Dvd writer problem 1

[Dweezel]

My dvd writer on my Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop is causing problems. It has been working fine for 2 years but started playing up last week.

It will read cd's : both CDR's that I've burned myself and software.

It will not read dvd's of any kind. I just get whiring noises as if it's trying to find something on the disk for about a minute and then nothing. I doesn't even recognise that a disk is present.

I can't burn discs of any kind. When I open Nero and try and burn to a CDR I get a message saying something like :

"You have inserted the wrong type of disc. You need to use a CD-R / CD-RW. The disc in the drive is a CD-ROM".

So it's not recognising that the disc is burnable.

I had to reformat my hard drive to solve a completely separate issue earlier in the week. That had no affect on my dvd writer problem.

I'm guessing that I probably need to fix this problem by getting a new drive. I thought I'd post here first to get some opinions though.

Any ideas?

 

[gbaughma]

Sounds like it's dirty.

I say this because:
1) DVD's have more densly packed information than CD's... so if it can't focus on the smaller pits, it won't read.
2) When going into "burn" mode, it turns on the laser at a higher power, and uses a test track to set the power level of the laser. If it's dirty, the laser isn't focusing, not burning, and when it goes back to read what it just wrote, it can't; so it assumes that it's not a recordable.



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[Dweezel]

Would you suggest a normal cd/dvd lens cleaning kit? I think my local PC World does one that you just put in the drive and run like a regular disc.

 

[gbaughma]

I would start there.

Of course, a new Dual-Layer DVD writer can be had for $40...



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[Dweezel]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Do I want to spend £10 on a cleaning kit or £40 on a new (and better) writer.

I'll think about this one tonight.

Thanks for your help mate.

 

[firewolfrl]

blowing out a drive with canned air sometimes works ....But...I like to open the drive up and clean the laser eye with eyeglass cleaner cloth (it has to be the cloth that is made to clean eyeclasses or camera lens) with a dap of eyeclass cleaner on one corner of the cloth.(do not use regular glass cleaner for windows...Windex is BAD) the second thing to do is just use regular old cloth and clean the two bars the laser eye assemble tracks on...
This has worked the best for me so far.
I have not as much success with using the DVD/CD cleaner disks.
I live pretty far from the nearest store where I can just pick up a new drive so I learned how to clean the opticals on a drive...the whole process should not take more than 15 to 20 minutes


this won't help if the opticals are weak or have failed