The strangest problem.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don
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D

Don

I have a Toshiba A75-S2762 notebook with a DVD/CD drive. I have Windows XP
Pro with all the latest updates applied. The drive will play a DVD (whether
home produced or store purchased), a WMA file and I can access data off a
CD-ROM. The drive will not play a music CDA nor will it execute a retail CD
product for installation. On the latter it asks me to insert a CD into the
drive if I try to look at the CD contents using Explorer. If I look at the
event codes it tells me it is event 11 which means I might have an I/O
controller problem usually occasioned by a bad cable. I have run scans of
the system with Symantec and with Spybot and Ad-Aware. Nothing comes up.
Does anyone have any ideas?
 
I will if I find nothing else that suggests a possible solution. Obviously
the service center will teach me nothing and only cost more than I might be
willing to pay until I know exactly what is wrong. BTW, how does your
response add to the collective knowledge?

Don
 
No, it is not still under guarantee, but, for another month I do have an
extended (paid additional for) warranty good until July 1. That does
nothing to satisfy the desire to learn about the cause and not to rely on a
service center to handle the problem leaving me with no knowledge of the
real cause. We come to these forums to learn from people with experience in
areas where, perhaps, we have little. Contribute something to the group
instead for go spend some money and I'll have more respect for your
contributions.
 
Hi,
Who makes the optical drive?
Toshiba sells Matshita optical drives and i have had some problems with them
in the past. They do eventually fail over time and sometimes unexpectedly. So
if it is made by Matshita I recommend geting a replacement drive from Toshiba.

In case anyone wants to know, Matshita is a Japanese company that has come
to North America. Over here, they are known as Panasonic.
 
The drive is a Matshita, a DVD-RAM UJ-820S. This may not be the only
problem as I continue to research the issue. There may also be, either a
Controller problem and/or a hard disk problem with bad blocks. I have done
the usual checking of the disk using the Windows XP disk tools, but in
windows and on restart. Acronis seems to think I have bad blocks as it will
backup the drive but will not verify the results.

Don
 
Don said:
Yes, and which would you use to truly diagnose the problem?
Click to expand...

The problem sounds like a defective drive. You could diagnose the problem by
plugging in a USB drive and see if it exhibits the same problem (this will
eliminate a software problem) or replacing the existing drive with a known
good one. It is a fairly common problem with combo CD/DVD drives e.g. the
drive will work with some formats but consistently fails with others. As you
have mentioned you have an extended warranty I would let Toshiba worry about
the appropriate troubleshooting method.
 
Kerry, I did just that. I took it to be examined where I bought the unit
and the extended warranty. I'll let you know what is the case, but right
now there is a defective hard drive as well as the problems on the combo
drive. Might just turn out to be a controller problem as well. Thanks to
all who make constructive suggestions.

Don
 
If both the hard drive and the CD/DVD drive are having problems my vote
would be for the motherboard or bad ram.
 
Since I really don't know how bad ram can generate a bad block I'm of the
opinion the disk or controller is having problems. I won't be able to rule
out bad ram until I get the unit back and do an extended memtest. Would
like to hear how bad ram could cause the hard disk failure. I can envision
why the CD/DVD would show problems.

Don
 
It depends on the symptoms of the drive failure. Bad ram sometimes shows up
in the event logs as errors writing to a drive. If the drive won't work
period then bad ram is unlikely. If the drive fails read/write tests and has
intermittant errors in the event logs it could be bad ram. A bad chip could
be flipping bits causing the error checking routines to flag an error
because the data on the drive doesn't match what is in ram. That's why
critical installations like servers use ECC ram. It is more likely to be a
bad hard drive. The reason I mentioned ram is because you were having
problems with both the optical and magnetic drives.
 
The unit right now is ready for some replacement part. Don't know which as
the online system at the repair unit does not specify, so I guess ram was
not the problem since they verified that the reported problem (at least one)
was a bad device. Will confirm more when I know.

The combo drive had problems reading some types of disks. The hard drive
showed 4K of bad sector errors in the Windows disk check routine.

Don
 
It has just been confirmed, the combo DVD/CD drive and the hard disk are
both defective and are being replaced. This should end this saga. It does
surprise me that both seem to have manifested problems around the same
general time although it's hard to say when the combo drive went south.
Thanks to all for your interest.

Don
 
Don said:
It has just been confirmed, the combo DVD/CD drive and the hard disk
are both defective and are being replaced. This should end this
saga. It does surprise me that both seem to have manifested problems
around the same general time although it's hard to say when the combo
drive went south. Thanks to all for your interest.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. It's always good to hear what solved a problem.
 
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