DVD question- drive not reading DVDs..but does play CDs...

[Englander]

When I put a DVD in the dvd-rom drive,nothing happens,no auto-play,nothing in My Computer,nothing.
But using a CD,audio or CD-ROM, the computer does what it's supposed to,ie play the disc.

I thought at first that the problem was the drive failing after 2 years of usage,
but I don't understand why there's no problem reading cds....What am I missing here?

[LiberalUprising]

1. Could be a driver update issue

Have you tried different DVDs?

Have you tried reinstalling the software? Sometimes this will work.

What make and model is your DVD player? What software program are you using?

Try updating the drivers, go to the DVD manufacturers web page and see if there is an update available, also check the website of your software program for updates.

[Englander]

3. I've tried dvd films (movies) & dvd roms....

and the result was the same.There's no activity when I put a dvd in the drive,& no entry in My Computer.Clicking on the drive icon or trying power dvd gets a "insert disc" error message. But cds & cd-roms are fine,which I wasn't expecting,really,as I thought the drive had stopped reading discs.

Is it likely to be a firmware/driver problem?

The drive is a samsung sd 616f & the software is power dvd.

[LiberalUprising]

5. A couple links where others are having the same problem

samsung sd612 dvd-rom will not plat dvd's

http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread26601-1.html

More here
http://tinyurl.com/3lpgm

Download drivers here

Samsung SD-616F/EXP DVD-ROM Firmware F105 Descritpion:
# Samsung SD-616F/EXP DVD-ROM Firmware F105.Improvement: Digital Audio sound discontinuance.
# Caution:

http://tinyurl.com/3wnja

Also found this

Here is what others are saying about Samsung

http://www.driverzone.com/viewcomment.php?company=Samsung&masterid=602

[Englander]

7. Many thanks,guys,for the advice.....

& I think I've found the answer;

"Data pits & lasers
Like CDs, DVDs store data in microscopic grooves running in a spiral around the disc. All DVD drive types use laser beams to scan these grooves: Minuscule reflective bumps (called lands) and nonreflective holes (called pits) aligned along the grooves represent the zeros and ones of digital information.

DVD technology writes in smaller "pits" to the recordable media than CD technology. Smaller pits mean that the drive's laser must produce a smaller spot. DVD technology achieves this by reducing the laser's wavelength from the 780nm infrared light used in standard CD drives to 625nm to 650nm red light.

Smaller data pits allow more pits per data track. The minimum pit length of a single layer DVD-RAM is 0.4 micron as compared to 0.834 micron for a CD. Additionally, DVD tracks are closer together, allowing more tracks per disc. Track pitch-the distance from the center of one part of the spiral information or "track" to the adjacent part of the track-is smaller. On a 3.95GB DVD-R, track pitch is 0.8 microns; CD track pitch is 1.6 microns. On 4.7GB DVD-R media, an even smaller track pitch of 0.74 microns helps boost storage capacity.

These narrow tracks require special lasers for reading and writing — which can't read CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, or audio CDs. DVD-ROM drive makers solved the problem by putting two lasers in their drives: One for DVDs, the other for CDs."

http://www.imation.com/products/dvd_media/differences.html

I think that the dvd laser has stopped reading discs,since I haven't upgraded xp or any drivers since last using a dvd,so I guess that the problem is not driver-related. I'll install a new & improved dvd-rom drive.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Couple questions ...

These will likely lead to more questions, but it's a start.

1) Has it suddenly stopped playing DVDs, or has it never done so. Assuming the former, when did this start.

2) When you say "My Computer, nothing" what exactly do you mean? When you open My Computer with the DVD in the drive, does the drive letter associated with the DVD/CD drive show up? If so, can you open it and see the files on the DVD disk?

[Englander]

4. The last time I used a dvd, I think....

was in February. That was a dvd-rom, & I didn't notice any problems.

Ah,you're right,sorry, I didn't mean absolutely nothing in My Computer. The dvd drive letter is there,but no disc. Trying to open it gets a "insert disc" message.

But the drive reads cds & cd-roms without any problems; so before I had a dvd-rom drive, & now I have a cd-rom drive....if anyone can explain that to me,they'll win a bottle of their favourite beverage..:beer:

[RoyGBiv]

6. Well, this is just weird...

This is a total guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is somehow related to a DRM issue .. something you updated or installed messed with the drivers for your DVD drive to prevent it from being able to copy DVDs and stopped the drive from being able to read DVDs altogether. Do you have automatic updates enabled for Windows? If so, it could be something related to a Windows patch. I've worked on systems before that just stopped working properly after updating Windows.

Assuming you've gone through all the message of reinstalling your drivers -- and by reinstalling, I mean completely uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them from scratch -- my next, imperfect suggestion would be to see if you have a system restore point you could use to revert your system back to a previous date to test to see if it allows the DVD drive to be used.

[Political_Junkie]

8. Had this happen to me

awhile after upgrading to xp sp2. I uninstalled the upgrade and my dvd player worked fine.

[AllyCat]

9. I'm gonna second that

I spent about a month tearing out my hair with the same problem, right after I downloaded SP2 from Microsoft. Part of the problem seems to be the need for these players to "access the internet" in order to play anything. They don't need to do this.

I don't know what player you are using, but I had the same problem with RealPlayer, WMP v10, and PowerDVD. I also run ZoneAlarm. I finally went into ZoneAlarm and disabled the ability to "contact the online store" in WMP and they all worked. You won't get all the pretty pictures they like to show you, but really, you don't want them.

It took a lot of tweaking and I know this is not the only thing that fixed it. MajorGeeks.com helped as well as I know that at one point, I had to run HijackThis and have somebody help me fix it once I posted the logfile. If you go this route, be sure to follow their instructions exactly. Don't post your logfile for HJT until asked.