Drives can burn but not read

[batshwa]

Hello,

I have had for quite some time now the following problem with my two
optical drives, the first being a Samsung CD-ROM SC-148C, the second a
NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A: my OS (Windows XP) recognizes them (just like my
BIOS does) and I am able to burn media with the NEC model, but they
just cannot read media.

When I insert in Windows a CD or DVD (into any of the two drives), I
can see the small light at the front side of the drive flashing up a
few times for about three seconds, just as it does when closing the
drive with no media inside at all.

The same problem arises when I'm outside Windows. If I try to boot a
perfectly working bootable Linux Live CD or the Windows Installation
CD (which function well on other PCs), I obtain the message "Strike F1
to retry or press ESC to cancel". I have so far cleaned the PC with a
vacuum cleaner, I have even taken out and put back in both drives,
with no success so far.

What do you think causes this problem? Could there be a flaw with the
IDE cable (although the system manages to burn media)? Do you think it
might be helpful to disassemble one of the drives and vacuum clean
them and try again, or is this dangerous?

Thanks in advance for your help!

P.S.: My BIOS version is Dell A05.

 

[Miguel Gimenez]

batshwa escribió:

Hello,

I have had for quite some time now the following problem with my two
optical drives, the first being a Samsung CD-ROM SC-148C, the second a
NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A: my OS (Windows XP) recognizes them (just like my
BIOS does) and I am able to burn media with the NEC model, but they
just cannot read media.

When I insert in Windows a CD or DVD (into any of the two drives), I
can see the small light at the front side of the drive flashing up a
few times for about three seconds, just as it does when closing the
drive with no media inside at all.

The same problem arises when I'm outside Windows. If I try to boot a
perfectly working bootable Linux Live CD or the Windows Installation
CD (which function well on other PCs), I obtain the message "Strike F1
to retry or press ESC to cancel". I have so far cleaned the PC with a
vacuum cleaner, I have even taken out and put back in both drives,
with no success so far.

What do you think causes this problem? Could there be a flaw with the
IDE cable (although the system manages to burn media)? Do you think it
might be helpful to disassemble one of the drives and vacuum clean
them and try again, or is this dangerous?

Thanks in advance for your help!

P.S.: My BIOS version is Dell A05.

The lenses can be covered with dust or smoke, that won't go away with
vacuum cleaning. A coworker, who was a heavy smoker, needed lens
cleaning on both drives every other month. The final solution was firing
him. Try cleaning them with a lint-free cloth and alcohol.

 

[batshwa]

batshwa escribió:










The lenses can be covered with dust or smoke, that won't go away with
vacuum cleaning. A coworker, who was a heavy smoker, needed lens
cleaning on both drives every other month. The final solution was firing
him. Try cleaning them with a lint-free cloth and alcohol.

So I have to disassemble the drives to do this, am I right? Is there
any danger by removing the drive's case (there is a warning about
laser radiation being emitted when opening the drive)?

Thanks very much for your reply!

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...

Before you dive into that, you might ask - how; if a dirty lens
were the cause, the DVDRW drive can write/burn good DVDs (a much
more critical process than reading a DVD or CD.)

I believe you will find that the lasers used for DVD and for CDs
are entirely different.

 

[batshwa]

 XP can have a hard time recognizing optical drives, sometimes.

P.S.

Also;  You mention that XP recognizes the drives, I am assuming
that means while it recognizes the drive itself, it is not aware that
there is media to read and the drive name doesn't change to the
disk label.

  What do you get on a Google search of the exact wording of
the error mesage you mentioned, in quotes?

Exactly, the drive's usual name in XP (e.g. "DVD/CD-RW Drive") does
not change when inserting media. Disabling or even uninstalling and
restarting does not solve the problem, I have tried it. I think the
problem is much deeper (most probably on a hardware level), because
the drives do not even work outside of Windows (when I try booting,
for instace), although my BIOS configuration is correct. (Google did
not help much because the error message appears whenever the BIOS
cannot boot from a drive and there are too many other causes for
that.)

I believe I have to do what kony suggested. Thanks a lot for the
detailed instructions!

 

[grant.slade]

Hello, I was wondering if you had a chance to clean the drives yet and
if it worked. I am having a similar problem - it seems that I can
burn DVDs but when I try and load games, for example, it doesn't seem
to recognize that there's a DVD in the drive.