Optical Drive Unresponsive

[thefryster]

Hi all,

After fitting a new hard drive and reinstalling Vista, the cd/dvd drive just did'nt work in any way. I bought a replacement and it managed to read a cd but gave some ridiculous running times (one was 15.54) and it also showed that there was anly two tracks on the disk even though it was a 15 track album. The drive will not read dvd's or game disks either. Nor will it boot from the cd drive. I tried opening audio tracks from the cd in iTunes and it showed the correct tracks only with odd running times again. I ran diagnostics and it showed the drive was working but it was unable to read the cd.

 

Oh, and I also did the remove upper/lower filters thing and I've been through the fix it section on the Microsoft page.

 

Any help would be great.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi,Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help,

This sounds like a driver fault or at least the basic Vista drivers not doing the job properly.

can you tell us the make and model of the CD/DVD drive you fitted so we can perhaps hopefully find a source to download new drivers for it.

Nev.

[thefryster]

Hi, ok it's a Hitachi LG Super Multi DVD Rewriter Model: GSA T20N (ATAKKO)

[Dalo Harkin]

Its more likely to be a Chipset issue, did you install the latest chipset drivers after you installed Vista?

[thefryster]

I dont think so, only what came with Vista and then updating the drivers through device manager.

[Dalo Harkin]

Pretty much everything is incorporated into the chipset drivers (these are not found within windows update) you can get them from either the MOBO CD/DVD or the manufacturers website.

 

Can you give us the make and model of the PC

also are the HDD IDE or SATA?

[Jelly Bean]

Can I just add to this.

 

Jumpers on drives maybe the cause.

 

Is the hard drive and CD/DVD drive on the same IDE cable?If yes keep CD/DVD drives on one cable and any hard drives on another,mixing can cause issues.

[Dalo Harkin]

 

Is the hard drive and CD/DVD drive on the same IDE cable?If yes keep CD/DVD drives on one cable and any hard drives on another,mixing can cause issues.

 

 

They are meant to be run that way, not all MOBOs have more than one IDE channel.

As long as the jumpers are set correctly then there wont be issues.

[thefryster]

Hi, I don't have the MOBO cd, the PC is an Acer Aspire 7520 laptop.

[Dalo Harkin]

Here are the drivers Service & Support

[thefryster]

After downloading and running the drivers the problem still remains. I am still unable to use the drive.

[RandyL]

Is it set up on the same IDE channel as the hard drive?

Do you have a second IDE channel?

[Dalo Harkin]

We need more detail from you Fryster, The drive you specified is a mobile drive designed for laptops.

 

It is designed to be plugged directly into a specific type of slot used on laptops and as such has no power ports as this is provided via the 'slot' used for the data too. While in theory it should work, you may need additional software is this an exact replacement as the drive that was originally in the laptop?

 

 

http://www.pacificgeek.com/productimages/xl/GSA-T20N-DO-PB-R.jpg

Edited September 23, 2010 by Dalo Harkin

[thefryster]

Yes it is an exact replacement, the original drive also displays the same erratic behaviour. The drives show in device manager and say that they are working the trouble comes when a disk is put in. There is definately power going into it but it just cant seem to read any disks.

[Dalo Harkin]

Right that makes more sense, there doesnt seem to be an issue with the old drive then you just need to upgrade the firmware (BE VERY WARY THOUGH) you need to check its the right one and then check again as if you choose the wrong one it can knacker the drive.

 

SO have a look here

Download LG Automatic Firmware Downloader 8 Driver for Windows 9X/ME/NT/2K/XP/2003/Vista/XP X64/2008 - Softpedia