Toshiba satellite p300 dvd /cd issue

[matt75]

Hi All

I have the above laptop which I bought it second hand and its been great except I have just noticed that it does not recognises the dvd/cd drive doesn`t matters what type of disc you put in, the drive opens and it spins but neither windows media player or drive d from my computer see`s any disc , running vista 32bit.

If its the drive itself were is a good place to get one and how hard is it to swap it over?

Ta Matt

[BeeCeeBee]

The bad news is that the optical drives in many of these laptops are usually the first to go the good news is that they are not all that expensive or difficult to replace. Most of these drives can be removed without opening the machine. Unfortunately some will have that one screw that cannot be reached.

 

Before you act make certain that there are no warnings in your device manager and that the drivers are up to date. Have you tried using a commercial DVD or CD as a test?

[matt75]

Hi,

Yep tried them all from dvd films, recovery disc, blank and music

Matt

[BeeCeeBee]

Before you act make certain that there are no warnings in your device manager and that the drivers are up to date

Once you check that there are no warnings that would lead you to the possibility that it is either a firmware r driver issue you will probably lead to a new drive. The one thing that does bother me a bit is that the entire drive seems to have failed. Normally one function or another works while others have failed.

 

There appear to be more than one model of the p300 designated separately by Toshiba. When you have a look in the device manager, if there are warnings (or even if not) get the make and model number of the optical drive. (I have never used Vista but you should be able to find the device manager by right clicking on "Computer" or "My Computer" select manage from the drop down menu and then select device manager from the left column.)

[matt75]

Hi

the driver does have a i warning on it, When you try and update it, it says its up to date ??

 

this is whats listed against it and the message thats in the General properties.

Mat****a dvd-ram uj-850 ata device

 

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)

Click 'Check for solutions' to send data about this device to Microsoft and to see if there is a solution available.

[RandyL]

Try this. Uninstall or remove the device from Device Manager. Restart the computer and Windows should reinstall the drivers for it.

 

If it still doesn't work try the fix from Goku.

[matt75]

Hi

Fix didnt work Ill try the registry direct tommorrow

Matt

[BeeCeeBee]

My bet remains. It is probably broken. :)

[Synapse]

I'd go along with that too - broken - I've seen them looking spot on, show ok in Dev Man etc and its actually the motor that has gone so the discs don't spin.

[matt75]

Hi

Disc`s do spin and lens moves ok

not ok in device manager and discs not identified, I want to be sure the drivers are right before i have to try and source a new drive unit.

Matt

[matt75]

Hi

Well I went in to the registry, managed to find the upper filters and cleared them but could not find any lower filters, Any way cd/dvd drive now works but not from the my computer tab but works from windows media players so nearly there :-)

Matt

[RandyL]

I'll admit I don't know what the problem is and it's likely the others are right. However I think I need to point out that the fix from Goku will find and change both the upper and lower registry values. It's a regedit file and that is the only thing it does and it does it correctly without changing anything else which is easy to do when editing the registry manually.

 

I personally checked the regedit file from Goku and it is written exactly right.

[matt75]

All sorted

Thanks to all for your ideas and help

Matt

[RandyL]

Good to here that matt. How did you resolve it?