DVDs not recognised

My laptop, a Sony Z1RMP has stopped reading DVDs. Not sure when the problem started as I rarely use DVDs - last time was probably 6 months ago - so can't tie it down to any particular software update; OS is XP/SP2.

Put in a CD and it spins up and gets read OK. Put in a DVD (data or "video ") and the drive light flashes for a few seconds and then nothing - it doesn't spin up and Explorer shows nothing.

Device Manager shows no problems.

I've tried uninstalling the drivers and rebooting to let it reinstall - no change. I've shut down ZoneAlarm and Norton AV (whilst offline) - no change.

Any ideas?

 

Hello Steve,

Did you try double clicking on the drive with the dvd in it - does the same?

Sounds like Auto Play is not enabled.

Regards - Charles

 

Autoplay works as it opens up when a CD is in the drive. Even a desktop I'm using with just a plain CD-ROM drive spins a DVD before saying it can't read it. With my laptop, the DVD doesn't seem to spin up and, whatever I do to open the drive in Explorer just shows an empty drive - no files, zilch.

It's weird - and annoying as I've got some software I want to install from a DVD!

 

Have a look here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...b6-e8fa-45c4-a171-1b389cfacdad&DisplayLang=en

 

Thanks for the link, but no joy with it. It looks like it's a hardware problem. I've plugged a stand-alone DVD/CD-RW drive into it via Firewire and that one runs OK (if a bit slow).

I guess there's something broke in the drive itself that stops it recognising a DVD.

I'll post a message in hardware to see if anyone has had this before and found an easy fix. The laptop still has a couple months warranty to run - but I don't want to send it back to Sony for them to reset the HD to its delivery condition (which is what they say they will do in the warranty card).

Thanks again.