DVD Drive does not detect any disk

My Laptop (Acer Aspire 5520) for some reason decided not to detect disks anymore. Well all it does is it tells me the size of the disk and thats it. If I try to explore the disk or run the disk (if it had an autorun script...such as a game disk) it brings up the "Give this disk a name" input prompt (for creating a blank disk...). My drive pretty much it treats every disk as a blank disk. I don't really have experience with laptop hardware but I hope this isn't a drive failure. Also the device manager says my drive is working fine.

I run Vista Home Premium (It's not as bad as every one says...trust me.) if that would have anything to do with it.

Thanks in advance for ANY help.

 

As a test, create a user account, log into it, try out the dvd drive.

 

Well when i try logging on to the user account i get errors saying dwm.exe and explorer cannot initialize properly. When i try to open the task manager i get the same error but with the taskmanager. so all i end up seeing is a blue backround. :cry

 

So i tried uninstalling the device from the device manager did a restart and this time (2nd time) it works...sometimes computer just really confuse me. I'm not sure about the other account issue...so i just deleted it and everything appears to be working now. thanks anyways.

 

hi i have done it it work for one time only and again it it not detecting dvd and vista software cd also
.so is it hardware or software problem. at present i had install window 7 but same problam continue
pl rely

 

ACER - faq's usually help, but Acer's link did not work, when I tried it.
I have had this problem with a rw drive, that would write to a dvd, but not read it, when the other dvd drive (non rw, would.Sometimes a firmware update is available for the dvd drive, but I did not see one offered from ACER.a FIRMWARE update, allow dvd drives to read more dvd's than it was originally designed for, -like some will real dvd-r, some will read dvd+r, some just will not read others, without a firmware updae- so it could be, that situation-
sometimes if you have re-installed Vista, it has not got the codec's to enable more dvd reading.
Different versions of the 5520 have different setups regarding dvd capabilities, and, therefore software, it would appear from the documentation.
Will the dvd's play in another laptop/pc?- Media player never used to play all the dvd's I tried, although better, now.
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5520.html
If you notice, it does say that installing some drivers can cause problems- and with your re-installing once, and it working for a short time, it does sound like a driver issue.
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5520/vista/

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5520/vista/sp1et/

Other than a firmware update, and if all else fails, perhaps it is worth saving your data, and think about trying the e-recovery-
But semms a bit drastic- perhaps trying later drivers could solve it.Even a bIOS UPDATE.
-technical information -Download manual
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5520.html
Restore and recovery
The restore and recovery features allow you to restore or recover the system
from a factory default image, from a user created image, or from previously
created CD and DVD backups. You can also reinstall applications and drivers for
your Acer system.

1 Press <Alt> + <F10> or select Acer eRecovery Management from the
Empowering Technology toolbar to start Acer eRecovery Management.

2 Switch to the restore and recovery page by selecting the Restore button.

3 Select the backup point you would like to restore from. You can also
choose to recover the system from a factory default image, recover from a
previously created CD/DVD or reinstall applications and drivers.

4 Follow the instructions on screen to complete the process.