriotGame. It'll probably be this weekend before I get back over there to do it. With the week I've had thus far I really don't feel like doing the contortions that it will take to get to those cables for a day or two.

I can already tell you its the drives.

[Chris_]

I can already tell you its the drives.

That's what I'm slowly coming to believe. It still blows my mind that both would go out at the same time.

I actually checked some drive prices at Newegg yesterday. I'm surprised at how cheap some of the drives are now.

[Zafod Beeblebrox]

I can already tell you its the drives.

That's what I'm slowly coming to believe. It still blows my mind that both would go out at the same time.

I actually checked some drive prices at Newegg yesterday. I'm surprised at how cheap some of the drives are now.

Yup.
Newegg is the place to go for parts.

I just picked up a Sony lightscribe DVD burner for less then 30 bucks!

[Chris_]

I tried some more tinkering this afternoon to no avail. He's supposed to be getting a new drive in a few days. Hopefully that will take care of the problem.

I do appreciate y'all taking the time to try to help me out.

[EastFacingNorth]

I'm assuming these are IDE drives and not SATA?

Shot in the dark here, but you may want to try switching the slave drive to master, and disconnecting the master drive altogether.  IIRC IDE drives only use the controller built into the master device - meaning that if the controller in the master device had some maulfunction that caused the problems you describe, the slave device might exhibit the same problems through no fault of its own.

The only thing is I can't remember if this holds true for ATAPI devices (like DVD drives) or just for hard drives.

Good luck.

[LC EFA]

First , I'd install each drive individually as master (other drive removed from the system) get a bootable CD and see if the drive is faulty (obviously if the machine boots from the CD the drive ain't faulty). The windows CD is bootable. Use this.

{on edit : You may have to change the boot order in your BIOS to boot from CD }

Assuming that both drives are functional , the next step would be delete the secondary IDE channel in windows device manager and restart (forces windows to re-detect the devices on the interface).

If that failed to rectify the problem, make the call of doing a clean install or continue farting about trying to find the glitch.

[Thor]

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned, IIR is that the lens may have become dirty over the years. A cd lens cleaner cd MIGHT do the trick. It's well worth the $10 they cost. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest the earlier remedies.

[Chris_]

Okay. It turns out that it was indeed the drives gone bad. I never would have thought both of them would go out at the same time, but he stuck a new one in and it's running like a charm.

Since you guys have been so helpful I'm going to start a new thread and bother you with a question about PC memory.

Thanks again.

[Zafod Beeblebrox]

Okay. It turns out that it was indeed the drives gone bad. I never would have thought both of them would go out at the same time, but he stuck a new one in and it's running like a charm.

Since you guys have been so helpful I'm going to start a new thread and bother you with a question about PC memory.

Thanks again.

Bask in the glory of my wisdom......