Windows XP no longer recognizes DVD media - help?

[Deirdre]

I have an HP Pavilion zd8000 notebook, disk drives are Toshiba MK1032GAX, DVD/CD-ROM drive is HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082N, and I'm running Windows XP. I have been using Nero 8 for approximately 1 month or so to burn dvd's and cd's; I've been using both TDK DVD+R 16x and Sony DVD+R 16x blank media with no problems at all.

However, 4 days ago, in the middle of a dvd burn, Nero aborted the process. No worries, that happens from time to time (stupid dvd gremlins), so I pop in a new blank dvd, and I get a message saying there is no disc in the drive. Long story short, this happens with about 8 discs in a row, so I check the drive in My Computer just to make sure it's registering the blank media. Nope, it shows the dvd drive, but won't register the blank media. I checked with a disk I had previously burned, same issue. I checked with a commercial disk, again, same thing, won't recognize the media.

Since then I have done everything I can think of to get the computer to recognize dvd media again. I have removed the upper and lower filters from the registry, (Microsoft said that would fix it, they lie), I have uninstalled the optical drives and re-installed 3 times now, uninstalled and re-installed all my cd and dvd software twice, done a clean boot to see if there was another program accessing the drive (with no success), I've run the Microsoft "Fix It" program, scanned my drives for errors (each time it says the device is working properly), I've run system restore, going so far as restoring my system to a point 3 weeks ago to no avail, and short of just wiping everything and starting clean, I'm out of ideas. (I'd really really really like to NOT do that).

The really weird thing is, the ONLY program that will recognize dvd media is Image Burn. But, I can't burn to it, I keep getting a message saying the compilation is incompatible with the media or the disk is full, both of which just don't jive.

CD's are fully recognizable by every program and work just fine. I still have full playing and burning capability for CD's. Just not any form of DVD.

I have not done any updates to my OS in the last two months, and Nero 8 was the last program I installed before this happened. I did uninstall i-tunes and Quick Time, but a reinstall of those programs did not correct the problem.

Frankly, I think the drive is just worn out and needs replaced at this point (or someone has put a voodoo curse on my optical drive, in which case could anyone refer me to a good shaman?) but there's a lot I don't know, so I'm hoping someone has a suggestion for me that might correct this problem before I go and buy a new drive.

The only thing I haven't tried is a dvd-r, but I really doubt that matters in the least. I'm not inclined to go buy any just to find out they aren't recognized either, ha.

Help? Anyone? I'll bake you cookies, promise.

[ronallandottk]

It seems you've covered just about all of the basics.

You've installed and uninstalled the drive, your optical drive software, did a clean boot, cleaned your registry, did a system restore, all to no avail. I would rule it a hardware fault, possibly a lens failure, in the laser frequency range used for DVDs. If this is the case, you may have to return the notebook if it's under warranty, have it serviced by a service center, or just replace the drive.

However, before concluding with finality that it is indeed the optical drive which has the problem, here are a couple of things you may want to try:

- Try cleaning the drive's lens, perhaps with a drive lens cleaner disc, a camera cleaning kit, or a soft and clean lint-free silicone impregnated cloth (the one used for glasses). Do it gently, or else you may ruin the alignment. Don't use volatile liquids to clean the lens;

- See if there's a BIOS update for your particular optical drive. Sometimes updates can fix any problems you've been having;

- Try booting into Safe Mode and see if the drive works. Sometimes default Windows drivers work better than manufacturer supplied ones;

- Scan for viruses. It's a long shot, but you never know.

- You could try a clean format, but it can be inconvenient, and it probably wouldn't really make any difference.

If everything fails, I guess it would be safe to conclude that it's a hardware fault. Optical drives are electronic/optical/mechanical devices, so they're likely the most failure prone item in a notebook, and it wouldn't be unheard of for yours to quit just like that.

Hope this helps.