Problem accessing DVDs with Samsung drive

[androdion]

Hi there, hi have a Samsung TSST Corp CDDVDW SH-S223C optical drive which is a CD/DVD drive with SATA interface. I have it for near half a year and I've had no problems with it so far. I mainly use it to read cds as I've been absent from pc gaming for a while and so I haven't used dvds on it. A couple of weeks ago I bought a music dvd, a triple dvd edition, and something wild happened. The first dvd wouldn't start playing as it wasn't able to access the disc, the drive kept spinning fast then halting and doing that sound when its skipping read on a cd (like tssut , tssut, tssut). Funny thing is that the other two dvds would play just fine. I've tried all dvds on two other computers and two tv dvd systems, and they all worked fine on each and every one of them. So the problem was with my drive! I updated the firmware and when I then put the first dvd it starts accessing again but this time it reads, it's just that it takes something like two minutes to get to the dvd root menu. After being at the root menu it plays just fine but every time that I put it in or restart the dvd the same thing happens. Also when the drive tries to access the dvd the system becomes a bit unresponsive.

So I've thought that it would be a one time wonder with this problem and that it could be some minor deal. Last night I bought C&C3 Deluxe (Tiberiuum Wars + Kane's Wrath) and the same thing happened again. The TW dvd wouldn't access but the KW would! I've spent a few hours googling for solutions and tried a lot of things, don't ask me to repeat everything that I've done because I can't remember all of them. The TW dvd wouldn't even load the splash screen for the dvd autorun, it would give a black window with an error message. A bit later on I've started testing my other original games to see if any other dvd would do the same but they didn't, they all worked fine. So after trying half a dozen dvds I've put on TW again and this time it loaded the splash and started installing. But then at around 75% it started trying to access the dvd again and halted the copy of new files, it just stopped there. It also started doing this: the drive starts to spin real fast trying to access the dvd, then it suddenly slows down and starts doing a chipping noise, then it repeats on and on.

I'm going a little crazy with this problem and I wanted to know if there's any known similar issues, any workaround or any simple solution that I haven't found. I think I might have to get it to guarantee and get a new drive but I wanted to exhaust my options before doing that.

Any help would be good.

 

[Rusting In Peace]

Figuring out why is going to cost you more time than it's worth in my opinion.

Given how cheap DVD drives are these days you might be better just buying a new one.

 

[androdion]

Sure they're cheap and mine is still in the guarantee period so I can get a new one for free. The thing is, if I get a new one (same model) and it does the same thing then what?! I'll keep going time and time again to the store, which isn't close to my home.

I also have another problem. I'm planing on doing a clean install of the OS but I'm afraid that this could happen during that process, hence leaving me not without an optical drive but without a pc!

If anyone can shine some light on this it would be helpful.

PS: I prefer to spend a little more time trying to solve it before I go to the store.

 

[dmcomputerguy]

Sure they're cheap and mine is still in the guarantee period so I can get a new one for free. The thing is, if I get a new one (same model) and it does the same thing then what?! I'll keep going time and time again to the store, which isn't close to my home.

I also have another problem. I'm planing on doing a clean install of the OS but I'm afraid that this could happen during that process, hence leaving me not without an optical drive but without a pc!

If anyone can shine some light on this it would be helpful.

PS: I prefer to spend a little more time trying to solve it before I go to the store.

Rusting in Peace is absolutely correct.

All parts are built with certain tolerances. You can be plus or minus x unit and still be considered acceptable. One thing that happens is if your DVD is plus 2 units away from perfect and the drive is minus 2 units from perfect, the total is 4 units. That can be the cause of problems. Another factor is the copy protection that is on many CDs and DVDs. That can make the drive less likely to be able to read the disk.

Yet another factor is the brand, model, and production run that the blank CD or DVD is. All drives work better with one brand, model, and run than they do for other disks. Almost always the slight difference is not enough to cause problems. Occationally that difference is enough to cause a problem. That is similar to the discussion of tolerences.

Chances are that all the copies of any given program that you see in a store at one time are built on the same CD or DVD blank. That means that exchanging them might not help. If it was just a manufacturing glitch, it might be enough to fix the problem when you exchange the disk. Keep in mind that commercial disks are not burned, as you would burn a disk. They are stamped in a press. That is a very broad oversimplification, but it makes it easier to understand.

Bottom line, as Rusting said, replace the drive with a new one. If this issue is critical to you, put a second DVD player in your computer. Make it a different brand. Personally, I like Sony and LG drives, but there are other good ones. Stay away from the unheard of brands, in my opinion.