DvD drive stopped recognising any media

[Guest]

I'm looking for help on this one, I've been trying to fix it for the last 2
days to no effect.
If I insert any disc into into my Asus 1612BL dvd drive it green lights
chunters for a minute or two and then goes dead, right clicking on the drive
to explore or open elicits the message (when it eventually responds) "insert
a disc".

So far I have tried rolling back to a previous update, installing new
drivers from Asus, uninstalling the drive thru device manager, disconnect the
cables rebooting then reconnecting the cables and booting again. I have
tried using an old dvd drive from an other PC and the problem carries over
onto that one too.

Nothing seems to be fixing the issue and I'm getting to the end of my tether
on this, I'd appreciate any help and assistance.

My system spec is Advent store bought build
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80 GHz
1023 MB RAM
Vista Premium 32 bit

 

[Guest]

Dougie,

The following Microsoft publication describes how to troubleshoot problems
such as you have. It applies to WinXP, but these steps are the same of
similar in Vista:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321641/

Let us know what happens.

 

[Guest]

Dougie,

Here is another one, but it applies to the CD-ROM drive hardware:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314096/

 

[Cal Bear '66]

Try this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/320553

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestions on this one, unfortunately I've tried them all so
far to no avail. Still looking for a solution before I take a hammer to the
damn thing

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

If it balks at both DVDs and CDs and you have made no changes to the
software in your PC, then it is probably the laser(s) have gone.

This is the same issue if it recognizes a CD but not a DVD, they use a
different laser. Thankfully DVD burners are very cheap to replace these
days and uninstallation of the old drive and installation of the new one
should take no more than 4 minutes at most. New ones also come with
guarantees.

It is uneconomical to spend more than a couple of hours on this problem. If
you have a standard CD cleaning kit, then try with that. Otherwise, drive
to your local PC store.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

A new DVD burner is about US $30 with dual layer and lightscribe capability.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136118
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151145

Getting the older one fixed can be upwards of $200. I don't know what your
hourly rate is but mine is upwards of $75. I don't usually bother going out
if I'm going to get less than $250, it's not worth my time. So if the OP
finds a tech, the fee is going to be roughly the same per hour or part
thereof. Seems $30 is a lot less than $75... particularly if the tech takes
longer than one hour. Why waste money?

 

[Guest]

This can be found and downloaded from 'ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-'
(http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx)

Give the firmware a try and see if it fixes your vista probelms... or
have a picnic...

Thanks for the suggestion, tried the firmware download, no joy I'm afraid.
Next port of call I think might be a bios upgrade if I can work out how to do
that without destroying my machine.