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Sony Dvd drive reads dvds but not cds.

post #1 of 7
12/26/05 at 3:08pm
Thread Starter 
I have a Dell I600m that I got over a year ago, and it was working well for the most part but last night it just... randomly stopped reading cds well. It makes some weird noises as it tries to read it, but if the problem was mechanical I doubt it would read DVDs (movie and data). It ends up just not detecting a disc in the drive, though sometimes it attemps to read it for quite a while, until I press the eject button. The drive is detected and I have updated firmware (its a Sony DVD+RW-R56a), and there seem to be no updated drivers. Device manager says there are no issues, and the troubleshooter is worthless. Only possibility I see is somehow a corruption in the driver but that seems unlikely, as I have removed and reinstalled the part.

Help!
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post #2 of 7
12/26/05 at 3:45pm
Sony's are unfortunetly horrible drives because there just rebadged LiteOn drives which are rebadged ODM drives from some no name company. This issue has been popular lately which I have come to suspect is more software issue rahter than hardware but you can always let Dell decide on that later and get a new drive right away. I assume you are under warranty and thus you should call in this problem for a replacement drive with NEC brand preffered as you and your friends who coincidentally own similar systems with the exact drive have similar issues and the ones with NEC do not. the 100% hassle free way to get the drive replaced is to explain to dell that the drive exhibits the same issues in other systems and there drives work absolutely fine. Theres nothing immoral about the process since if the drive works Dell will rebadged it as a refurb and send it out to the next person and then we can accurately determine if this is a software issue or hardware issue.
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post #3 of 7
12/26/05 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 
Unfortunately warranty has expired which is teaching me something about extended warranties. It does seem to be software related which is why I'm afraid of buying a new drive - these modular laptop drives are expensive and if it isnt the drive then can I even return the part?
This is rather distressing, because it was sudden... one minute the drive was working the other it wasn't. This problem is perplexing, I'm usually alright at troubleshooting but this is baffling since dvds are read, the drive is detected, yet when it attempts to read a cd... it tries several times, it knows there's a cd in... but can't read it. The diagnostic says its not digital media on there (its an installation cd that im using to test, though i have tried other, so obviously it is digital).

Thanks for the help anyways.
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post #4 of 7
12/26/05 at 7:39pm
I dont suppose you would be willing to reghost your OS? Do a fresh install and see if that changes anything? if not then we can accurately determine if it is indeed the drive going bonkers on you.
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post #5 of 7
12/26/05 at 8:51pm
Thread Starter 
what's reghosting? I was thinking of maybe backing up stuff on blank dvds since dvds apparently work, but what I'm afraid of is that I won't be able to reinstall once I format or do something of the sort, because as I said, even the diagnostic tool can't read a regular cd. So yes, I would go for a fresh install, but I'm just afraid I won't be able to install my os back, or can't read my included cd in order to install outright.

If you could give more details it'd be great

Oh and avg said my computer was clean, as do spybot and adaware. (though for some reason spybot has trouble updating)
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post #6 of 7
12/27/05 at 4:09pm
You mention that the diagnostic cd would not read. The cd is usually run before windows so if your getting the problem before windows starts then it seems as though you have a faulty drive. The solution is to either keep using it as a dvd only drive or replace it.
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post #7 of 7
12/27/05 at 4:25pm
seems theres another one with the same problem as me.

only mine is a nec 5100. Will not read cds, the success rate is like 10%.

Will not read any of my cdrom software for camera-router-printer etc.

Also, it wont boot on cd, so the dell tool cd is useless.

Got hold of a 8600C with nec 6500 (i think) put my nec 5100 in it, and same problem. and the 6500 worked fine on my machine.

so, tomorrow gonna call for my third burner. This ones 9 months old.

And see if i can talk them into another nec again, and not the originally hitachi.
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