Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K14L Can read DVDs but not CDs

[Tufty]

My Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K14L on my Sony VAIO pc reads all DVDs and not CDs, tried System Reboot but still it does not work. Even tried a lens cleaning disk. Please help.

[hudsonsmith]

Welcome to windrivers tufty. Many of these drives use two different lasers for dvd's and cd's. It is possible that the cd laser has died. As cleaning hasn't worked, try booting from a bootable cd (such as the windows cd). Make sure bios is set to boot from cd. If the computer won't recognize the cd at boot, it is likely the laser has died.

[Tufty]

Thanks. well I already tried rebooting the system from scratch and that didnt work so as you said the laser is probably dead. Cheers for the help.

[trueblood]

I have changed the dvdrw drive once, because I had the same problem, one month ago, now I have the same problem. Please help me to find a solution for this. What can I do, I can not spend my money buying dvdrw's every month.

[AlienDyne]

I have changed the dvdrw drive once, because I had the same problem, one month ago, now I have the same problem. Please help me to find a solution for this. What can I do, I can not spend my money buying dvdrw's every month.

This is bad luck, but the drive is supposed to be under warranty, isn't it?

[riclarotta]

My Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K14L on my Sony VAIO pc reads all DVDs and not CDs, tried System Reboot but still it does not work. Even tried a lens cleaning disk. Please help.

I have the same problem. Sony Support on line thinks that the problem could be with the driver and suggests me reinstall the driver or run system restore to the factory settings!

Will there any upgrade driver for that device?

[Ukman]

Probably not very helpful, but I too have exactly the same problem and after havng a series of discussions with Viao tech support in Shannon inc system recovery etc, I am sending the unit back tomorrow for repair. Its about two months old.

If any of you have a similar problem with Viao in the UK&I don't be surprised if you have a delay in getting the unit into repair as the seem to have a packing box" production problem. they will only accept the unit back in a special box provided by DHL. - just in case you don't know.

[McGuinty]

Hi, I'm having the same problem with an LG combo Lightscribe drive (GSA H50L) and I've ruled out faulty IDE cable, updated the firmware and even reinstalled windows (which I was about to do anyway). My drive is reading DVD's okay although I've noticed the sound dropping off in volume and cutting out periodically during DVD video playback. It won't detect or autoplay CD's (data or audio), but what is really weird is that when I am playing a game that has SecurRom, SafeDisc or Starforce, the game starts fine with no errors, but when I try to play an older game without this sort of copy protection, I get the "please insert game disc and restart application" message. I guess I just have a dead drive, and since I bought a barebones unit without a box so my warranty is probably 30 days, which sucks the big one. (I hesitate to say OEM because apparently this means something else entirely concerning DVD drives; it says LG right on the tray but some models are Dell or HP or whatever even though they're the same drive made by LG.)

Anyways, I would just like to make 100% sure that the drive is dead before I plunk down for a replacement or go throught the hassle of RMA (if that is possible). I have an old DVD-RW that still works like the day I bought it that I can use for now, but I had a couple of Lightscribe projects I wanted to do right when the drive stopped working. Right, the Lightscribe function doesn't work and won't detect them, better mention that too.

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers McGinty

If you bought an item with no box, it still has to be fit for purpose. You should check what warranty was offered and act on it immediately. If it was a refurbished drive, you are probably out of luck.

The only check you could do is to see if it behaves the same in a completely different machine - then you know the drive is faulty.

Combo drives have different lasers for different functionality, also the firmware plays a part in media recognition so you have to pin down whether this is entirely the drive or not.

Moving the drive to another machine is the quickest way forward before attempting an RMA