Major problems with CD/DVDs

HI,

I am writing because of a range of problems I am having with my wife’s Samsung R610 laptop, running Windows 7.

The first indication of a problem was when my wife commented that videos (whether attached to emails or accessed from websites) were slow to open.

After a weekend trying a number of strategies to solve this (installing codec updates, VLC, Media Player Classic, etc) I have come to the conclusion there are a number of problems which may or may not be related. I shall describe the symptoms and hope that someone can see a common denominator and hopefully point me in the right direction.

1. As mentioned, video files (regardless of what format they are) are very difficult to view. However, they will sometimes play with good sound and vision and synchronisation, so proving that the media player software and the video hardware are not fatally flawed.
2. The Laptop has a combined DVD/CD player/burner but no matter what disc is put in, AutoPlay does not give any indication the disc is recognised.
3. (My) Computer shows the disc (whether it is a DVD, CD, data or movie) yet as soon as I try to open/explore or read the disc in any way, (My) Computer stops responding. Any attempt to close (My) Computer via Ctrl+Alt+Del fails and it takes for ever to close the application.
4. At one stage, having put an audio CD in the drive, I left the computer to have lunch and after about 15 minutes the audio was heard, the disk playing as normal. However the moment I paused Play and tried to restart it Media Player would no longer work for me.
5. Device Manager shows no conflicts, and the CD/DVD player is reportedly using the up to date driver and working properly.
6. Attempts to burn data files to a blank CD also fail and Computer locks up!
7. My wife did remind me however that ever since the laptop was new (with Vista installed) tere has always been a problem using the DVD/CD burner - I had forgotten!
   

At one stage I was on the point of going out to buy a new DVD/CD unit but since the one in the laptop does on occasion work as intended I suspect the problem is elsewhere.

Any suggestions will be very much appreciated

Thanks everyone,

Roger

 

Hi Roger and welcome to nbr
firstly what discs are you using, ie + or -
+ is the equivalent to betamax when it comes to video. - took over while + fizzled out. they are still used and available but no where near as much as - discs.
new drives should take both but ive had problems with + discs in the past.

check your drive for errors.it might just need new drivers.
go to control panel > device manager > disk drives > right click on it > properties. does it say this devise is working properly.
next go to drivers at the top of properties box and click update drivers.
might help but might not. always worth a try.

 

Hi,

see if cleaning the lens of your drive does help. You need to be very carefully since the optical system of a slim optical drive is very fragile. And do not use one of those "lens cleaner" discs - these might cause even more damage to the lens.

Michael

 

Hi MrDJ and thanks you for your reply.

It doesnt matter what disc is put in - the reader/burner has difficulties reading any sort of disc, either a burned data disc or a bought audio CD or movie DVD

As mentioned above, the unit is said to be operating normally in Device Manager, and there is no yellow conflict ! mark. I have tried to update the drivers but it reported the driver is up to date.

Thanks anyway,

Best wishes,

Roger

 

Hi Michael and thank you.

How should I clean the optical drive without a 'disc cleaner'. If a cotton bud is used, what should one damp it with? Spirit of some kind or alcohol?

Thanks,

Roger

 

50% or higher isopropyl alcohol is best. But I'm betting the drive is clean given your symptoms. You may need to update your chipset drivers.

Do you have any programs that might interfere with the drive? Daemon Tools, other things like that? It could even be a virus trying to access removable media and malfunctioning.

 

Tha nk you Pitaqbred for your thoughts.

I will see what I can find in the way of a chipset update but will need to Google this as I am not really sure how I go about it.

Also, it did not occur to me there might be a virus, routine AVGFree scans have never shown up anything untoward but maybe I should try another software option.

I will hold off on the cleaning as I am reluctant to go poking about and risk further damage until I have tried everything else.

Thanks again, I will reply when I have tried the suggestions.

Best regards,

Roger

 

You need to know what's inside your computer. But I suspect this is not a chipset driver issue.

Assuming your system is running some kind of malware, then you can not trust your "security" software that is running on such a compromised system. That's why there are live CDs with virus scanners

You reported that your drive does work occasionally. For me this is an indication of the problem not being software related, so just start with carefully cleaning the lens.

What you could try also:
Try a bootable CD or DVD and see if you can boot up your computer from that disc. I personally prefer Live Linux CDs for that task. But any other bootable disc should do also.
This test should rule out Windows or software related problems.

Michael
P.S: removing the dust from the lens using a clean Q-Tip sometimes helps already.

 

"chipset drivers" are usually no more than alphanumeric descriptions of on-board hardware that lets the *real* drivers self-select and install more reliably via PnP.

Updates to chipset drivers are usually made to allow for new hardware releases.

 

You are talking about Intel's "inf update".
But this is not all. Depending on the hardware, there are drivers for storage controllers (which are integrated into the chipset), southbridge drivers and possibly even more.

Michael

 

I just took apart the last three Intel 'chipset driver' packages.

All that's really in there are the chipset descriptive .inf/.cat files.

There are also the mandatory DiFX 'drivers' that are intended to talk to the standard Microsoft Driver Installer Framework. Nothing else.

If you want storage drivers you need to go after the storage driver installer.

 

Hi and thanks again for the valuable advice.

I cannot try the suggestions yet as this weekend is a public holiday here in Australia and I am going away for the weekend.

I will reply early next week,

thanks again,

Roger

 

Hi everyone,

I do apologise, not only for the delay in responding, but more so for my own ineptitude.

After much deliberation I decided to bite the bullet and wiped the HDD and reinstalled a clean Windows 7 O/S, only to find the problems persisted.

I finally thought I had better go to the Samsung website and check to see what updated drivers were listed.

As soon as I got the chance I checked the site and there were a whole host of updates which I downloaded and installed, and hey presto, my problems appear to be over!

I feel so stupid, and truly apologise for wasting everyone's time when the solution was so simple.

I hope with this track record you kind folk will still give me your help when I next write seeking assistance.

My very best wishes to all,

Roger

 

thats what we are here for mate. glad it got sorted at last.