Laptop stopped reading CDs and DVDs
My laptop was reading CD’s and DVD’s fine. Then sometime it stopped reading “program” discs to download something. (I’d have to copy it on wife’s laptop with XP to a USB stick and then download to mine). Then I noticed it wasn’t reading DVD’s either. I’vd read about the registry settings and removing the upper and lower filters. I’ve done that. Then (as warned)other programs may not work right. That’s true. DVD started working but then iTunes won’t start up without error message about not being able to read from CD’s. Re-installed iTunes and still the same warning. I, then, did a system restore to get my registry settings changed back to where they initially were. So, I’m sitting in the same boat I was in at the beginning. iTunes is fine now; but, can’t view DVD’s.
After editing the registry and removing the upper and lower filters your laptop started reading CDs and DVDs and it tells me your hardware is working fine. You have a software related problem. I think the best way to fix it would be reimaging the hard drive with the recovery disc. Before you do that, back up all personal files to a safe location – external USB drive or hard drive. The recovery process will erase everything from the hard drive and reinstall everything back to factory defaults. It should fix your problem with reading CDs and DVDs. After that you can start over on a freshly installed operating system.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:41 am
I did the removing of filters to my laptop and the DVD drive was there again but turning my computer on again it has disappeared
I would like to reinstall windows and have backed up everything but it is not possible since I can not read the disc.
What do I need to do?
My laptop is from Nova tech and is an Otion duo T5500 2048M 120G.
Thanks
April 11th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
My Gateway Laptop can play DVD movies but not music CDs or run program CDs. I tried cleaning the lens, but nothing changed. Any suggestions?
April 18th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Jim Rogers,
Can you see the content of the music CD if you explore it from My Computer?
1. Insert a music CD into the drive.
2. Access My Computer and right click on the DVD drive. Now click on Explore.
Can you see the content this way? If the content doesn’t appear but the DVD drive trying to access it over and over again (the light on the drive lights up and it shows some activity), probably you have a bad drive.
Sometimes optical drives fail this way. The drive can play DVD but not CDs and vice versa.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:40 am
katy,
You can back up your data on an external USB drive or external hard drive.
April 25th, 2009 at 9:11 am
can i upgrade my hp 550 laptop currently runnin celeron processor m550 to a quicker processor if so which one and if anything else would i need to upgrade ?
May 15th, 2009 at 3:05 am
Yes it happens to my laptop as well many times. But ultimately i got it repaired from one of the best laptop repair service providers in Santa Ana, CA – Service.Ztronics.com
June 8th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I have a HP Pavillion dv6700 notebook with windows vista.
I have a problem to do with the DVD player on my laptop.
Whenever I am using my laptop, when not actually using the cd /dvd player, and not touching the button to open the drawer, I’ll hear whirring and then the DVD drawer will suddenly pop open. This will happen several times in succession. Each time I will close the drawer and then shortly afterwards, I hear the whirring sound and the drawer opens again.
Can you tell me what might be causing this, and how to prevent it?
October 21st, 2009 at 11:17 am
OK I have a major issues I just downloaded itunes to my laptop and now my cd-rom is gone. I put in a cd and nothing my device manager reads it as an error on the drive so I unistalled itunes and its compents and my cdrom is not there. I just burned 3 cds before I downloaded itunes. is it a possible issue with my filters becuse i do have another cd program??? please help asap
December 27th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Have a HP DV9600 with Vista SP2… Over the last week the drive has stopped functioning.
When I put a CD into the drive, it spins up. However in Explorer the drive is missing (it’s E:) and it’s also not showing in the device manager. It was just working last week and I haven’t installed anything new, etc. in quite some time. The only thing that would have updated on the PC would have been a Windows Update or Anti-Virus update.
Any suggestions?
March 4th, 2010 at 3:07 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite U205-S5304. It has 2 Major Symptoms. It won’t read CD/DVDs, nor can we boot to an external USB DVD drive.
We tried low level formatting the drive from what was left with Windows XP, but the internal DVD drive or external USB drive still is not recognized.
Any solutions to help repair this would be appreciated. Thank you.
March 26th, 2010 at 9:33 am
i have lenovo ideapad Y510 on which i am using windows 7. since last couple of weeks whenever i insert anykind of dvd it does not show up in my computer in the cd drive but when i use a normal disc (700 MB) it works really fine.
anyone can who know in this regard please help me out
thank you
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:21 am
Hi,
The CD/DVD ROM, make Phillips, fitted with laptop ACER Travelmate 2420 has stopped reading the CD/DVD, and instead makes screeching noise when the drive is closed after loading the CD / DVD. There has been no physical damege to the laptop.
Please help.
July 14th, 2010 at 6:55 am
Randomly my cd/dvd drive has stopped reading cd’s, games and dvds. I tried mr fix it, but all it said was that my Drive was not detected or it was missing. How do I get it back? Mine also does the whirring noise, but it doesn’t pop out. It just never stops unless i restart the laptop.
Please Help.