DVD Dual Layer problems

I had recently installed Win 7 Ultimate x64. I found that the cd drive would not read DVD DL. I tried all methods(incl all KB articles) and finally decided to go back to x32 hoping that the change would cure it. No chance. It reads all other types of DVD ok and writes too. I have tried several different DVD DL. I used an external iOmega DVD drive - and found that 10% of the time that drive would read the DVD DL - in most of these 10% cases only for a short time - after reading a folder or two the drive would disappear!
my system:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7400 @ 2.80GHz, 2793 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0412, 10-06-2009
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume3
Locale India
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.49 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.25 GB
Total Virtual Memory 6.98 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.65 GB
Page File Space 3.49 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys[/COLOR]
DVD Drive - Samsung (TSST Corporation) SH-S203D DVDRW ATA

Try updating the driver from the manufacturers website.

Thanks, went also to the Samsung website and the driver is the latest as also the firmware - I have the live update of Samsung also installed and the firmware is the latest SB001!!

The DVD drive itself could be going bad. Is your rig an OEM or a self build? Do you have another DVD drive w/same features as the one in question? You could try switching out DVD drives and see if issue continues.

What kind of DL discs are these? Did you burn them yourself? El cheapo brand, or something better?

Let me ask you this: have you tried connecting the external drive to a different computer, inserting one of the discs that your 7 machine did not read at all, and seeing if the other computer, using the same external (or internal, if possible) drive can see it?

This might help determine whether the issue is with Windows, or with the media or the drives. While I've heard of both, the symptoms suggest a shot drive, but it's unusually unlucky that both drives would be going out at the same time, so I wouldn't rule out a software problem just yet.

Hey thanks for the efforts. The discs are A-OK in that they are from the monthly PC magazine called Digit - and they are dual layer burnt commercially and supplied every month with the magazine - contain archives, trial ware and the like. The iOmega works fine with the same disc in my friend's laptop! It surely is a Win 7 problem, I think. In fact I have been reading these discs with the same drive when I had Win XP as the OS just in August last! I kept the drive but changed everything else as the drive was only a year old.

Have you installed any burning software in addition to the Windows 7 installation? Like Nero or whatever?

Yes, Nero - and I hate the inbuilt Windows burning software - in XP I used to disable it but find no option in Win 7 to turn it off!

I have installed win7 64bit on my computer and can no longer read dvd+dl they are the same discs that worked in the same drive which all worked fine using win xp, the discs work fine in other computers and I am sure if I took the drive out and put in in another system or went back to xp it would work fine too, I have tried record now and nero, what is up? I should also say I have all updates installed and I have even updated the drives firmware nothing makes any difference it all works fine except for the dual layer discs

It's a long shot but have you trierd uninstalling Nero then use Windows Media Center to try and play the disks.