Reading a DVD

K

Karen F

A friend's computer will not read the DVD when he places it in the drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

Karen
 
P

Paul

Peter said:
You could also test that the computer can boot via that
optical drive. If you have a Windows 7 DVD, see if the computer
will boot with it. If it does, that helps prove the
hardware in the drive itself is OK. Then you know
the problem is more likely to be of the "UpperFilter/LowerFilter"
kind.

My Windows 7 laptop, offered to burn a bootable Windows 7
disc, when I first got it. And that was a Microsoft
feature, not a feature added by Acer. In my case,
that DVD is bootable, and provides a Command Line
prompt if needed. Simple repairs can be done from there.
In total, when I got the laptop, I think I may have burned
about five DVDs, and one of them was the Windows 7 boot
disc burned by IMAPI2 support in Windows 7. That is
how Windows 7 burns a DVD, without a copy of
Nero or similar, being present. That's an improvement
over WinXP, which couldn't burn a DVD natively.

Paul
 
K

Karen F

Thanks. I will pass both on.




Paul said:
You could also test that the computer can boot via that
optical drive. If you have a Windows 7 DVD, see if the computer
will boot with it. If it does, that helps prove the
hardware in the drive itself is OK. Then you know
the problem is more likely to be of the "UpperFilter/LowerFilter"
kind.

My Windows 7 laptop, offered to burn a bootable Windows 7
disc, when I first got it. And that was a Microsoft
feature, not a feature added by Acer. In my case,
that DVD is bootable, and provides a Command Line
prompt if needed. Simple repairs can be done from there.
In total, when I got the laptop, I think I may have burned
about five DVDs, and one of them was the Windows 7 boot
disc burned by IMAPI2 support in Windows 7. That is
how Windows 7 burns a DVD, without a copy of
Nero or similar, being present. That's an improvement
over WinXP, which couldn't burn a DVD natively.

Paul
 
K

Ken Blake

A friend's computer will not read the DVD when he places it in the drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

All DVDs or just one particular one? How about CDs? Will the drive
read CDs?
 
T

TheGunslinger

A friend's computer will not read the DVD when he places it in the drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

Karen
Options:

1) DVD is corrupt
2) DVD is video and codecs are not installed
3) DVD player is broke and needs replacement

So, is DVD readable or playable on another system?

<< Yes suggests bad DVD player

<<No, suggests bad DVD and try one that is confirmed good on another
system.

IF video DVD, does it play on another system

<<Yes suggests you need to install codecs for video.

IMHO,

MJR
 
P

Panic

If this is a DVD burned on a different computer you might check to see if
the author "closed" out the DVD to make it playable on a different computer.

"Karen F" wrote in message
A friend's computer will not read the DVD when he places it in the drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

Karen
 
G

Gilgamesh

Karen F said:
A friend's computer will not read the DVD when he places it in the drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

Karen
Get new friends :)
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

A friend's computer will not read the DVD when he places it in the drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

Karen
One thing no one mentioned: is the drive a DVD drive or a CD-only drive?
A CD drive can't read or play DVDs.

That mistake has been made before, so I had to ask...

BTW, a DVD drive has two separate lasers, one for CDs and one for DVDs,
since they use different wavelengths of light. So it is possible for one
part of the drive to stop working while the other is remains OK.
 
P

Paul

Gene said:
One thing no one mentioned: is the drive a DVD drive or a CD-only drive?
A CD drive can't read or play DVDs.

That mistake has been made before, so I had to ask...

BTW, a DVD drive has two separate lasers, one for CDs and one for DVDs,
since they use different wavelengths of light. So it is possible for one
part of the drive to stop working while the other is remains OK.
To answer that question, you can use Nero InfoTool.
It will list the capabilities, that the drive claims electronically.

http://majorgeeks.com/Nero_InfoTool_d120.html

The capabilities show as "tick boxes" so you can get
some idea whether CD or DVD media can be read.

http://majorgeeks.com/screenshots/n/neroinftool.gif

Paul
 
T

TheGunslinger

One thing no one mentioned: is the drive a DVD drive or a CD-only drive?
A CD drive can't read or play DVDs.

That mistake has been made before, so I had to ask...

BTW, a DVD drive has two separate lasers, one for CDs and one for DVDs,
since they use different wavelengths of light. So it is possible for one
part of the drive to stop working while the other is remains OK.

Yep, I forgot that, too.

IMHO,

MJR
 

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