Acer 5920G How to Fix Vanishing HD/DVD-Rom ?

hope everyone is doing well and thanks for looking this thread..

i just bought this acer laptop 5920G with the following spec.

2.0Ghz core2 duo 4mb cache
250gb harddisk
1gb turbo memory
Toshiba HD/DVD-rom TS-L802A FIRMWARE A07
Geforce 8600M GS with 256mb Ram
Laptop has bios 3708

the laptop is working perfectly the only problem i m facing is that the when u insert any dvd it plays for a while and then just hangs when u check my computer the dvd icon is gone.. and confirmed when u check device manager unless u restart the system, come out of standby, or rarely by refreshing devices in device manager.. i have uninstalled nero, cyberlink, nti cd maker, also removed upper lower filters as advised elsewhere.. but the problem still persists.. is this vista specific issue? is there something todo with hardware if any one can confirm that i will get it sent back.. i have also done a fresh install of vista with none of the software present by acer but still it is the same.. what am i missing? is it the system bios which needs to be upgraded? drive firmware? i dont understand and it is getting me frustrated...

any advice/pointers will be highly appreciated... i dont want a brandnew defective laptop to stay on my desk..

awaiting some feedbacks
best regards

 

HEY Am i the only one having this problem with 5920g?? as so far i havent received a single responce.. thats really shocking.. no ones here with 5920g? please reply thanks

 

sorry no one seems to be answering you... i guess no one else is experincing those problems with that model

sounds like it could be a hardware issue... you might try contacting ACER.. they might even send you a replacement DVD drive if you feel you can replace it yourself.... otherwise... consider sending it back to them...

i assume the DVD issue happens with any DVD... ( or just VIDEO DVDs,,, just data DVDs??) try to troubleshoot the issue as best as you can and besure to include an extensive description of your issue and how to duplicate it...

that way you stand a better chance of getting the issue resolved

 

it seems like some sort of software issue.. as i have restored with the same dvd drive complete vista os.. it is ok when using under dos.. i havent tried installing win2000 or xp yet.. but when i installed fresh vista the problem persisted.. i tried googling for vanishing cd-rom in vista and came accross thousands of posts.. but the remedies they suggest doest help my case strangely

 

i have an old 7110 aspire that had this problem. the cd/dvd would vanish or revert to a cd only.
after installing nero al worked fine and the problem never returned.
I think nero updated the firmwire for the cd/dvd.

 

Nero can't update firmware .I think it can reset it

 

that's what i think happened as nero has a drive checker.
i just put in a DVD in to the drive and nero did its stuff
and even after a fresh install of xp pro its been ok without nero.
like you said bigspin it may have just reset it.

 

he he hog .....looks like you guys start nice acer team.congratulation!

 

was wondering when you would spot that

and we get requests to join as well

 

Hmmm.....letz c.......
My avatar may cause problems

 

Hmm think you may be right lol

 

But still I can help unofficially for unofficial acer team

 

bigspin... we are happy to have all the help we can get... God knows Acer sure doesn't help much....

 

Acer still have poor tech support, but their notebooks getting better day by day.
for eg: 2nd Gen Gemstone rage is better than my AS5920G

They wanna care about after sales service.Too bad acer board of directors still sleep

Maybe acer directors busy with newly adopted tech firm works(Gateway/P'bell)

 

OMFG... they own PB too....

i knew about the Gateway and Emachines purchase.... but never knew about the PB thing...

 

Acer has some funky tools on their systems that play serious games with you when they don't work correctly.

One of the biggest culprits = Acer Lanscape agent. Not really sure what it's purpose is, I think it works in conjuntion with the empowering techologies that they use on their systems.

I run about %75 success rate in fixing optical issues with Acer units simply by removing the agent. While you are at it remove all that other empowering "crap as I like to call it" and you will be much better off.

In fact, if you are capable, I would reload the OS from scratch. You can get all the drivers at http://support.acer.com Just make your backup DVD before hand so you can always go back, then have at it. Whoever is in charge of their default loads should be shot !

