e1705 cd-rom issues

Hello all,
I am having an issue with my cd-rom on my e1705 (I got the dvd 8x rw +/- upgrade). I did not yet have a dvd decoder and I was intrigued by the one offered by nvidia, since I have a 7900 GS, and it promised to provide the best picture out of the other decoders. However, after installation I tried to run a dvd and it was running slow and the audio was all hacked up. I hope that there is not an issue with my dvd drive and trying another decoder might solve the problem, but I do not understand why it did not work. Has anyone else with an e1705 had similar issues? Can anyone recommend what you use as a dvd decoder?

 

Are you plugged in? Running on battery often results in subpar performance. Check out VLC for a great all-around player.

 

On my laptop, I couldn't use some decoders. Personally i recommend using Cyberlink PowerDVD which you can request from Dell's tech support (they'll send it to you for free). If i tried to use anything else, my sound or video would be screwed up :-/

Don't worry, it doesn't hurt your DVD drive. The DVD decoder is just software that reads a DVD.

 

Thanks for the replies. My laptop is plugged in so that's not it but i appreciate the reccomendation on VLC. Thank you for the suggestion, Southern Girl, I think that is probably the best thing to do considering you were saying that you had problems with other decoders.

 

hmmm... I'm getting the same audio butchering and slow doen with vlc as i am with nvidia. Maybe the cyberlink program is the only one that will work with inspirons??

 

VLC normally works. Make sure to uninstall the nvidia drivers, and check to make sure that your laptop is set to DMA mode and not PIO.

 

Southern Girl how do you switch to the dma mode?

 

I actually think that there is a problem with my cd drive because when i have tried to run a movie with the nvidia decoder and vla it makes this really loud whirring noise that sounds like a jackhammer is going to work on my computer. Then when the movie plays you can hardly hear the butchered audio above the obnoxious noise the drive emits and it makes my computer stutter with trailed mouse movements. I don't think I should be having this problem with a dual core processor+7900 GS+1GB ram so I think that it is another issue, i.e. a defective cd drive. Is there a way that I can run an in-computer diagnostic to see if the cd-rom is working like it should be? Or am I going to be stuck duking it out with a Dell representative to get a new drive? Finally does this dvd burner from dell just plain suck and other people have the same problem?

 

My NEC drive has been my best ever, you may have the Sony drive.

From the desktop, right click “My Computer”, now left click properties, then hardware tab, then device manager. You now see a list of items installed on your 1705.

You and Dell will checking items there DVD/CD drives option will give you the make and model of your drive.

Look down to the IDE ATA/ATPI controllers and look under Secondary IDE Channel.

Check attached picture for your settings that Southergirl mentioned. Set as the attached picture if not already.

Dell will ship you a new drive if they determine you have a hardware issue. It’s one screw and drive slides out, very easy.

A little patience will be required but Dell usually will try to do the right thing.

 

Hydra-
When I got to the advanced settings on the secondary ide channel properties, I saw that I have DMA if available checked but that the current transfer mode is PIO mode. Is there any way to correct this? Also will doing this eliminate the really loud vibrating sound my drive emits? I just used alcohol to get an image from a psx cd copied on my computer and it made the jackhammer noise the whole time! The screwy thing is that the drive will make the noise half of the time. Another reason why I believe it is defective is because I have been playing ps1 games off of cds on epsxe and 3 weeks ago, the cds were loading and working just fine except for occasionally making that jackhammer noise. But now, the darn thing won't even load the cds.

 

Okay, I found another link on the forum that directed me to a dell driver that changed my mode to DMA, let's see if that fixes the slowdown/jackhammer noise. I have to go home and get my Phish Live in Vegas CD though...

 

Windows detects errors or thinks it does and sets it PIO mode.

Try this; right click on your secondary IDE channel, now select DISABLE. XP will ask if your sure, say yes, then shut down. Now reboot XP will "find" your new hardware, drive, and install it. Now re-check your settings.

 

Do you have the TSSTcorp drive? I was having issues with it and Dell sent me a new Sony/NEC drive.

 

Yes, that is the drive I have (TSST which I believe is Sony). I corrected the dma setting from pio and now my dvds are running well but the picture looks a bit pixelated; i think what is bothering me more than anything else at this point is the jackhammer-esque vibrations coming from my drive! I wish I could post sound samples for you guys to hear!

 

No the TSSTCorp is a Samsung I believe. Sony/NEC make a diffrent drive. I would contact tech support.

 

I have an E1705 with the sony drive and I have the same DVD playback problem. I have tried powerdvd, windvd, nvdvd, vlc, and some other programs but no luck.

I checked for the DMA mode and it was set to PIO. I changed this and was able to play dvd's again, however, a day later, the problems begin again and I cannot play dvd's again. Sometimes it works, most of the times it doesn't.
DMA 2 mode in on.

 

I tried the nvidia pure video decoder a while back on my desktop 7900 gt, it was not a pleasant experience, after 2 weeks of fighting it,trying countless things I read of various NV forums, I just gave up, at the time the ratio of folks that had any success with pure video was about 10 to 1, though that was nearly a year ago, what forceware drivers are you using? Even now some releases lack support for it, if it makes you feel any better most everyone that got it to work didnt notice any real improvement over the standard decoders and kinda felt ripped off by purchasing it

note: if the decoder is working, you should see a small nvidia logo in the corner of the screen during playback, if you dont see it, the pure vision decoder is not active and your machine is using something else