Blu-ray combo drive issue - BC-5541H-H1

I have in my possession two dv6tqe. Both have had intermittent issues with the BD-ROM/DVD burner driver.

There are times when no disc is recognized by any software, this includes CD, DVD, and BD discs in Widows Media Player, VLC, MPC-HC, Winamp, Windows Explorer, etc. I am able to eject the either drive through software or the button on the drive. Anytime I try to access a disc the drive reports that there is no disc and it opens the tray. All the while the drive appears in the Device Manager, System Management, Explorer, Windows Media Player and the device properties say that it is working properly.

So far the only method to resolve this issue is to shutdown remove all peripherals, remove the battery, remove the optical drive and re-install it. So far this has resolved the issue every time, but it continues to happen again after several days to a week now.

The possible reasons for the problem are many. The issue was present prior to the BIOS upgrade to F.1A. I have been unable to find a known working firmware upgrade for the drive, but I continue to search.

Has anyone else had this issue with this drive or on the dv6/dv7 with a "Sandybridge" CPU/motherboard?

Drive details

• Part #619830-4C1
• Model #BC-5541H-H1
• HP Spare #659967-001/Cx1160
• Hardware v1.0
• Firmware v2.81

The drive has an HP label on it but I believe it is of Sony manufacture.

The service manual incorrectly displays the HP Spare part number as (641824-001) on page 32.
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02842252.pdf

 

If I drop the H1 from the end of the model, the manufacturer definitely comes up as a Sony based on my search. I think others have had similar complaints with certain drives, but I'm not sure which drive they got. I have an LG BT10N combo that also is a BD writer, and it has been flawless. I wonder if HP would offer just a replacement drive? It would be an easy swap, if they'll do it.

 

I believe I also have the LG BT10N blu-ray writer. My only issue with it is that, (haven't heard of anyone else having this issue) apparently only CyberLink-based BD applications will recognize/play blu-ray movies. I've tried the most recent versions of both Roxio's CinePlayer and Corel's WinDVD and both state the software does not support the required "overlays" necessary to play those disks. PowerDVD and HP's Mediasmart DVD (which is a dumbed-down version of PowerDVD) will play all blu-ray disks for me, no questions asked.

 

Discs are simply not recognized when the issue arises. The problem is not at the application level, both laptops have played back Blu-ray movies, DVDs, and CDs and they both have PowerDVD 11 Ultra installed.

 

Interesting. My dv6tse has the hp BDDVDRW CT30L and I've had no problems with playing Blu-Ray movies in PowerDVD10, ripping music with Exact Audio Copy, and installing StarCraft II from DVD.

I had no idea they used several BD-ROM / DVDRW drives.

 

If I could find a way to get the problem to repeat itself, that would certainly aid in finding a solution.

There are no related errors/alerts in event viewer for me to glean information from. Uninstalling the driver and rebooting does not solve the issue. Removing the drive in device manager and rebooting has no effect. Putting the machine to sleep and waking it has no effect. There are no power settings for the related devices that would cause this, at least as far as I can see.

I just have to wait for for the problem to occur again... how fun.