DVD drive thinks it's a CD Drive

bendipa · 13 Jan 2022

I have a PC (about 10 years old) with a DVD drive that's not caused any issues until now. The past few weeks I've been unable to play DVDs, although audio CD's will play fine.

I tried cleaning the laser lens using one one of those kits that come with an optical disk with small brushes, to which you apply a small amount of cleaning fluid. It didn't make a lot of difference, although a few DVDs would play, but showed faults like freezing for a few seconds before continuing then freezing again. The few that played seemed to take an age to load, with plenty of repeated 'whirring' noises before the drive finally spun up. The newest DVDs showed the same problem as the older ones. Then a few days later again no DVDs would play at all, and it's been that way since, although audio CDs continue to play without fault.

I should mention that I have a separate standalone DVD player (15 years old which I used through an old TV set, long discarded. Having switched on this old DVD player after many years and tried out my DVDs, they all play (I can see by the digital time meter) so I know it's not down to my DVDs being faulty. However I can't directly connect the player to my PC as it only has Scart output (for old TVs).

So what if anything can be done with my PC's DVD drive to get it working again? Or would it be best to give up on it and buy a new external DVD drive?

Berton · 13 Jan 2022

Actually it's both, should show on the face of the tray. Usually the ODD/Optical Disc Drive is relatively cheap and best to replace when starting to have such issues. An example in US on Amazon.com, don't know what the UK has available:
https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Serial-A...%2C156&sr=8-11
Main thing is the cable connections inside the Desktop, old ones were called IDE but after the newer SATA came out most it became known as PATA.
PATA = Parallel ATA
SATA = Serial ATA

Bree · 13 Jan 2022

bendipa said:

... The past few weeks I've been unable to play DVDs, although audio CD's will play fine.
...what if anything can be done with my PC's DVD drive to get it working again? Or would it be best to give up on it and buy a new external DVD drive?

There are two separate lasers in a DVD/CD drive working on different wavelengths, red for DVDs and infra-red for CDs. Sounds like one of your lasers has died. Best to replace the drive.

bendipa · 15 Jan 2022

Bree said:

There are two separate lasers in a DVD/CD drive working on different wavelengths, red for DVDs and infra-red for CDs. Sounds like one of your lasers has died. Best to replace the drive.

I didn't realise that. I did a fair bit of reading around recently to try and find a fix, and did not see that mentioned before, although it would make sense to have 2 different lasers operating to read 2 different optical formats. I guess it looks like I'll need a new external DVD drive then.