won't recognize external optical disc drive

I just spend 70 dollars on a samsung dvd-writer external optical drive for my m11x. Although not totally necessary, I wanted one to be able to upload music and play games and things like that. Unfortunately though, my laptop doesn't seem to want to recognize the device when I plug it into the USB! I know I have it hooked up right because the light on the optical drive blinks, and I'm able to open it and put discs in it (which spin in the machine but then stop when it's not able to do anything with the laptop). How can I make my m11x realize that there's a device plugged in?

I know it's not the laptop because I tried plugging my iPod in with the usb cord, and it worked fine. And I've heard many others on this site say that this particular external drive works fine with the m11x. So what's going wrong? Is the USB cord they supplied defective? I wouldn't think so because it supplies power to the device just fine.

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks.

 

lol, I think I know which samsung you bought, is it the slim external one, with 2 USB plugs? If so, one of the USB doesn't work, which is the long/or extended one, the shorter one however works.

I've had the same thing happen to me, I was surprised when it didn't work and found out the extended one coming out of the shorter usbs cable is actually used for something else.

 

yeah that's the one! haha. but I dunno, the cable seems to work because I'm able to turn the thing on and open it and everything. It's just that my laptop isn't aware of the device and so it's not able to read anything that I put into it. Did this kind of problem happen with you? cause it's driving me crazy lol

 

I am assuming that you mean that the same wire has one connector for the drive, but two standard usb connectors at the other end. Correct?

If so, one of them is intended only to provide extra power if one usb port does not provide enough for the drive (in which case you would connect both). So, one of those connectors only carries power and should not run the drive.

If that is not relevant or doesn't make sense, do you have another cable you can try?

 

I own an ASUS external DVD drive which also has two USB plugs on the computer end. In order to make sure that the drive works correctly both USB plugs need to be inserted into the computer to provide more power, just as the poster above me suggested.

 

The quotes above me explained it but yeah haha, it drove me nuts because everything was working fine, but my notebook wouldn't recognize the disk so I was like "this is blasphemy!".

 

hmm well I got them both plugged in. maybe it's just that it's not in correctly? the ends of the cables themselves are like really insecure. The one that plugs into the drive has to be in a perfect position for it to work lmao. so maybe that's the issue? but I don't know how to get it to work. Just went out and exchanged it by the way lolol thought maybe the last one was defective. but nope same problem =p

 

Try putting in the short one only in lol, if that doesnt work can't say I have no idea what the problem is. Try another one I guess lol.

 

I Wrote A Thread About This, Turn Off Alien Fx Then Boot Computer With Usb Plugged In It's A Power Issue