Drive won't read a specific DVD

[Lobster]

My Dell has a DVD/CDRW drive, which will happily read any audio CDs,
data CDs or DVD movies I throw at it, but when I insert a particular
new game I've just got, it won't read the disk at all despite all
efforts - if I try to explore the disk, the window just stays blank.

'Properties' shows nothing - used space 'zero'; free space 'zero';
capacity zero; ie like the drive's empty. If I 'refresh', the drive
whirrs a bit, but nothing else happens

I've tested this CD in my second PC, and it recognises the disk fine,
although I can't load the game because the PC spec is too low. I've
even stuck it in my DVD player, and although it can't do anything with
it (obviously), it does recognise the disk and displays the top level
folder names. So it appears that the disk is fine (but so does my
drive!)

What on earth could be wrong? What else can I try?

Thanks
David

 

[Kelly Cotter]

My Dell has a DVD/CDRW drive, which will happily read any audio CDs,
data CDs or DVD movies I throw at it, but when I insert a particular
new game I've just got, it won't read the disk at all despite all
efforts - if I try to explore the disk, the window just stays blank.

'Properties' shows nothing - used space 'zero'; free space 'zero';
capacity zero; ie like the drive's empty. If I 'refresh', the drive
whirrs a bit, but nothing else happens

I've tested this CD in my second PC, and it recognises the disk fine,
although I can't load the game because the PC spec is too low. I've
even stuck it in my DVD player, and although it can't do anything with
it (obviously), it does recognise the disk and displays the top level
folder names. So it appears that the disk is fine (but so does my
drive!)

What on earth could be wrong? What else can I try?

Thanks
David

sounds like your drive has problems with the copy protection on the disk if
i'm wrong nodoubt someone will correct me

 

[Courtney]

sounds like your drive has problems with the copy protection on the disk if
i'm wrong nodoubt someone will correct me

You aren't wrong.

Lobster needs to contact the publisher. If they can't solve the problem,
the disk can be returned to the store for credit.

courtney sends....

 

[Lobster]

(snip>

sounds like your drive has problems with the copy protection on the disk if
i'm wrong nodoubt someone will correct me

Just a quick 'thanks', Kelly - you were absolutely right about this.
I finally got an email back from the publisher's help line yesterday,
and they pointed out that the problem was most likely that my DVD
drive had outdated firmware. I had to download and flash it with the
latest version on the Dell site - slightly scary, but worked OK
without destroying the drive! and the DVD now runs fine.

David