Hi I have a compaq v3000 and now and again the drive just vanishes. I look in device manager and gone. When it is there is will play movies fine but it does seam to have a little problem with burning sometimes. I use convertXtoDVD. I have not used the drive very much and it works perfect when it's actually there...lol Anyone got any answers. Thank you
Maybe it could have something to do with the power supply. Or maybe the cables connecting to the drive are faulty.
I would say that it's most probably a hardware issue. But it is best if you try ruling out possible causes one at a time. When or if the dvd drive is there, go to device manager and uninstall the device, then let the computer find it and let it reinstall the generic driver. After doing so, observe if there are any improvements. ( unlikely but possible) Unfortunately, a hardware issue would be a bit more difficult to isolate and your options for a fix are limited to what you can physically do on a laptop and its components. You can try removing the dvd drive and reseating it. Turn off the laptop and remove the battery. Most dvd drives have one to three small screws underneath that keep it in place. After you remove them, you simply pull it out a bit and push it back in. If it's a contact problem on the ide socket, reseating or reinserting it could improve the electrical connections and may solve the problem. However, if all the connections are fine, it could be a failing diode or capacitor that causes intermittent detection of the device. IF that is the case, drive replacement may be the only possible solution. But before you spend money on a new drive, be certain that it is the drive that is faulty. If you have an old dvd drive lying around and is of the same type, you can try using that to be certain. You can also remove your dvd drive and connect it to another laptop to verify if it is faulty or not. In my case, what I usually do is I remove a suspect dvd drive, connect it to an external dvd housing/usb and test it on another computer or even on the same computer itself, using the usb ports.
There is a far easier but more cumbersome way to prove this.... You could load up a live install of ubuntu and if the drive is a no show then that means its a hardware issue... Without doing all the removing and battery stuff that will nail the problem.... And hopefully your still in warranty to get it sent back to the manufacturer.... However if your still unconvinced as to the legitimacy of the drive not showing up then you could try reinstalling windows... either way it has to be either software or hardware...
I agree with you smorgan. But the point of removing and reseating the dvd drive is part of a process that may resolve the problem. If the contact on the ide terminals are oxidized or dirty, pulling out the dvd just a bit and pushing it back in can improve electrical contact. Of course if it is under warranty, he can send it back in for repairs. Using a live ubuntu cd will in fact verify if the drive has a problem though. Or you can just go into bios and see if the drive is detected.
I have similar problem with a Dell inspiron 530 when running Vista (Which the machine came with) dvd drive does not show up but if you insert a dvd eject it reinsert it and it is ok. No such problems with windows 7. i also use Convertxtodvd always burn your dvd's at half the speed of the disk i,e 16 speed disk burn at 8 speed.
I had the exact same issue that was driving me nuts as well. What I have found though that the pinning on the DVD drives were not setup correctly. Ex: One was on Cable Select and the other was on Master. You do not want to do that. The funny thing was that I did not have the issue on XP at all but when I fixed the pinning it was fixed on win7 as well. I know it is kinda funny but weird things do happen lol. I would definately check the pins, if that does not help and it is the same drive everytime then it is probably either a bad drive or a bad cable as mentioned above. Try a different cable to see if that helps, if not try to swap out the drive. Maybe you can borrow a friends to test and see what happens. Good luck timesurfer.
Had this issue too a long while back with a Lite-on drive, turned out that a firmware update was the cure.
Not much to say here timesurfer, I had the same problem as you once with an DVD drive on an old Pentium 3 computer which is now long gone. I thought that the drive was faulty but before jumping to conclusions I decided to take a peek under the hood and it turned out to be some dirt/corrosion in the connection. I took some electronics cleaning spray and some cotton swabs and cleaned it very accurate and put them back properly and voila no problem after that.
That is good to hear Time. Glad that you fixed it. Remember that if you have it happen again then to look for firmware updates and look at the connectors and pinning assignments. If all else fails get a new drive lol
Well those first two links find, install or whatever but the last I haven't tried meaning DVD drive is still bunk It's no big deal just can't afford to buy new one which I'm guessing could run me 100 dollars I will try that last step then take out drive and check pins then I give up after that...lol
Actually you might be surprised dude. A DL DVD Burner with LightScribe only costed me 50 Dollars and that is an LG BTW.
Whenever i had a problem with intermittently disappearing/reappearing drives it always and without exception turned out to be a faulty cable. These things are often so fragile that they dont survive much more than 2 or 3 unplugs/replugs, so the cable would definitely be my number one suspect.
So like memory the plugs have only so much life. I however have a laptop with original drive. I'm gonna try taking it out and see if that's it. I dunno but might just save up for what sam3971 suggested. Wonder if I should get an external since I'd be burning a few DVD's or just get replacement internal drive? It does read fine when it's "around" just no write with convertxdvd late
you able to burn at all with any programs with that drive? I had the same thing basically happen to me and it was a bad drive lol. For some reason my old drive was able to read and burn DVD's but cannot even read CD's for some weird reason. Only DVD's lol
Personally I would get an Internal because you are having drive issues anyway. External are good because of the portibility but usually cost more and don't last as long