If yours, do not rush to run for a new one! Drives for many reasons can begin to "work out". Perhaps the problem is not in the drive at all. And if the drive is to blame, then there are ways to bring it back to life. In this article I will tell you everything I know about this problem, and at the end of the article I will tell you how to read scratched discs!Nature of the problem
First of all, you need to determine the nature of the malfunction. The DVD drive may not read all discs at all, or only some. Check it. If some discs are still readable, then the problem is in the hardware. How to solve it I will tell below.
First of all, we will try to return the drive to its former agility by removing software restrictions. If the operating system malfunctions, the drive may not read anything at all. By the way, there may or may not be the same problems with recording discs.
Software solution to the problem
Remember what programs you installed recently, what games your children installed? A common cause of the problem are virtual disk managers, such as and. Games can install virtual disks for their own needs, and they can conflict with each other. In some cases, the DVD drive does not read discs after installing a disc burning program.
To make sure that this is precisely the problem, the advice is simple - demolish these programs and look at the result. But the removal may not bring results, if not, when everything was still working.
If everything worked, then we dig the problem in this direction: we try other analogues, other versions, leaving only what is needed.
In the case of "alcohol", try unchecking "Force other programs to detect discs as CD-ROM or DVD-ROM" in the program settings.
The second cause of the problem may be a driver glitch. To solve the problem, we need the "Device Manager".
To enter the "Device Manager" go to "Control Panel -> System" or press the hot keys "Win + Pause" and select "Device Manager" on the left.
After removing the above software, virtual drives may still be present in the Device Manager under "DVD and CD-ROM drives". Delete them through the right-click menu, reboot and look at the result.
The next thing to do is:
- Go to the "View" menu and select "Show hidden devices"
- In the device tree, find the "SPTD" driver under the "Non-Plugin Device Drivers" branch
- Remove driver and reboot
This is all a legacy from virtual drives.
If it doesn't help, move on. In the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" section, among the two or four channels of the controller, you need to find the one to which the DVD drive is connected. These four channels can be named differently, such as "Primary IDE Channel" and "Secondary IDE Channel", or "ATA Channel 0" and "ATA Channel 1" as in my picture. We open each in turn and look at the "Device Type".
We need to find a channel with a device type of "ATAPI CD-ROM drive" or something like that.
- We look at the checkbox "Enable DMA". Remove if available, or install if not.
- Reboot, look at the result
- If it works with the option disabled, then check the box again, reboot and check
- We leave the working option, but it is highly desirable that the "Enable DMA" function be enabled.
In some cases, this is the only way to get a DVD-ROM to work in Windows 7.
Another loophole to straighten the brains of the drive is to change the region in the settings. To do this, in the device manager, open your DVD drive and on the "DVD Region" tab, look at the current region. If it says "Current region: Not selected", then do not touch anything. And if some left one is selected, then we try to change it to our own. The number of attempts to change the region is only 5! In complete desperation, you can try to change the region from the “Not selected” state to some other one. But you can reset it back only by flashing it.
What to do if the problem is in the hardware
First of all, I advise you to replace the cable with a known working one and change the power plug to another one. This completes the repair.
During operation, the DVD drive collects dust, which partially settles on the laser head. Due to dust, the DVD drive does not read discs, or reads, but not all. It would be a good idea to disassemble the drive and VERY CAREFULLY clean the laser eye from dust with an ear stick lightly moistened with water or gasoline.
But not everyone can disassemble a DVD drive. In this case, special cleaning discs can help, i.e. CDs with glued brushes. When the drive tries to recognize the disc, it spins it and the brushes brush the dust off the laser head.
Due to excessively hard brushes, there have been cases of damage to the laser head. The brushes must be flexible and come with grease.
You can also blow the insides of the drive through the open tray using a can of compressed air, as an option.
Sometimes updating the firmware of the drive helps. You need to look for a new firmware on the manufacturer's website and clearly follow the instructions for installing it.
A dying laser is a common occurrence if the DVD drive won't read discs. Due to a low laser, CD discs can be poorly read, but DVDs can be read perfectly and vice versa, because each type of disc has its own laser. Probably the drive has worked its way, if none of the above helped. Do not worry and buy a new one, since today they are inexpensive.
BONUS!
How to read a bad disk
When everything is in order with the drive, but there is a scratched disc that really needs to be read, then try sanding the disc with a soft cloth. Be sure to sand from the center to the edges! With this we will grind the most dangerous - longitudinal scratches, because. they match the tracks. I once tried a special device for stripping discs, but did not feel any benefit, better with my own hands
To read a bad disc, there are special programs, such as paid or free. Programs try to read the bad sector many times with different parameters, and if nothing works, they simply skip it and move on. In this way, you can save everything that is possible. As a rule, for audio and video, the loss is not noticeable. In the bonus video below the article, I recorded how to read a bad disc using the Unstoppable Copier program.
Today you learned what can be done when the DVD drive does not read discs. I hope I saved you time looking for the right information or money to buy a new drive.
