DVD-RW displays CD files & directories but not DVD files & directo

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Guest

I have a "Lite-On DVDRW LH-20A1H ATA Device" (as reported by Device Manager)
that will display the contents of CDs but not DVDs. The drive has the latest
firmware upgrade. OS is Vista Home Premium 32-bit. Here's the scenario:

I can pop in a DVD-ROM and Autoplay will launch asking if I want to run (in
this case) Setup.exe or open to explore files. If I choose the latter, or
close Autoplay and attempt to access the DVD drive via Windows Explorer, no
files are shown and the disk properties show that it is 100% full. Oddly,
the disk label *is* read. If I choose the former, it eventually gives me a
"the language is not supported on your system" error and Setup.exe ends.
Also, sometimes if I play around (looking at the menu options Properties,
Configure, etc.), I'll get a BSOD.

I have successfully read CD contents and installed programs from CD.

I've tried the registry edits shown in:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461/en-us
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers (default Microsoft
drivers).

Can anyone offer any suggestions of what else to try (apologies in advance
if this has already been asked and answered, but my search did not yield a
solution)?
 
MikeD,

Have you checked to see whether the DVD Region is set to 1? Double click
Computer and right click the drive and select Properties. Look in the DVD
Region tab to verify the setting. That's all I have. Anyone else?
 
Have you checked to see whether the DVD Region is set to 1? Double click
Computer and right click the drive and select Properties. Look in the DVD
Region tab to verify the setting. That's all I have. Anyone else?
Click to expand...

freddy, thanks for offering a possible solution but I don't think that's it.
The DVD/CDRW drive in my laptop shows the same region ("Not Selected") as
the one I'm having trouble with, but my laptop can read and display the files
and directories from the same disks that the desktop cannot. Any other
ideas/suggestions?
 
freddy said:
Have you checked to see whether the DVD Region is set to 1? Double click
Computer and right click the drive and select Properties. Look in the DVD
Region tab to verify the setting. That's all I have. Anyone else?
Click to expand...

freddy, thanks for responding, but I don't think that's it. My desktop has
the same current region ("Not Selected") as my laptop, and the laptop
DVD/CDRW drive can read the same disks that the desktop cannot. Any other
thoughts? Anyone?
 
(Apologies for the double-post. As can be seen by the timestamps, I came
back several hours later and didn't see the first, so thinking it hadn't
posted successfully I made the second.)
 
Have you checked to see whether the DVD Region is set to 1? Double click
Computer and right click the drive and select Properties. Look in the DVD
Region tab to verify the setting. That's all I have. Anyone else?
Click to expand...

More info: I finally resorted to what I consider a last resort - surgery. I
swapped the drive in question out of the Vista machine and put it into an XP
machine, and the XP machine was able to read the contents of DVD's just fine.
So, it's apparently a Vista issue.

freddy, I think during the transfer the region got set to "1" from "Not
Selected", but that hasn't changed anything - the Vista machine still will
not display the contents of a DVD but will display the contents of a CD. I'm
sure this is a switch buried somewhere in the registry, but I haven't a clue
where to find it.

Also worth mentioning - AutoPlay handles DVD's as I would expect;
executables can be selected to run, movies will play, etc., except for the
option to "open folder to view files". This fact makes me feel a little
better, as it would seem that I can at least use the drive, but I still want
to be able to browse the contents.
 
MikeD,

Your guess as to the cause is as good as mine. One approach to solving this
issue is to use google to search the Internet. It's likely this problem has
been commented on out there, and some solution posted. Searching on terms
that produce results are key to finding such posts. Maybe someone here has
an idea. Anyone?
 
After quite a bit of troubleshooting, I've got more information regarding
this problem. To recap: I have a DVD-RW drive in my Vista Home Premium
(32-bit) system that can display the contents of CD-ROMs in Windows Explorer
without a problem but will not show the contents of DVD-ROM discs. It will
read the disc's label and icon, and I can run AutoPlay and it will give me
the option to (for instance) run a Setup program, but at some point Vista
will BSOD with error 0x000000E3, complaining that a device "tried to release
a resource that it did not own".

Stuff I've tried:
I swapped the drive in question (Lite-On) into my older, XP machine, and it
worked perfectly.
I swapped the drive from my older, XP machine (Plextor) into the Vista
machine and it exhibited the same symptoms as the original drive.

These two items suggest two points of commonality: Vista and the new PC's
motherboard. Having seen a number of threads in this forum detailing
problems with DVD drives, my primary suspect is Vista.

I have also read and tried the following KB articles, none of which either
apply or helped:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939052/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316529/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320553/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321641/

I've had Device Manager attempt to update the drivers for my DVD drive, the
IDE controllers, and the storage controllers.

I've deleted C:\windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 based on the experience from someone
else on this forum.

As evidenced by the presence of this post, nothing thus far has worked. If
anyone could provide any useful information you will go a long way to
improving the mental health of one stressed out adopter of technology that is
perhaps not ready for prime time. Not to mention preserving a forehead and
desk. Thanks in advance!
 
I had a similar situation with Ultimate. First, during the install
Vista booted the CD off the DVD then complained it needed drivers and
wouldn't install (well, duh - you just booted off it). I put in an old
Creative DVD unit and installed Vista. I put the new unit back in and
Vista said it installed drivers when I logged in. I saw the device in
explorer but none of the files on it would display. My solution was to
buy a DVD/CD unit that said it would work with Vista (I used a Sony) and
replace my brand new Pioneer and now Vista is happy. It's said that
Vista is having so much trouble with something so basic as a DVD/CD
drive but for some reason it is being stupid when it comes to DVD/CD drives.
 
Peter, thanks for responding, but you'll note that that was the first KB I
had listed, so I've already tried it to no avail.

Brett - I don't want to resolve this problem by throwing more money at it.
Let Congress do that! Using that method, I'd have to replace my motherboard,
too, and while I'm at it, why don't I just replace my whole brand-new PC?
Sorry if that sounds terse, but I'd be more inclined to replace Vista than
any hardware at this juncture. There *has* to be a software fix - if the
drive works in XP, why doesn't/shouldn't it work in Vista?

Anybody else? Anyone have any thoughts on the BSOD error message ("tried to
release a resource that it did not own")?
 
After more research, I'm developing a theory as to what's going on, but
without in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of computers and Vista, this
is more a hunch than a theory.

The theory is that there's a bug in the IDE controller/driver in Vista when
the only IDE drive is an optical one (i.e. hard drives are SATA, not IDE).

There's a couple of ways to test this theory: go out an buy a SATA optical
drive or an IDE hard drive (with no guarantee of success), or ask the
community if they have any rigs that disprove this theory. So, my question
now is:

Does anyone running Vista (Home Premium 32-bit, if it matters) have SATA
hard drives (only) and an IDE DVD drive, and if so, are you having problems
reading DVD-format disks?

I've included my re-hash of the problem below. Thanks for any input you can
offer, it is truly appreciated.
 
I have a system with 2 SATA hard drives and one IDE DVD reader/writer -- NO
problems with movie DVDs or other pre-recorded DVDs.
 
I am also having a problem reading files from dvd's but not cd's, similar
issue but not able to run application install from dvd's. Have you had any
luck resolving MikeD?
 
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