DVD drives not recognising dvd's

[AberTechGav]

Hi - I hope someone can shed a little light on this.

I'm working on a customers PC which I had to re-install Win ME.
The problem is that although the DVD drive (Hitachi Gd-7500) is recognised, and will read CDs ok, it will not read or run most DVD's.

I have installed PowerDVD XP for her. Could this be messing up something?

She has a Asus CUSL2-M with 64Mb (!).

It is fitted with a 633 Celeron.

Out of my entire DVD collection, it will only play Star Wars Ep 1, all others it will not even see the disk in the drive. They all work fine on my own Pc's.

I have deleted the drive from Device manager, but no joy.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can try?

Thanks in advance.


Gav

[NooNoo]

Did you try the native dvd player first?

Here is how to use it (http://www.activewin.com/winme/tips/b3.shtml)

What video card btw?

Is DMA enabled ?

[AberTechGav]

Hiya Noo Noo,

Thanks for replying.

Its a built in graphics system.

DMA wasn't enabled when the fresh install was complete. I manually enabled it afterwards. Struck me as odd as it usually sets itself.

The DVD-Rom wont even see the disk in the drive, so cannot use any player.

I will have another look tonight - Maybe replace the cable and set the jumpers on both the writer and the dvd the other way around - see if that helps.

Thanks again...

Gav

[Archer]

Was it working before the install and have you tried running a lens cleaner through the player?

[AberTechGav]

Hiya Archer,

I have talked to the customer and she has never played a DVD through the system. The Pc was bought from a catalogue, and didn't include any player software. She knew it could, but never tried until now.

Its very strange as it will see that one disk (Star Wars) when inserted, yet will not see any other DVD. Maybe its just a big fan!!

I will take out her drive, and test it in another pc to check it.

She's not had too much luck, poor thing - I backed up her licence files for all her music, and when I restored them we just got a message saying cannot relicence media!!

Still, there we are - makes life interesting...

Thanks again, Archer...

[AberTechGav]

Sorry Archer, forgot to mention that I have run a cleaner through it, with no improvement.

[geoscomp]

Have you checked with any other player software?..we had some problems similar to that with power dvd, but finally solved them with win dvd..also, aren't some players licensed to work with movies produced only in certain countries?

[orange]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Is DMA enabled ?

Some older DVD drives may need DMA *disabled* to work correctly...my old Toshiba gave similar symptoms to what you are getting with DMA enabled, but when DMA was disabled it played everything, although a little stuttery at the start of the movie! I tried CyberDVD, PowerDVD and WinDVD all with the same result and all different configs for IDE busmaster drivers, etc, etc but never did get it working except by disabling DMA. I now have an LG DVD and it works perfectly, with DMA enabled. Perhaps it would be easier just to throw a new drive in or at least a known working drive from your own system....

[PJK]

I had a dvd drive that was less that one year, and it read cd's perfectly but not dvd's.

I got is replaced.

The end.