Liteon external ODD not recognised by Lenovo Yoga 500 with Windows 10

I just purchased a Lenovo YOGA 500 Convertible Laptop, AMD A8, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 14". It doesn't have a built in DVD drive but I thought I could load software I have on DVD using a Liteon external ODD model eTDU108 I bought a while back to deal with another issue.

It isn't recognised by the laptop. But on the Liteon website, there is the following response to an FAQ:

1. Win10 cannot support ODD. The root cause is not related to the ODD but the Win10 OS device driver. Please try to contact the Microsoft to solve this problem.
2. There are lots of forums and websites are talking about Win10 problem, please find the solution from them. Please note that the solutions are different between CPU of Intel and CPU of AMD.

Can someone help with info on how to update the device driver on the laptop so I can use the ODD please.

Cheers
Tim

pervigilis said:

I just purchased a Lenovo YOGA 500 Convertible Laptop, AMD A8, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 14". It doesn't have a built in DVD drive but I thought I could load software I have on DVD using a Liteon external ODD model eTDU108 I bought a while back to deal with another issue.

It isn't recognised by the laptop. But on the Liteon website, there is the following response to an FAQ:

1. Win10 cannot support ODD. The root cause is not related to the ODD but the Win10 OS device driver. Please try to contact the Microsoft to solve this problem.
2. There are lots of forums and websites are talking about Win10 problem, please find the solution from them. Please note that the solutions are different between CPU of Intel and CPU of AMD.

Can someone help with info on how to update the device driver on the laptop so I can use the ODD please.

Cheers
Tim

First, it may be helpful if you described exactly what happens (or not) when you plug in the drive. Also if other USB storage devices (e.g. thumb drives) work.

Betcha this is a firmware issue with the DVD drive (esp its power management) or its SATA-to-USB bridge chipset - which LiteOn can't be bothered to fix on "legacy" hardware. LiteOn has pretty much exited the direct-to-consumer ODD business and is focusing on being an OEM supplier.

That Win10 does not "support" ODD is pure bunk - the device drivers for ODD's are native to the OS and do not need to be installed or updated. Got lots of internal and external DVD and BluRay drives on Win10 machines and they all work flawlessly.

Mike thanks for the reply

I have a Seagate 2TB expansion desktop drive that I attached to the Yoga and it works ok. When I plug the Liteon in it simply does nothing. Unlike the Seagate, it doesn't even power on.

I guess I would agree that your scenario is quite likely except that on my rather old Acer 4810T when I upgraded from Win7 to Win10, the internal DVD drive didn't work and that was attributed by the Win7 Forum moderator to a registry problem that I never did get fixed. I didn't worry too much about that because I didn't use it.

Now I have software, particularly Office 2010, that I own and would like to get put onto the Yoga. I have it on DVD and a legitimate code. I can't download it using the code as a code for use with DVD needs is insufficient. It rejects it on the basis that other data id not present which must be something on the DVD.

When I tried the Liteon with the Yoga, it didn't even power up. In retrospect I should have re-tried it on a different machine because now I find it will power up on other machines and the Yoga after all. The power light comes on and the DVD spins but the computer is not seeing the drive. Same thing is happening on another computer running Win7.

Should I just go buy another external DVD drive? They are available at very low cost but will they work?

Cheers
Tim
aka pervigilis

pervigilis said:

Mike thanks for the reply

I have a Seagate 2TB expansion desktop drive that I attached to the Yoga and it works ok. When I plug the Liteon in it simply does nothing. Unlike the Seagate, it doesn't even power on.

I guess I would agree that your scenario is quite likely except that on my rather old Acer 4810T when I upgraded from Win7 to Win10, the internal DVD drive didn't work and that was attributed by the Win7 Forum moderator to a registry problem that I never did get fixed. I didn't worry too much about that because I didn't use it.

Now I have software, particularly Office 2010, that I own and would like to get put onto the Yoga. I have it on DVD and a legitimate code. I can't download it using the code as a code for use with DVD needs is insufficient. It rejects it on the basis that other data id not present which must be something on the DVD.

When I tried the Liteon with the Yoga, it didn't even power up. In retrospect I should have re-tried it on a different machine because now I find it will power up on other machines and the Yoga after all. The power light comes on and the DVD spins but the computer is not seeing the drive. Same thing is happening on another computer running Win7.

Should I just go buy another external DVD drive? They are available at very low cost but will they work?

Cheers
Tim
aka pervigilis

Tim,

If it doesn't even power up on 2 machines, and assuming you've checked the obvious (is the cable good? try another one) it may be that your PC's does not supply enough current to power the drive. If this drive has a two-headed USB cable (one for power only) do you have both of them plugged in? The older a drive is, the less power-efficient it is likely to be, too.

I've seen more modern external DVD slimline drives on sale at Micro Center for as little as $29. Many of these are of all-in-one design in which the drive and USB interface electronics are integrated and probably even more power-efficient (vs the older designs which feature a bridge board bolted onto the back of a SATA drive.

Mike
The drive has a single USB cable, shared power and data. It hasn't had much use and I haven't used it for a long time. I tried another cable but the requirement is one of the older USB to micro USB cables. It is now almost firing up to the point where the laptop sees it doing something but not quite. It's probably using an initial power surge to make a quick connection which then dies back almost instantaneously and it disconnects. I think I probably just better go buy and try a better one.

Once again thanks for all your comments making me move forward with trying different things. I guess it's fairly clear there isn't a driver issue.

Tim