Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) The PC "Help" Thread

I have the computer on which I'm writing this message for six months now, and it has 2 DVD-drive's: A normal DVD-reader, and a DVD-burner. But a while ago, I noticed that my Burner didn't recognized DVD's anymore, I didn't pay much attention at that time, and I inserted the DVD's in my other drive. But today I wanted to write something on DVD, and noticed again that the drive doesn't recognizes DVD's. It states that the drive is empty. I get this error with Movie DVD's, Game DVD's and even with blank ones. It still recognizes normal CD's though, so I googled it, but wasn't able to find a solution. So I hope someone on the forum here can help me.
I have uninstalled the DVD-drive and let Windows detect it and reinstall it without succes, and that is what I have tried so far, I don't wanna mess things up like I used to do with my old PC. There seems to be a hotfix from Windows avaible, but you need to contact customer support and for that, they charge a fee, while on their pages it clearly states that it is a bug caused by Windows.
I also read that it can be caused by a bad reading lense of the DVD-drive, does anyone knows if that is the case, that it falls under warranty(not sure if this is the correct word)?

Thanks in advance
Isorun

I don't know, but if the computer is only 6 months old you should be entitled to some tech support and warranty.

It sounds like a hardware problem with the drive itself, which should still be under warranty (unless you bought a refurbished or discontinued/clearance system, which could have a shorter warranty). Normally I'd test a suspect optical drive in another system (if possible), but since the drive still reads CDs it probably isn't a problem with a cable or MB. If you still have your old system and are comfortable swapping an optical drive around, that would be the best way to prove or disprove a hardware problem with the drive itself.

Failing that, to confirm it is not a software problem, you could try booting to a live Linux distribution (or even a Win 98/ME floppy), and see if you have the same problem reading DVDs. If you know anyone who bought Vista, you could borrow the DVD to see if you can boot from it in the DVD and DVD-RW drives (and cancel if and when it brings up the installation menu options).

CD-based Linux Distributions and Live Linux CDs (I've heard Puppy Linux mentioned favorably, but have not tried it)

Boot Disks


The MS hotfix only applies to DVD-RW disks formatted in a certain way, not DVD+R/-R or commercial DVDs.


Even without trying the drive in another system or under Linux/DOS, you should contact the place you bought the computer about this problem. Small computer stores could probably check the drive fairly quickly; larger stores may have longer turn-around times, but might try to get to stuff that looks like in-warranty hardware problems sooner, to minimize the wait for replacement parts.

I could try to put the drive in my mother's computer, but we don't know much about computers(in fact we even had a problem to let my old pc recognize a new cd-drive) so I think I'll keep that option untill I have no other choice.

I bought the PC in a supermarket, but it's from MEDION and appearently, they have good customer support, so I'll contact them and hope that it gets fixed.

Thanks for your help(I think I still got a Windows98-CD somewhere, gonna try to find it)

You can also check with the supermarket; they may not have any technical staff there, but should have some kind of deal with someone else for support (perhaps directly with Medion).

Will a Windows 98 CD help any? Windows XP's install disk has a recovery console option that I assume could let you access the DVD-RW drive, but I don't remember 98's install very well. Actually, after a quick Google search, a few guides I checked (including one on MS's site) on installing Win98 all start off with booting to a floppy disk, so the install CD may not even be bootable. I mentioned Vista because it is on a bootable DVD.

For the people interested:

The problem still isn't solved. I contacted Medion, their first advice was to buy a Lenscleaner, which I did but I was almost 100% sure that it wouldn't fix the problem and guess what: I was rigth. Next they said that I had to set the computer back to it's uhmm 'Manufacturing status'(the way it was when i bought the computer: OS installed, All required programs installed, nothing else) So I copied some of my files to an external hard disk(more on that later) and did as they said, yet the problem still wasn't fixed, so now they're coming to pick it up Monday.

About the external hard drive: I had some programs on my pc of which I didn't had the CD/DVD, so I copied the INSTALLED version of the software(most of the programs where games)to the hard drive, after the 'format', I copied the software back, but it stated that some of the files required to play/work were missing(I had this on 2 of the 3 programs I tried so far). I assume this is because the installation also creates files in other locations then the install directory, right?

