DVDs Not Recognizable Any Longer

[Guest]

This might just be a coincidence but ever since I loaded iTunes software on
my PC, I cannot play DVDs. Heck, the DVD drives DO NOT even recognize that
media format anylonger. However, the DVD drives will play regular Audio CDs
as well as Applications.

I have reloaded the software that contains the decoders, I have reloaded all
the drivers, I uninstalled the iTunes software, I reset the default settings
for AutoPlay on both DVD drives, among other things. Nothing seems to work.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Which DVD decoding software did you reload? Will the DVD drive read data
DVDs? (as opposed to video DVDs).....

CDs and DVDs use different lasers, therefore if your drive will happily
still read a CD but not any DVDs, then the laser has probably died and the
drive must be replaced.

 

[Guest]

Both DVD drives were not working. I actually got one to work yesterday. So
I'm inclined to guess that it is not the laser?
I reloaded PowerDVD, as well as updating Windows Media Center.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Could be that the laser is dirty. Did you try a standard CD cleaning kit?