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  1. My Dell Inspiron 1525 has a HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-T21N ATA DVD burner that has a weird specific problem.

    It can read homemade DVD-R's, and write blanks perfectly fine, but it CANNOT read storebought DVD's at all. My drive gives a bunch of weird "grinding" mechanical sounds and fails to read the discs.

    The sounds coming from the drive itself suggests an issue with hardware, but the fact that it's only affecting some discs suggests a problem with software (a missing driver or decoder, maybe). Before I go to the expense of trying to replace the drive itself, do you guy have any idea what might be wrong with it?
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  2. Member
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    Check with Dell; it may be a known problem.
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  3. [The guy who this comment was aimed at has since removed his offending post]
    Last edited by Super Leviathan; 19th Feb 2012 at 22:52.
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    Just confirm if the drive can not read all store dvds ... if not then the drives developed an issue with the power diode which controls the frequency for reading dvd's ... just not worth repairing.
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  5. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    newbie throw down! anyway to the op - what o.s. and what do you have set to open retail dvds? right click/open with?
    --
    "a lot of people are better dead" - prisoner KSC2-303
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  6. Banned
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    Originally Posted by Super Leviathan View Post
    Why are you posting this in my thread? Why don't you go make your own?
    ???????

    This comment makes no sense.
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  7. Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    Originally Posted by Super Leviathan View Post
    Why are you posting this in my thread? Why don't you go make your own?
    ???????

    This comment makes no sense.
    That was in reference to some guy who tried to derail this thread. To my bewilderment, his post has since been deleted.
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  8. Originally Posted by aedipuss View Post
    newbie throw down! anyway to the op - what o.s. and what do you have set to open retail dvds? right click/open with?
    Vista Home Basic, a reinstall of the original OS (also Vista Basic). The drive won't even give me the chance to open a DVD. Like I said I hear some mechanical grinding sounds and the drive fails to read the disc (only Commercial DVDs)

    BJS, the issue with the diodes seems plausible. I've seen some replacement drives on eBay for reasonable prices. Should I go ahead and see about getting a new drive?
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  9. Member
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    Originally Posted by Super Leviathan View Post
    Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    Originally Posted by Super Leviathan View Post
    Why are you posting this in my thread? Why don't you go make your own?
    ???????

    This comment makes no sense.
    That was in reference to some guy who tried to derail this thread. To my bewilderment, his post has since been deleted.
    A moderator probably moved the post and created a new thread.
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  10. Member
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    Originally Posted by Super Leviathan View Post
    Originally Posted by aedipuss View Post
    newbie throw down! anyway to the op - what o.s. and what do you have set to open retail dvds? right click/open with?
    Vista Home Basic, a reinstall of the original OS (also Vista Basic). The drive won't even give me the chance to open a DVD. Like I said I hear some mechanical grinding sounds and the drive fails to read the disc (only Commercial DVDs)

    BJS, the issue with the diodes seems plausible. I've seen some replacement drives on eBay for reasonable prices. Should I go ahead and see about getting a new drive?
    You don't have any location info from what I can tell. I wouldn't bother with EBay for this simple of a purchase. Go to a local electronics store and pick up a Lite-On or whatever's on sale. Probably be had for $20 or less.
    Have a good one,

    neomaine

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