DVD not working

whenever I try to play a dvd in my computer the darn thing will not even detect it and to top it all it gets stuck and will not open to release the dvd - i am then forced to restart the computer in order to get the disc out of the drive. This does not happen when I play any cd-roms or music discs - only for dvd's. As far as i can see there are no problems with the dvd software and no problems with the discs themselves- i am at a loss as to how to correct this - any ideas?

 

This may sound like a silly question...is this a DVD drive your putting the DVD disc in?

Do you have a stand alone DVD player hooked up to your TV to test the disc itself?

 

lol not a silly question at all- yes i have a stand alone dvd connected to my tv and the dvd works fine on it- the dvd player I am having trouble with is in my computer and worked fine when i first got the darn thing a couple of years ago

 

In your DVD software do you have it setup for your DVD drive. What I mean is that on my system my DVD is drive H. I had to set my DVD software to look at H for it to use the DVD drive.

 

You might also consider getting a DVD drive cleaning disc as there may be some dirt particles on the laser's lens. If the drive worked once before I bet a good cleaning will do the trick.