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    Asus W3J makes weird clicking noise when playing certain DVD's?

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by Pommie, Jan 23, 2008.

  1. Pommie

    Pommie Notebook Deity

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    Hey guys,

    Have had my Asus W3J for a year and a half now, its been an awesome laptop, with virtually no problems except for one... For some reason, only on certain DVDs, when I insert the DVD and close the drive bay door, it'll make a weird clicking noise. It sounds like the drive is struggling to play the DVD, this will go on for about 30 seconds continuously, then the DVD drive will stop completely.

    It only happens on some DVDs..? And no, its not a region coding thing, I have the Battlestar Gallactica Season 2 DVD set (not pirated!). The first DVD worked fine, then the second DVD does as described above..??? I put the first one back in, and it worked fine.

    I don't understand whats going on? Data CD's, games etc... all work great. There's just this one problem...

    Has anyone got any idea's as to whats causing this? I tried searching, couldn't find anything.

    Please help, im at my wits end here!

    Cheers,
    Pommie
     
    Pommie, Jan 23, 2008
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  2. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    1. Scratched/damaged DVDs. What you hear is the error correction mechanism trying to read the scratched track over and over again, until it finally gives up.

    2. Maybe also the DVDs are fine, and you have a firmware/driver bug... To eliminate driver you can try reading the DVD in a Live Linux distro. Firmware can be sometimes upgraded but with many notebook ODDs it's problematic.
     
    E.B.E., Jan 23, 2008
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  3. Pommie

    Pommie Notebook Deity

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    The DVD is brand new, and works fine on friends machines... Just mine it doesn't seem to like. Real pain in the ass this problem. Never had it before on any other machines...
     
    Pommie, Jan 23, 2008
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  4. AlexF

    AlexF Notebook Deity

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    Bad reflectivity or anti-copy disks. Pressed disks aren't always perfect. You can tell when you put it into the drive and it struggles a lot when trying to read it.

    It could also be that they produced the second disk in a different production plant.

    Or it could be that the TSST drive in the W3J just can't deal with whatever type of disk that is.

    In any case, laptop drives always have more trouble reading different types of media compared to desktop drives. I would suggest to try reading the first disk in a desktop drive while listening closely, then try reading the second and listen for any difference in noise. Good disks generally read quickly without having the drive slowing down. Bad disks will generally cause a desktop drive to click a few times and drop speed before being able to read it properly.
     
    AlexF, Jan 23, 2008
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  5. Pommie

    Pommie Notebook Deity

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    Thanks for the help guys. I'll try what you suggested AlexF!
     
    Pommie, Jan 24, 2008
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