Can't play DVD's.

[Shackled Phoenix]

My DVD rom refuses to read DVD's. whenever i attempt to play one, whatever media player i use has a critical error and shuts down. I've double checked, updated, and rolled back the drivers.

The player still reads and writes CD's with no problems, i only get trouble when trying to play DVD movies.

DVD player is a : QSI CDRW/DVD SBW 241 (CD 24x read 24x write, DVD 3x read)

running XP

any ideas WTF?

[Xcellsi0r]

Got this from another forum, but seems pertinent:

=========
The reason why many people are having problems with this burner is do to the fact that they are using the wrong CDs. QSI, which is a sub-company developped by Lucent Technologies, created combo drives that worked with only certain cd-r discs. The reason for the lack of compatibility is due primarily to the economy and business politics. QSI did not purchase the licence to conform compatibility with most cd-r discs. Even though they do not have the license, they do have the compatibility with all cd-rw discs and most DVD-R discs. Below are the discs that work and the discs that do not work, or have problems reading when using the QSI SBW-241 drive. Certain discs from certain manufacturers work better than others. Some work so well that they allow the drive to write at its MAX speed of 24x.

Working CDs and DVDs (Excellent Quality and Speed usage):

1. Verbatim Data Life Plus (AZO and Super AZO brand CD-R)
2. All Sony Brand CD-R
3. HP CD-R
4. Ricoh Platinum CD-R
5. All Kodak CD-R
6. FujiFilm CD-R
7. Toshiba CD-R
8. All CD-RW discs
9. All DVD-R discs
10. All DVD-RW discs

Does NOT WORK!!!! (Burn problems and read problems):

1. Maxell CD-R
2. Memorex CD-R
3. SmartBuy CD-R
4. Plextor CD-R
5. Minor Name CD-R
6. No Name CD-R
7. All DVD+-R dics
8. All DVD-RAM discs

If a certain brand or type of disc is not listed above, then it has not been tested on this drive. You may wish to test it yourself or use one of those discs listed in the Working CDs and DVDs section mentioned. For optimal performance including the usage of the full 24x speed of this drive use: Verbatim Super AZO CD-R
or Sony Brand discs or any CD-RW disc.
=========

[Shackled Phoenix]

actually i've used, both read and burned, plextor and maxell CD-R's, and possibly memorex's without incident. I would also imagine that the DVD's used by movie companies do not fall into the realm of DVD-R's or DVD-RAMs.

Thanks for trying though :)

[Morpheus]

Try copying files manually from the dvds to your harddrive. If there are no errors, than it's your decoder drivers(video card drivers nowdays). Otherwise it could be a bad drive. My TDK CD/DVD burner refuses to recognize DVDs altogether whenever I hook up my other DVD drive.....

[00025]

I have the similar, but not quite the same, problem for quite a while now. I got a DVD-/+R/RW drive last christmas. After a week of constantly burning DVD's & CD's (Damn I went crazy on the thing, like a new movie and album burned everyday), It just suddenly stopped reading and writing any cd media. DVD's and DVD medias still works fine. I contacted some of my friends and read some tech forums and they all concluded that there might be a damage in the CD lens. Good thing is that newegg has a really good RMA Repair option so Im gonna have to send it back to them for repair or replacement.

Most DVD burners have separate lens heads for reading and writing DVDs and CDs. If one fails or gets damaged the other one will still work perfectly. In your case, I think the DVD lens head may have given up and died. The only way to fix it is either hope that the warranty still covers you and send it back to where you bought it or to the manufacturer or buy a new drive.

But that doesnt mean that it is damaged. It may have been just dust, so you may wanna use some lens cleaner first then if that doesn't work then it probably means that it is damaged.

[Shackled Phoenix]

hmm, i'll try cleaning it, if that don't work, no way in hell i'm sending my laptop back into best buy for 9 months of failed repair. check the dumb computer stories thread if you need an explanation why.

Thankies :)

[Fragman]

use power dvd its a problem with wmp same thing happens to me wmp sucks anyways

[Xcellsi0r]

You could try an experiment.......... Switch from Windows to Linux. This means that you could get much better connection from the linux to your DVD component. Maybe you'd consider that.

[Fragman]

linux is limited to very few games very few of most top of the line products the onlything its good for is running servers

[Shackled Phoenix]

1. no linux, i'm a gamer nut, and i'm not going to play around with my only gamable PC like that.

Frag, i've tried several players and it hasn't worked. everytime they crash, but i'll give power DVD a chance anyways.

[Morpheus]

Have you tried manual copying from the dvd drive to your harddrive?

[Shackled Phoenix]

w0000ty w000ty w00t w00t! powerDVD worked! i'm shocked. windvd, WMP, Quicktime all managed to fail but powerDVD worked!

[Morpheus]

Sounds like you had troubles with DVD decoding drivers. What kind of video card do you have?