Toshiba dvd/Sony lappy problems

[papa']

My problem is much like the one in the mastermiaow thread. I have a Sony pcg-f520, windows 98se, 500mhz p3, 256 mb ram, neo magic 256av video card, sonic cineplayer1.5 and interactual player dvd s/w, and a problem child toshiba sd-c2202 dvd drive. Will play cd's not dvd's, doesn't even show that they're there. This is what I know about my system; in device mngr it shows the toshiba drive with no problems, the driver is a windows cd-rom driver 4-23-1999. This is what I've tried so far. Removing the drive and reinstalling, no luck. Updating driver from the drives properties drivers tab, then listing all hardware and selecting toshiba, I picked dvd-rom from models list, since mine wasn't there, no luck, went back to original setup. Updated windows and tried reinstalling drive, no luck. Next I went to drastic measures and reformatted and and reloaded windows, no luck! I should mention that I got this lappy off ebay and don't know the history, I did email the seller, he said the dvd worked fine, I question that since there wasn't any dvd software loaded on the machine. Also, I do have the original sony restoration cd's. Thanks for any help with this!

[confus-ed]

welcome to Windrivers papa'

Are YOU my dad ?

Have we ever actually put any dvd player s/w on this ?

The original units do ship with a cd/dvd in 'em anyway ... dvd's don't require drivers in the same way that other stuff does, natively they ought to appear as cd drives with 'no interferance' required ...

DVD player s/w is generally what then makes the unit work as a DVD as well.

When you reformatted did you setup windows or did you use the restore disks ? I think if its the first you are probably missing some machine specific patch, that you won't get from windows update, you want every patch you can see (probably) from sony for that model & o/s ... (infact whichever way around you did it, go look on sonys links for that model & apply any patches )

[papa']

Thanks for the reply.
I don't think I'm your papa.

I have sonic cineplayer 1.5 and interactual player loaded as dvd s/w. When I reformatted and reinstalled windows it was with the sony recovery cd's. I have again fully updated windows. Also, have gone to sony's site, not much in the way of updates for this computer, I did however update the latest video driver from thier site. Thanks

[NooNoo]

Are you using shop bought dvd's or are they burned?

[swamprat]

Not unusual for this to happen on Sony's. Lots of times, it is a laser problem with the drive not seeing dvds, but reading cd's just fine. If what NooNoo says does not help, it is probably a drive issue.

[papa']

1. interactual player =


2. Buy a copy of WINDVD

3. Download a copy of DVD Genie

http://www.inmatrix.com/files/dvdgenie_download.shtml





Are you my PaPa

I'll try windvd, I use cineplayer on my desktop with much success though.

[papa']

Are you using shop bought dvd's or are they burned?

They are store bought dvd's

[papa']

Not unusual for this to happen on Sony's. Lots of times, it is a laser problem with the drive not seeing dvds, but reading cd's just fine. If what NooNoo says does not help, it is probably a drive issue.

That would be a disappointment, I'm assuming that the drive would then be bad? Unless the lens needs to be cleaned, I'll look into that.

[papa']

Did you buy a copy of "interactual player" or did it install if from the DVD? If it installed from the DVD then the drive is reading the DVD, or Like swamprat says I got to agree with.

You might try a CD-Rom Cleaner on it and give that a try

I actually don't have interactual installed at this time, that was several attempts back at fixing this, I've reformatted and reinstalled windows since then. It was a copy from a dvd so I'll try it again.

[papa']

Thanks to everyony for your help, I've got some things to try now. I'll let you know what happens. Sorry that I had to do all of the replies seperate, I wasn't sure how to reply all at once.

[NooNoo]

If you are replying to a particular post, for clarity's sake it is often better to make them individual replies as you have done.