DVD RW Drive Problem

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J

JamesJ

What would cause Vista x32 sp2 to all of a sudden not see my
DVD RW Drive. I went to open it today and nothing happened.
I checked 'Computer' and the device wasn't there. I checked
BIOS and it showed as 'None'. The only option in the BIOS other
than 'None' was 'Disabled'
I opened my computer and checked the ribbon which seemed to be
connected ok. After jiggling the ribbon and checking the other
connections it now seems to be ok.
Could this be a bad ribbon?

James
 
JamesJ said:
What would cause Vista x32 sp2 to all of a sudden not see my
DVD RW Drive. I went to open it today and nothing happened.
I checked 'Computer' and the device wasn't there. I checked
BIOS and it showed as 'None'. The only option in the BIOS other
than 'None' was 'Disabled'
I opened my computer and checked the ribbon which seemed to be
connected ok. After jiggling the ribbon and checking the other
connections it now seems to be ok.
Could this be a bad ribbon?

James
Click to expand...
Yes, or it could have been a loose or dirty connection. It's also possible
that the drive may be failing and will act up intermittently. Note the MS
Fix mentioned is irrelevant. If the drive was not being detected by the
BIOS, it has nothing to do with Windows.
 
BIOS didn't detect it either.

The drive is 3 years old.
Could it go bad in that short of time?

James
 
Drives can go bad whenever they go bad. Days, weeks, months, years. If
BIOS does not see it and all connections are known to be good, then the
drive has likely failed.
 
The laser in the drive has a finite life span, and sometimes it seems to be
way to short.

I have seen a drive unable to detect any DVD disk after only about 25 hours
of actual recording time. The drive was 1 year old and, as most drives,
plays disks much more than it records disks. The CD function worked fine.

I have had 3 Sony drives fail prior to reaching an actual DVD recording time
of 50 hours. I now have a Lite-On that is approaching 100 hours and still
working fine.

Note that when recording fails, playback may still work. Also, because there
are 2 lasers, one for DVD and one for CD, one of the functions may be fine
while the other is defective.
 
BIOS didn't detect it either.

The drive is 3 years old.
Could it go bad in that short of time?

James
Click to expand...

Six (6) months is a short amount of time for computer and computer
parts. Three (3) years could be consider an "eternity!"
 
Hi, James.

I haven't checked out DVD drives, but I've had more than one HD maker honor
their 5-year warranty. One was a Seagate only a few months from the end of
the 5 years.

We used to hear the sad term "infant death syndrome" applied to electronic
components. Experience showed that if a device was bad it was most likely
to fail within the first 3 months or so of use. If it survived the first 90
days, it would likely run indefinitely, probably for many years.

But Richard's point is that when the drive is bad, no amount of griping or
hoping is going to revive it. Face the fact and take the appropriate
action. With or without a warranty, replace it. Otherwise, you'll still be
griping and hoping - and staring at a dead drive - six months from now.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64
 
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