Physical and virtual dvd drives not working correctly

Hi, i noticed this recently, and my dvd drive, and virtual drive were working fine last time i used them.
When i attempted to install a game (mass effect 2) from a dvd it didn't load the autorun, and when i explored the dvd and tried to run the autorun manually, it said it was missing a file (an ini i believe), yet on another occasion loaded the autorun (automatically) normally
I proceeded to try running the setup file a couple of times, but it would stop after a while saying it was missing a file.
My first instinct thought hey, this is a new dvd, maybe there's something wrong with it.
I downloaded and iso of the game and attempted to install it with my cd key and still had the same problem where it says "installation failed! the installation of mass effect 2 has failed. unable to open data file."
Here's where i think hey, well let's try some other disks, and see what happens.
I tried (in the physical drive) a music dvd and it brought up all the tracks as normal, but while attempting to play them, windows media player put an x next to each of the track titles.
When trying to play a movie dvd that didn't work either.

Hardware/software referenced
pioneer dvr 212
daemon tools pro version 4.40.0312.0214
running windows xp pro sp 3

I downloaded the latest firmware for the pioneer dvr 212 and uninstalled the device, restarted, and let windows find the driver again.
I downloaded the latest version of daemon tools.

I'm still having the same issues. I really don't want to format, (or restore a norton ghost copy)

This is the information from event viewer

Code:

Details 
Product: Windows Operating System 
ID: 51 
Source: Cdrom 
Version: 5.2 
Symbolic Name: IO_WARNING_PAGING_FAILURE 
Message: An error was detected on device %1 during a paging operation. 
    
Explanation 
An input/output (I/O) request to a memory-mapped file failed and the operation was retried.
  
User Action 
No user action is required.
    
Version: 5.0 
Symbolic Name: IO_WARNING_PAGING_FAILURE 
Message: An error was detected on device %1 during a paging operation. 
    
Explanation 
An input/output (I/O) request to a memory-mapped file failed and the operation was retried.
 
User Action 
No user action is required.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Currently there are no Microsoft Knowledge Base articles available for this specific error or event message. For information about other support options you can use to find answers online, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx.

Any help that will get things running normally would be appreciated.

 

Greetings, F4tal3rror.

Just a thought:

Check Control Panel > Windows Update > View Update History, see if KB971029 has been installed. The KB addresses disabling Autoplay primarily contained in USB drives, but I have read of problems concerning opticals and and virtual drives.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971029

 

windows xp doesn't have windows updates in control panel, but i had a look in add/remove programs, and yes i do have it installed.

However, doesn't look relevant. I'm not having troubles getting auto-runs to stop after disabling them.
I'm basically having troubles running things from both my physical and virtual drives
If you still do think it's relevant, i can try removing the update, and see if it fixes anything.

 

No, don't uninstall it if it's not giving problems - that was just a shot in the dark.

I hate to say it, but the first thought I have regarding your symptoms is possible hard drive or communication failures. You might consider finding the drive's OEM diagnostics tools and verifying the drive's integrity.

 

wouldn't that just affect the virtual drive, and the physical drive respectively, and not both, with the same symptoms?

To me it feels like something is wrong in the registry, or something has installed a driver/software for something that's conflicting.
But i wouldn't have the foggiest how to look for or fix either, especially not knowing what was causing it in the first place.

 

update:
i tried installing another game from the virtual drive, and it worked fine. Maybe i thought i tried another image, but didn't.
It would appear to be a combination of stuffed physical drive, and bad image for mass effect 2.

Would be nice to be able to test the optical drive in another machine, and to try another optical drive in this machine. Looks like it's time to buy another optical drive, and hope it's not a waste.

 

Can you boot to your Windows disk (or any bootable disk)? That would pretty much confirm your optical drive's status.

Very possible - but as you pointed out, that could be royal pain to root out.

 

Completely forgot. I did try that. it started to load but ultimately failed.
I'll try using a cd/dvd clearer cd (when i buy one, or find where mine is) and if that doesn't fix it, i'll buy another drive.