Zeto 6625WD DVD Drive problems

Had this computer for about 2 months. Like it a lot.
Dvd reads data discs quite happily, or at least the two or three that I've used. Likewise games.
However, the autoplay on video dvds seems very unreliable. On most dvds the laptop seems to spin up to full speed, which causes quite a lot of vibration and is very noisy. This is not just for 5 or 10 seconds, but 30seconds plus, or indefinately. It rarely gets to the point of bringing up Windows' autoplay screen. On a few occasions it has effectively frozen explorer, although entering standby enables and returning to Windows restarts the dvd - i.e. spins down on standby, then spins up again - which sometimes results in the dvd playing happily. With some dvds I have had to turn off the laptop, because the noise and vibration is too alarming.
Once playing a film, the dvd drive works fine, spins at a fairly constant speed, and is not especially noisy.
It doesn't seem to necessarily be related to dvds which are old and may be scratched, since I have just had a problem with a brand new dvd.

I understand that in a laptop such as this there is going to be little in the way of casing around the drive to dampen sound, and so it will be a little more noisy. This problem is more serious than that.

So, anyone else had this problem? Is it something as easily fixed as updating drivers? I really don't want to find that the drive is defective, and have to be without laptop while it is fixed. But considering it seems to read data discs happily, I'm not sure that's the case.

Will test further tomorrow... I guess this post is a little premature, but I want to see if it's a problem others have had, and if there's a tried nd testeed solution.

Matt

 

Unfortunately I don't have any solutions for you, but can say I've had some
of the same problems or similar. A lot of 'searches' without actually spinning
up (or down.) It's failed 2x in 4 months reading dvds. I also noticed when
pulling out the holder to insert a disc it occasionally came out too far. I've
used plenty of laptop drives and this one is definitely the most problematic.
If you come up with any useful tidbits, please post them!

 

Which DVD burner (Zepto show it as Samsung, in which case there should be a live update for the firmware)? Have you searched for any firmware update?

Overall, I agree that if it won't lock on to a commercial DVD without much fuss then there's something wrong. The way that problems in reading optical discs can lock up Explorer is annoying although I haven't noticed it recently. Perhaps I haven't had any problem discs, or maybe it's a tweak in Vista SP1.

John

 

DVD burner is a Samsung: appears in device manager as TSSTcorp CDDVDW SN-S082H, and also as a cd drive - I presume Windows recognises it's alternate modes as separate entities within device manager.
I updated the firmware from Samsung's site last night (Manually, since I don't fancy having another auto-update process running all the time). This hasn'tmade any difference with the dvd I was having problems with yesterday.
Don't know whether Vista SP1 has improved since XP SP2. Perhaps when I put SP3 on this machine things might improve. It's certainly a problem I have occasionally had on other machines, but on this one it's a little too common. I'm also a bit surprised that I can damp the vibrations a lot just by holding my finger against the outside of the drive when it's at full rpm - implies that it is altogether a bit too loose.

Ultimately I suppose it's not a terrible blow. It means I can't use this a portable dvd player. It seems I can still use it for data and programs, which is the primary reason I will use it.

Any Zepto inc. watchers have anything to say?

... and thanks for the replies so far.

 

The start-stop-speed up-slow down problem when trying to lock onto a DVD suggests a hardware problem if if is common to all commercial DVDs.

Vibration, if it happens with several discs, might indicate a loose fixing screw. I would expect the ODD is fixed by one or two screws on the bottom of the computer. If these are removed you should be able to pull the ODD out and then check that the fixing brackets on the ODD are not loose (then replace the ODD and tighten the screws).

I have had reading problems with discs with paper labels caused by two problems: (i) the paper label catching on the inside of the ODD housing and stopping the disc spinning properly; and (ii) different coefficients of expansion between the label and the disc which cause the same as (i) after a period of using the disc (which has temporarily changed shape).

John