No-Go Viewing DVD on XP Home

Soniclight wrote on 5/2/2007, 5:37 PM
Maybe I'm dealing with a standard and obvious situation, but it seems odd to me since modern systems are supposed to be multimedia friendly. I am also rather behind-the-times on DVDs overall for...

I have so far used few except for application installations and viewing films on my TV setup.



My original DVD/CD player-burner burned out, so I replaced it with one that I took out of a system I had set up for someone, then replaced with a new system. It was off of an eMachine, a Lite-On, model LTR-483275.

I rented a couple of basic DVD's at a local video store to study some scene. They play fine on my TV hooked up to a DVD player, but not on my PC:

--- Trying to open or explore the disks contents in My Computer shows nothing (empty).

--- AdminTools/DiskManagement shows its hooked up but grayed out when such a DVD is present.

--- Data or application DVDs such as Vegas work fine. (LATER correction: I was mistaken -- these don't open or play either)

I also tried a driver update using Windows Update, nothing was found. I then went to Lite-On's site to try to get firmware or whatever else would be available to update drivers (though most DVD players are plug-and-play).

Lite-On does not have the model number listed--most likely because it is an eMachine bundled one, It seems to be common that model numbers for bundled systems, etc. differ from standard retail numbers.

I tried installing the closest model number's firmware, but it wouldn't go for it.

Q:

Thanks.

Comments

Former user wrote on 5/2/2007, 6:49 PM
Maybe the region of the DVD burner in your PC got set to a different region that your DVD disc? Most DVD burners give you multiple region mods (mine offers five) before they permanently "lock" to a particular region.
bStro wrote on 5/2/2007, 7:38 PM
Based on the results I got from a quick Google search of that Lite-On model, it looks to me like you have a CDRW drive. Which means it doesn't read DVDs.

Rob
Soniclight wrote on 5/2/2007, 11:57 PM
Rob,

"Based on the results I got from a quick Google search of that Lite-On model, it looks to me like you have a CDRW drive. Which means it doesn't read DVDs."

Sheeezus. How dumb can I get - lol.

But now that I think of if, I had set up back in 2003 for a disabled vet downstairs in my building who never used that part of the computer. DVD players weren't stock in most pre-configured systems back then.

Looks like i've got some gotta-get-an-other-DVD-player buying to do...
TLF wrote on 5/3/2007, 12:01 AM
But it plays DVD-ROMs?

I had an issue recently where, after installing a program, Auto-play stopped working, and DVDs stopped playing. Microsoft supposedly offered a fix - Autofix.exe - but that didn't work.

Eventually I found that a registry entry had been changed/deleted.

-------------------------------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom]
"Autorun"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"allocatecdroms"="0"

----------------------------------------------

Copy and paste the text between the dashes into a new text file. Save the file as a .reg file, then run it.

Worley
farss wrote on 5/3/2007, 12:26 AM
Are you 100% certain the old unit is dead?

I've recently found the ribbon cable connectors can be the cause of premature 'death'.
Uplug and plug in again and drive works, worth a try.
Soniclight wrote on 5/3/2007, 1:24 AM
No, Rob was right -- it is a CD player/burner -- I confused a Sony sample DVD and the Vegas installation one (CD). So .reg fix won't work on that one -- I wish it would though - lol.

As to the old one, I'll test it again, but as I recall, the motor doesn't fire up nor am I able to open the door... bad sign. No .reg file can fix that, but I'll merge that file anyway and see what happens.

I did replace the ribbon cable when the problem started so I doubt that's an issue.

And the warrantee on the fried one expired a 2 1/2 months ago. I hardly ever used it -- I don't think I'll by a BenQ or one with LightScribe again, but then it wasn't a higher end one either. Never even tried the LightScrbe part either.

Oh, well, c'est la vie.
Soniclight wrote on 5/3/2007, 9:59 AM
... on the original one I replaced that we've tried to revive:

--- I took it apart and found that a copper filament/ribbon had fried itself off the circuit board next to the motor There was also some minor "smoke" discoloration on the inside of the enclosure above that section. The laser works, but da motor iz definitely dead.

So that one is a goner. But I'll keep the fix-it .reg file suggested here. Ya never know when it may come in handy. So not a total loss :)

And..

--- Now I know what had smelled "electro-burny" a while back in my system that had me a bit worried but then had gone away. That's actually a relief: not anything system-related.

Blessings come in odd packages :)