DVD Drive dead ? Symptoms and a diagnosis !

[Stiffler]

Hi all )

I have been using PCs since I can remember and I have had many number of CD/DVD drives but this is the very first time that I have had one fail on me

As it has never happened to me before, and I just had this insane belief that they just kept going forever (I have the same trust in my Hard drives - I'm probably in for a nasty shock one day), I thought I would come and ask if its showing the normal signs of irreversible death.

Its a Samsung DVD-ROM SD-612 and I have had it for just over a year. Its probably had more use than I have extracted from a drive before as I have started to rip DVD movies to DivX.

Anyhow when I put in any disc it spins for about 2-3 seconds stops, spins, stops etc and after about a minute of doing so gives up. Windows reports no presence of a disc, same for dos. I cannot remember if I changed much with my settings prior to its death, but I have done a full reinstall of the system since (Win XP upgrade)
A spare DVD drive I have works fine on the same IDE cable, so that to me rules out most other options - Settings etc.

Is it dead ? Can any medication be administered ?

Tim

I am Homer of Borg ! Prepare to be... MMMhhhhh Doughnuts

 

[Toejam31]

If you start the computer with a Win95/Win98 bootdisk, and can't see the device from DOS (and you could previously), then there's no way to flash the firmware. Which is likely to be the only possibility for repairing the drive.

If you are not sure if you could see the DVD from DOS before installing WinXP, you could look for a DOS driver from the manufacturer, and add it to the boot disk.

If you remove it from the Device Manager, and Windows doesn't detect the device or install any drivers after you restart, then it's probably dead.

Have you tried installing it on another machine? That could help you rule out whether it's a Windows problem or a device failure.

I'd start backing up those hard drives, if I were you! There are few things more frustrating than watching your carefully hoarded data go up in smoke.

Toejam31

P.S. For some reason, I always get a giggle whenever I see your sig. Maybe I relate to Homer. LOL!

<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new"><font color=green>Toejam31's Tantalizing Tantric Toy</font color=green></A>
____________________________________________________________

<font color=purple>"Procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."</font color=purple>

 

[ycs46241]

will it play cd-rom's, if so ,the optical reader for dvd is bad, is it under warranty replace it.

 

[Stiffler]

It will not play either media

I think it has gone. I am going to try and flash the bios in the morning as a last resort, then my job for the day is finding the best deal on a new drive )

Tim

ps: heheh I think alot of us can relate to homer

I am Homer of Borg ! Prepare to be... MMMhhhhh Doughnuts