DVD-ROM not reading DVD's

[kano]

I have a brand new compaq laptop with a dvd-rw/cd-rw combo drive.
recently I have been having problems playing dvd's. All store bought dvd's will play in my dvd-rom with no problems. Pretty much all of my dvd+rw will play in my dvd-rom. The problem I have been having is with my dvd-r. All of my recordable dvd movies have been made with dvd decrypter, and they will all play on a stand alone player. But I have a few dvd-r that just wont play on my laptop. The strange thing is that they used to play just fine when I first got my laptop. The same dvd-r that wont play on my laptop will play on my standalone player every time. But some dvd-r will play on my laptop. Like I will watch a movie and disc 1 will work fine, but disk 2 wont play so I've watched the begining of the same movie over and over with out seeing the end (I don't have t.v.).
Its really annoying cause I would like to watch the end of the movie some time but I cant cause disk 2 wont play. I'm wondering if there is a quick fix out there. Some patch or driver I can download to easily fix the problem. Maybe giving my dvd-rom a little more reading power or something. I was just wondering if any of ya'll might of had this type of problem before, and might recognize what i'm going through, and maybe even have a solution to the problem. Any advice is appreciated.

P.S. My laser is very clean so thats not the problem.

-Paul

[Kingnog]

Have you updated the firmware of your drive?

Oh yeah, and how do you know your standalone can read it if you dont have a TV?

[Josef K]

Oh yeah, and how do you know your standalone can read it if you dont have a TV?

Good question! Unless he has VIVO on the laptop, listening to the disc spin round is not a good indicator of playability.

Also: How many films on DVD do you have that are so long as to be on two discs?

[kano]

I tried it on someone elses standalone on their tv. Oh ya when I put the dvd-r in the laptop that doesn't play, the disk doesn't even spin. The drive just acts like there is nothing in there. even when I try to open it manually I get an error message that says please insert disk.

[northcat_8]

I have an HP Pavilion notebook and I had to upgrade my firmware to burn high speed CD discs, it could be your firmware.

[dnix71]

If they played before and don't play now, I would suspect cheap media that is degrading prematurely. Burned discs use a dye, pressed store-bought don't. New machine doesn't necessarily mean better, either. My 1-year-old eMac internal dvd-rom/cd-rw is fussy about cd-r brands, but my older eMachine's drives aren't.

[lordsmurf]

, I would suspect cheap media that is degrading prematurely. .

No.
Read https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=248839

[kano]

what exactly do I have to do to go about upgrading my firm ware? get the model number, and go to the manufacturers website?

[budz]

get the model number then find your firmware at either the manufacturers website or go here:
http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php