Re: DVDs are not playing or recognized

At this point it seems clear to me that CCleaner removed something very
important from the Registry. I'd NEVER recommend any Registry cleaners. If
you believe the Registry is just too full of unnecessary entries, then I'd
really say it was time to clean install and start afresh.

So let's totally uninstall ALL your optical drives from the computer and try
to get them back correctly.

In Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Unistall any and all DVD burning
programs you may have installed and any DVD Decoding software you have
installed. BEFORE you do this, check you still have the CDs for the
reinstall.

Reboot the PC.

Go into the Device Manager and Uninstall the Optical Drives. Turn OFF the
PC.

Physically go into the case and REMOVE all optical drives. (You can just
disconnect both ribbon and power cables in this case since you know you are
going to put them back. While you are there, physically check the jumpers
at the rear of the drive(s)

Restart the PC... Ensure that My Computer is now showing you have NO optical
drives and that Device Manager also confirms no entries.

Turn off the PC. Physically reinstall the drive(s)... or reconnect both
cables. Turn on the PC. Ensure that XP redetects each drive and installs
drivers for it - and assigns a drive letter. Check at this point that XP
can read a data DVD. Reinstall your DVD Decoding software. Check that XP
can play a video DVD. Reinstall your DVD burning software. Check that it
burns.

Your next option is the format and clean install.

Unfortunately flashing the firmware is always a risk you alone undertake.
The manufacturers are never responsible for anything that goes wrong with
the drive at that point. Sony may decide to assist... but then again, they
are fully within their rights if they decide not to.
--
Cari (MS-MVP) Windows Client - Printing & Imaging
www.coribright.com/Windows


"Rob" <Rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:05DA02F2-8B63-4B02-9FF7-9DC4E1B1FBE2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks.

I should not have used the word random. The drives to not play randomly,
it
is the disks that are playable that are random. The same disk will
consistantly play in the drive and the ones that do not work, never work.

Today, my older Compaq DVD ROM drive works again. I can play DVDs... so
far
all the DVDs that I have tried work except one, and I think it might be
the
disk.

The only thing that I did recently was to install and run a program call
CCleaner. It is freeware that cleans out history and alters and/or deletes
registry keys that the program deems as an error. If the drive continues
to
work my belief will be confirmed that something somewhere on the computer
was
stopping the drive from working.

I still have the original issue with the Sony DVD RW drive, although I can
burn DVDs which does not make sense to me. What is different with that
drive
is that it seems to attempt to access information for about 2 minutes now
before it decides there is no disk. I have ordered new DVD drives but now
I
strongly believe it is something in the OS and software that is the issue.
I
wonder if the upgraded firmware could be the problem with the Sony drive.
Is
there a way to clear that new firmware and install an older firmware?

Thanks again.

--


.

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