Isorun

Hm, could it be a driver thing ?

I hgave one or two very old CD-ROM drives which don't recognize CD-ROMs anymore as well. I don't know why.

Please make sure the drive if fixed and doesn't have any vibrations, especially if you keep the high speed of these drives in mind.

But on the other hand I once heard that one shouldn't drive the screws too deep into the "slots", because if they are too long, they might damage some small parts, at least that's what I've heard a long time ago. Maybe nowadays drives are flatter ?

Other than that I have no idea. I only remember problems with Nero Burning Rom while using the special driver provided from the homepage of Ahead, which resulted in the program no more burning Rom(s).

Removing this particular driver resulted in an error message saying that the driver couldn't be found anymore, and that the program will try the "system API" instead. Since then, it works again.

Also, you could try installing a new "Adaptec Layer" driver or how it is called.

They also add some registries, which are gone after a format.

OK, once again my computer has crashed.

This time I noticed it because I got a "bad CMOS check value" screenie, followed by a "Reboot and select proper boot device, or insert boot media into proper boot device and press a key" where my computer usually goes into windows. A little earlier in the booscreen (when scanning for IDE-drivers) I get a message that sais "No driver attatched to fast task controller, the BIOS is not installed".

Worth mentioning is that a few months ago my SATA driver crashed, and had to be replaced.

Übereil

Try if the cables are all properly attached (but pull the energy plug of the PC first !), if things aren't working, it might be - how old is the PC ? - the CMOS battery running low or a new energy thing is needed (what's the word for that in English language ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> ).

Everything I could check was attatched (I'm NOT opening the power supply <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />).

Is the CMOS and BIOS chips related, because the BIOS problems happens first.

Übereil

The CMOS is a kind of "chip" which "contains" the BIOS and is being kept alife by its battery. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm having an odd PC problem that's just cropped up in the last couple of days, and I don't know the cause (obviously) or the cure.

Ever encounter a problem with your PC where when playing a game, every 30 seconds or so you'd get a major drop in framerates like the computer is locking up, drops to like 5 frames a second, this lasts about 5 seconds then back to normal?

Has nothing to do with intensive screen action either as it'll happen in anything.

Happens in any game at any random moment, but around every 20-30 secs intervals.

Checked the temp levels and they all seem fine.

I'm terribly vexed! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

I see.

Anyway, the problem seems to have been the CMOS battery, which I've switched. The problem in the computer is that the BIOS somehow got resetted, setting the wrong HD (my old HD, which I use as a second "storage" drive) as main HD. I'm hopeing this is fixed now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Übereil

Have you the MS Office index service turned on ?
It begins to work when you expect it at least.

I think may have already found the culprit...

Ram Idle - one of fav programs has stabbed me in the back. When disabled the freezing doesn't seem to happen anymore!

I've found out that my PC needs a new power engine, which I can't afford this month anymore.

But I'm allowed to use my sister's new iMac when she doesn't need it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I'm on the verge of buying a new PC - today even.

And I was wondering if there's anything here in my specs which I customised that should probably change.


PSU - Fortron/Source Epsilon 700W
MB - Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe, nForce 590 SLI,
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz Socket AM2
Ram - Corsair TWIN2X 6400C4DHX DDR2, 4gigs ram
GC - XFX GeForce 8800GTX 570M 768MB GDDR3,
HD - Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2
SC - Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty
OP - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate English (hmmm...might as well)
Monitor - LG 19" LCD L194WT TCO-03, Silver

Sounds good.

I'm not sure what is better, 1 8800 GTX or 2 8800 GTs.

There is alot of debate over it, but I think both are excellent, and go for whatever you want, or is cheaper or w/e.

Personally, I'd recommend an EE ( = "Energy Efficient" CPU), because it saves current -> money.

Plus a board that can be put into a "saving mode" or so.

Because these modern CPUs and Boards suck up quite a lot of current nowadays.