DVD disk drive problems
 

Everytime I put a DVD in my DVD Rom, my laptop says there is no disk. Does anyone have any idea why and what I can do to get it working?

from the RULES OF TILTED COMPUTERS:

When asking for help... We need as much information as possible to offer our best assistance. We need to know what is wrong with what, and as much general information about your system and anything you may have done to it recently (new hardware, applications, cat spilled coffee on the keyboard, etc...)

OS: What version, have you patched it?
Processor: Intel, AMD, Mhz, overclocked?
Motherboard: what type...
RAM: how much and what type. PC100, PC133, PC2100, PC2700, how many sticks.
HD: size, type, partitioned
Media: floppy, Zip, CDROM, CDR, DVD, etc...
Browser: IE, Mozilla, Opera, what version <-- VERY important for web problems.

What Cynthetic means is:

- Did you try putting in a CD-rom disc?
- Are you sure you're selecting the DVD-drive (and not another removable storage)
- Did you do anything to the system prior to this problem? (Drop it, install new software, remove old software, etc)
- Did the problem occur suddenly or was there a period where the disc would be recognized only some of the time?
- What brand laptop is it?

In order for us to help, you'll need to supply more details. Anything you can think of that relates to the problem, and also anything you can think of that doesn't relate to the problem.

I will provide as much more info as I know...

I have a Dell Latitude D600
I dont know what you mean about a CDrom or DVD drive other than it says DVDRom on the outside.
I (think I) have watched movies on it before, its not often, but last summer I did.
I have installed some things, but they were just small executables, I can't think of anything significant.
I have Win XP with a pentium M.

I don't know of much else I could mention that would be helpful and I really don't know where to start to get it working.

so can you put in a CDROM and it sees that?

I put a regular cd with songs in it and the drive could read that. Then I put a dvd back in it and it couldnt read it.

The dvd I am using is a very simple one, it shouldnt have any copywrite protection on it.

a dvd, that's all dvds? or keep putting in the same one???

does that DVD work on other computers?

I have put in several and every dvd I try says either no disk, or disk cannot be read.

I have tried to put it in my other laptop which is a sony vaio, no luck there either. But its been tempermental for while.

If your drive can read CDs but not DVDs, chances are that it's fucked. They use different lasers, so one can work while the other does not. The reverse happened to my NEC DVD+-RW and the only solution was an RMA.