Optical drives recognised, but won't "see" discs

[too_much]

Hi all

Googled the hell out of this but other than lens cleaning and replacing the drive, I'm struggling.

LG DVD RW drive, worked fine last week, now won't recognise any disks. Constantly says "Please insert disc" etc.

I've tried 3 different drives (all LG incidentally) and 3 different IDE cables. I'm running XP on it.

I'm not sure where to go with this. The fact that it's happening with all the drives makes me think perhaps it's a bios issue or something? I've reset the CMOS and re-entered all the settings, and the drive is recognised in the bios itself.

Any thoughts gents?

thanks
Matt

[too_much]

Slight update for you - The Microsoft "Fix It" diagnostic thing was no help at all. It ran, did loads of stuff, then said "fail" basically.

Sigh!

[Imperion1]

Is the "Fix It" the same as this?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

[too_much]

It was this one mate:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cd_dvd_drive_problems

[too_much]

Hi again bud

I ran it, reproduced my error, and no joy :/

Does the below tell you anything?

AutoFix [V5.2.3790.67]
Time [2010-06-06 11:17:58]
Microsoft Windows Version [5.1 (Service Pack 3) <2600>]

Test [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.] - Instance [N/A]:
Result [AutoStart Setting]: OK
Result [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.]: OK

Test [Policies] - Instance [D:\, Drive Type: 5]:
Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Present}
Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Absent}
Result [Driver level policies]: OK {
HKLM\...\Services\cdrom!Autorun (Present) <Allows>
HKLM\...\Services\cdrom\Parameters!Autorun (Absent) <Allows>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysEnable (Absent) <Not set>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysDisable (Absent) <Not set> }

Test [Drive Notification] - Instance [D:\, Drive Type: 5]:
Result [Legacy Notification]: Problems
Result [AutoPlay V2 Notification]: Problems {
Service (Silent)
Shell (Deaf) }
>> Repair << [Legacy AutoPlay Event]
Step: No steps to take.
Result: This AutoPlay setting cannot be fixed. Either the device is malfunctioning, or the wizard cannot determine the problem.



thanks
Matt

[too_much]

Sorry for the triple post but the 15-min edit thing is working against me here.

From googling my results it looks like that's more specifically for people who can access discs, but autoplay doesn't run. I can see the drive, but never any CDs/DVDs - contents are completely inaccessible.

Thing is, it's also failing to recognise bootable CDs after post - there's no "boot from CD" option (and I have the boot priorities set correctly). So would I be right in thinking this is potentially a bios issue? (Guessing here)

Would it be worth flashing the bios?

thanks
Matt

[Midknyte]

did you try booting from the cd? that would help determine if it's a drive problem or a windows problem.

[too_much]

Hi Midknyte, hope you're well - it's been a while

Yeah the problem initially was that I can't boot from CD - apologies for not specifying that. It's very odd.

However, I just spoke to a friend who had this exact mobo before me, just venting my frustration really, and he said:

"Reformat couldn't hurt, I couldn't install an OS before because the previous boot loader was stopping the CD loading and it'd just stop at a flashing cursor and nothing more. Worked after I cleared the hdd completely"

That's one of the symptoms I was having for a while until I reset the cmos, at which point it let me back into XP.

So I think I'll try the following next (as I've even resorted to system restore): I'll put one of my other Windows-loaded HDDs into my caddy, hook that up via USB, then try booting into it from USB. Never done it before but I assume it's a case of just putting USB at the top priority in the bios like with CDs?

Assuming there's no chipset related issues (which there probably will be) I can then access the one that is playing up, reformat it completely, and try a nice clean install. It's all I can think to do now, I've tried everything I could think of and every solution I found online over a few days. Little issues like this really annoy me!

Failing that, I'll try a USB rescue disk.

I'll try it tonight and let you know - thanks again for all the help so far

Matt

[too_much]

Right, sod it. I tried a linux boot program and formatted the entire drive with NTFS and it kept going on about inserting a bootable something-or-other again.

I even set the drive up manually using various settings in the bios. It's an IDE drive by the way, and this mobo only has 1 IDE channel, but 4 SATA, of which I'm using one.

As such, I'm going to go and buy a SATA DVD RW shortly. I've spent about 6hrs researching and messing with this problem, and a new drive will cost me no more than £20, so it's much more financially viable. I just hate "losing", you know what I mean? Makes me angry to fail, particularly when it's something that makes little or no sense.

Oh well, I learned a few things along the way for future reference which is always good.

Thanks again for all the advice gents, it was, as ever, greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Matt

[Rocketmech]

Can you not test the drives in another pc ? You haven't proven to us if the drives are bad or not. I have experienced both drives failing in a system at the same time, so it can happen.
Also, you could disconnect the hdd and try booting from the cd drives, see what happens...

[too_much]

Hi Rocket - I'll give that a go in due course. Eventually I kicked myself for being so stupid and not thinking of a USB option sooner. It's all up and running again now, minus an optical drive.

The chances of both drives having failed out of the blue is slim unless there's something amiss electronically, surely? They were both absolutely fine only a few weeks before, in different computers, and in 8 years I've only ever had one old IDE CD drive fail (and that was ancient).

I'll look into it more when I have time, but it's really not something I can commit more time to at the moment, I just have too much on.

Thanks again for all the advice, much appreciated

Regards,
Matt