Dvd drive does not work anymore

I bought a new dvd drive , and it was working before with i had some issues with it that i was trying to solve.

The issues i was having before was it not reading original DVD'S, for some odd reason it was reading BURNED discs just fine but when i was trying to play my store bought movies it wouldn't play them.

Instead it would just make a sound that the drive was spinning but never initiate anything. The dvds work just fine i tested them in another dvd player so the dvd's i was using are NOT the issue.

When i launched a burned disc the dvd drive would already auto launch it and gave me options to open the files or use a media player, when i was using store bought discs it wouldn't give me such options. In fact they wouldn't even show up at all.

So i try these things:

1. I check my device manager and uninstall the dvd drive, then i restart my computer so it could reinstall the drivers. I tested the dvd's again and same problem persisted it still only read BURNED discs but not STORE BOUGHT dvd's..

2. I go back into the device manager and see what region its set to , it says ''region 1'' ( my region for usa dvd's) so it can't be a region issue.

3. I open up my case and unplug the cables take off the dvd drive and reseat it again and use the cables switch the cables for the hard drive to the drive to see if that makes a difference. That did not work same problem still but my dvd player is clearly working since it reads discs but for some reason its not reading original store bought discs...

4. Thinking its a firmware issue i go to the hp website , look for drivers and find a firmware driver for the dvd drive. I install it and run the file as explained through adminstrator.

I got a pop up windows saying ''downloading'' and the model of my dvd player , it went up to 1/4 of the bar then i got a small box saying '' error installing file'' popped up stating i needed to restart my computer.

So my pc restarts and then it shows its once again installing ( default) drivers for the dvd drive. HOWEVER now it shows in the main system as ''cd drive'' ( Not dvd rw). And Worst of all the drive does NOT open anymore when i push the button so now its useless...

I go back to device manager and try to look for rollback driver option but its not even selectable. However remember i stated previously the firmware patch did not complete? It seems it never installed to begin with so i can't ''rollback''.

I uninstall the generic driver again and restart my pc ( so it can reinstall it again) , but that changed nothing. When i start my pc the light from the dvd drive does not flash green anymore and like i said ever since i tried to apply the firmware now the dvd won't pop open.

I did a system restore prior to me installing this driver but that solved nothing.

I unplugged and resat the dvd drive again but that did nothing as well. So now i am left with a non working dvd drive. When i unplugged and resat the drive this time though the light from the drive does come on now, however it doesn't open anymore.

And now it still shows up as ''cd rom'' and not ''dvd rw'' like before.

Any help would be appreciated

 

The green light from the drive is now always on even though the drive doesn't open or seem to function now.

Manually pressing the button doesn't get the tray to eject neither does using ''eject'' from the drive menu.

The device manager sees the drive and it sees it as ''working properly''. I ran Mr. Fix it app from microsoft that didn't help either ( it couldn't anyways because it was asking to insert a cd to fix the issue and since i can't even get the drive to open..) .

 

Try reinstalling the firmware. If your firmware on your DVD drive was corrupted, it won't work. Reinstalling the Windows driver will not fix the issue because it it different from the firmware. The firmware is installed on the DVD drive itself and the Windows driver is part of the OS.

Updating firmware on DVD drives and other devices is tricky business. Mess it up and you may render the device nonfunctional.

 

Best option is to RMA the optical drive or replace it with a new optical drive with a trusted quality brand to avoid future headaches.

 

Thanks for the replies,

I deleted the registry entries and i thought that made it a bit worse, then i opened ( took off screws and such) and put it back together and inside my case again and it seemed to work.


I tried to the run firmware again but it gave me an error, then i selected to run as ''vista'' compatibility mode and it worked then. My DVD drive now plays my store bought movies.

Also i didn't realize messing with the firmware could have potentially screwed my whole drive over, because i didn't even pay attention to what firmware it originally had. According to the file i used though it said if my firmware wasn't up datable it wouldn't run the file , the whole problem was the compatibility mode i had to use the file as.