All thoes tools they load help the non windows type user do simple tasks such as change resolutions, setup screen savers, even lock the usb and optical drives. If you have even a basic working knowledge of how to find your control pannel, remove all that stuff.

 

as a matter of fact i did a clean install of vista without loading anything apart from acer drivers and the problem returned.. i also installed nero but that didnt changed anything.. what is the utility that checks or reset the drive? maybe i shold test that?

 

here's a link.
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/

 

thanks for the link hoggie, currently testing the drive can u please tell how to reset the drive with this utility or is it automated once u start it? thanks for replying

 

I have the same problem, the Drive just keeps vanishing so it is unusable, I know it is not the drive faulting. The problem came after my laptop was sent off to acer support because my last hard drive broke and acer replaced it but they were too lazy/inexpirienced to replace any of the drivers that the laptop had. So when I come to find the laptop on their drivers website; alas the HD-DVD drivers are not even listed upon there so it's malfunctioning.

 

xninjatom for how long u used your laptop before you sent it to acer? its really a strange phenomenon, sometimes it vanishes while u r watching a dvd, sometimes it just vanishes when u did nothing.. but it always come back when u restore from sleep mode..

keep posted i m confident it is a software issue otherwise y m i able to boot from it.. and also use live cd versions of linux without any problem isnt it...

 

I had it for about 5-6 months before I had to send it back. Before that I had No problems with the drive at all

 

hmmm.. are u getting any blue screens of death now too ? and what firmware ur hddrive has ?

 

No blue screens; Generic windows driver.

From:21/06/2006?!?!? - Surely there must be an updated driver I can use out there??

 

CD/DVD drivers are built into the OS... there is NO UPGRADING or CHANGING DRIVERS...

the best you can do is UPDATE THE FIRMWARE

 

where we can get updated acer firmware i have ac07, but i can no where find anything acer to download.. there are a couple of others available like hp but i m not willing to go ahead and flash them .. is there any acer site where these are available thanks

 

just found this link with tons of similar complaints i think these toshiba drives really sucks http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?hhTest=1&forumID=133&threadID=241915&start=0

 

i have a feeling you are correct about the quality of the drive... which kinda suprises me about TOSHIBA... thier laptops WERE at one time considered the best by all my TECH friends....

ACER will never give you firmware upgrades for a different manufacturer's product

check toshiba or google CDFREAKS

here is a link w/ some STUFF??
http://www.google.com/search?q=ligg...-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

FLASH AT YOUR OWN RISK

 

i have just figured it out that the drive is perfectly normal.. i have spent hours using linux live cd, then i did a system restore.. and drive was working perfectly.. then as soon as i did a system update cdrom vanished... and reverted to the same problem.. then again i did a system restore.. now drive is back to normal.. i have also noticed that if i update system i get an error when intel matrix controller is updated.. strange something todo with these updates.. if any one can shed some more light?

 

Your not alone. I've started noticing this problem on my Acer Aspire 5920G as well within the last month. What is more agrivating is when it acts up it will wait until I actually put a disk inside and close it before deciding to disable itself -- so my disks get stuck inside with the eject button not responding. I even hear a chuckle inside the drive. Also that USB port to the right of that drive also no longer works as I have to have to push the plug upward to get it to recognize now.

I have the best three year service plan that Best Buy offers, but when I call them about checking it out they say they may have to send it out to Acer for service. Since I only get a week break between terms I just don't have the luxery to wait a few weeks without a computer especially when most of my classes are online. Not sure what to do right now.

 

it sounds like the driver files for that HD-DVD was written for the older INTEL STORAGE DRIVERs, and the newer INTEL drivers just aren't compatible with ACERs customized files (which are required for HD playback)..... and once those custom files are associated with the hardware, it's hard to locate and remove the offending files.

if it is that much of a problem sending the unit to acer for repair, you may be better off buying a cd/dvd drive and replacing it yourself for now... a slimline internal DVD BURNER can be bought for $40 to $50 for a good one... and if you look around you may find a cd burner/ DVD player combo drive for $20 or less on EBAY...

other than that the best solution i can see, especially if your problems seemed to arise after doing system or driver updates... is to do a factory restore and then disable auto updates....