Notebook drive not reading DVDs

[whatcdfan]

hello people
i am in kinda trouble coz my dvd drive is not reading dvd's perfectly though it reads cds to perfection.the only dvd i have ever put into it is of windows i need to reinstall win but when i insert dvd it starts spinning and i can hear a noise, its when drive reads any cd in the beginning but normally the noise slows down when the data on the cd isnt being used now whats happening i put dvd in starts spinning but auto play never pops up and the noise never slows down i tried using a brush on the lens of the drive then for once it actually seemed working but i am sure i cannot be dependent on it, i think its a problem of dust which is all around my notebook but is there anyway i can fix it???

[Cabalo]

Firmware issues maybe?
Try http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php

[anon]

i am in kinda trouble coz my dvd drive is not reading dvd's perfectly though it reads cds to perfection.the only dvd i have ever put into it is of windows

Once had the same issue in my desktop PC, with an ASUS DVD-RW. It'd read all CDs, but only original DVDs. Tried firmware flashing, but it didn't work. In the end, I had to swap the drive for another one. :ermm:

Hopefully you do find a solution. :D

[stan]

Install windows off a bootable flash drive. Most notebook dvd's are poor quality.

[whatcdfan]

i know win 2flash but how do do i create to be bootable FAT???

[JustDOSE]

NEVER brush a lens... use air and when you do make sure the can is upright so no fluid comes out. i never clean my lens it does more harm then good

[Waddafocky]

Ouch - as JustDOSE said, you might have ruined your lens with that brush - for something supersensitive like that, you might as well have cleaned your cd collection with a rock.

As for helpful suggestions, though - search the web if there are any similar problems with your drive, and check for firmware/driver updates.

Also, make sure your drive actually has the capability to read DVD's.

[whatcdfan]

its a dvd drive, i have used brush lastime to install win successfully this time it wont work.not its not reading audio cds as well

can i use my another laptop drive to install win on this one??if yes then how?

[Expeto]

As others said, never brush or even touch the lens, only use air for cleaning or a very very soft cloth.
To make flash bootable you need to mark the partition as bootable by setting a boot flag value, this have nothing to with the content or format of the partition. A lot of partitioning tools can do this without bugging with technical details, but I'm not very familiar with windows partition tools. My friend uses something called wintoflash for making bootable windows install usb, this software takes care of everything for you. I'm pretty sure google can help even more alternatives

[stan]

Here's a basic tut for making a usb windows installer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vt_8p0VllY

[Appzalien]

You really do not have to open the drive to clean it. First, as suggested, use canned air holding the can upright to prevent spraying freezing liquid. Eject the tray and spray the air in a sweeping motion ending up at one side to force dust out the other. Buy a lens cleaning disk from the store, it has a brush glued to a specific track position that will not touch the lens at all. The high speed that a disk spins causes the brush to gently blow the lens off and creates a static charge which releases the dust. If you have physically brushed the lens then you may have damaged it as its made with an extremely soft plastic. There are two lasers on a combo drive, one for the cd and one for the dvd. The cd laser is a little more forgiving as it reads a much larger burn mark on the disk. The dvd on the other hand achieves its larger capacity by using really tiny burn dots and its laser is really finicky. Try alternating cleaning with air and then cleaning with the disk, the disk will come with instructions on which track to play to make the brush and lens line up. The only other trick you can try would be to go into your Device manager and uninstall the drive and reboot. This causes Windows to reinstall the generic drivers it uses for optical drives and can eliminate the possibility of corrupted drivers. Since the drive will read cd's ok I would look into getting and external optical drive if portability is not an issue for you. If you need to move the thing around a lot, then replace the drive instead.