DVD Drive Not reading DVDs but will read CDs

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Hi there. I'm not particularly technically minded but I saw your post and it
reminded me of my laptop. When I first got my laptop it would play CDs fine
but it would just refuse to play DVDs. Anyway I found out that apparently I
needed a 'DVD Decoder' on your system which you buy and install seperately
(for some reason mine hadn't come with one).

In any case, having a seperate DVD player in the house, I wasn't too fussed
about shelling out for it. But, by chance I happened to put my Matrix
Revolutions DVD in my laptop (to see if I could access the online content)
and it came up with it's own player called 'InterActual Player'. That
automatically installed itself onto my laptop and now lets me play any DVD
through that.

You might be able to download the program off the Internet, I'm not sure.

In any case, it mightn't be the solution you're looking for but I thought
I'd just let you know, just in case.

Cheers,
James.

"Case P" wrote:

> I have a very strange problem...I have a DVD -/+ RW drive that reads CDs fine
> but when you try to put in a DVD of any kind it does not recognize it...does
> not matter whether or not the DVD is a retail movie, DVD -/+ R or RW disc,
> etc. This problem is not with the drive as this is the 3rd unit I've put in
> and it has behaved the same way...there is some setting or function within
> Windows XP that is causing this problem...all 3 of the drives work just fine
> in other machines. Does anyone know where this type of problem could reside
> within XP? I'm running XP SP2 fully patched, loaded new machine, etc...any
> ideas would be welcomed.
> --
> Thanks for your help.
> Case

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Thanks James.

Actually, I am an IT Consultant and I've eliminated that as a potential
problem...I can't even see that there is data on the disc through My
Computer, let alone be able to play the DVDs. When the DVD is put into the
drive the system does not even autolaunch the XP wizard to allow the disc to
be played and you cannot click on the drive to see its contents. Thanks for
sharing the information though.
--
Thanks for your help.
Case


"James Place" wrote:

> Hi there. I'm not particularly technically minded but I saw your post and it
> reminded me of my laptop. When I first got my laptop it would play CDs fine
> but it would just refuse to play DVDs. Anyway I found out that apparently I
> needed a 'DVD Decoder' on your system which you buy and install seperately
> (for some reason mine hadn't come with one).
>
> In any case, having a seperate DVD player in the house, I wasn't too fussed
> about shelling out for it. But, by chance I happened to put my Matrix
> Revolutions DVD in my laptop (to see if I could access the online content)
> and it came up with it's own player called 'InterActual Player'. That
> automatically installed itself onto my laptop and now lets me play any DVD
> through that.
>
> You might be able to download the program off the Internet, I'm not sure.
>
> In any case, it mightn't be the solution you're looking for but I thought
> I'd just let you know, just in case.
>
> Cheers,
> James.
>
> "Case P" wrote:
>
> > I have a very strange problem...I have a DVD -/+ RW drive that reads CDs fine
> > but when you try to put in a DVD of any kind it does not recognize it...does
> > not matter whether or not the DVD is a retail movie, DVD -/+ R or RW disc,
> > etc. This problem is not with the drive as this is the 3rd unit I've put in
> > and it has behaved the same way...there is some setting or function within
> > Windows XP that is causing this problem...all 3 of the drives work just fine
> > in other machines. Does anyone know where this type of problem could reside
> > within XP? I'm running XP SP2 fully patched, loaded new machine, etc...any
> > ideas would be welcomed.
> > --
> > Thanks for your help.
> > Case

This is the same problem that I'm currently having. The DVD player worked fine last week and is now refusing to even acknowledge there is a DVD in the drive. Please let me know if you figured out a solution.

Same solution I would have given 4 years ago back on June 27, 2005 when this thread you are responding to was created. Try a different DVD unit. Something newer than what was available back then fer shur.