The answer may be simple - DVD drive won't work properly

[Jaybo955]

I've had a Samsung dvd drive for a couple years now and it worked fine - when I didn't really need it. Then when I stumbled on a new hobby (making vcds), the DVD drive decided that it wouldn't respond to my voracious pleas for help.

I have a CD-RW drive installed also, and I think this is why there could be a problem, or I may be wrong... the computer won't recognize that there IS another drive in it, and when it DOES (when I go into BIOS and force it to) it doesn't want to read the disc.

I pulled an all-nighter trying to solve this, and I got so close a couple times which leads me to believe that it MAY be a problem with the DVD drive itself (God forbid) - at one point I toggled some settings in BIOS and the result was that it COULD read dvds, but it wouldn't play them (yes, I have the players) but I could right-click and EXPLORE the dvd (I could see all the *.vob files etc.). To top it all off, SmartRipper would somehow never get past checking all of the files on the disc... so I could never rip.

Has anyone else had this problem and are there any suggestions???

Things I should also mention -

* I DO have directX 8.1 installed.

*Currently, my computer won't even load windows 2000 all the way when I toggle the BIOS more (don't know what's going on there).

*I have a nice graphics card (Geforce4)

*Somehow, I managed to undo what I had done at one point, and now it won't see the drive again.

*It's plug and play (no drivers on net)

*The nomes in my computer laugh at me as I type this message.

PLEASE HELP!

[Mirror_Image]

I toggled some settings in the BIOS

Which BIOS settings, exactly?

Are the DVD drive and the CD-RW drive on the same IDE channel (same cable)? If so, is the jumper on one set to master, and the jumper on the other set to slave, or are both set to master?

[DanW]

They could be set to CS (cable select) too. Make sure like mirror image said to make one slave and one master.

[Jaybo955]

Hmm, the Samsung page indicated that I should set the drive to Master. It is set to that currently on the cable and the cd-rw drive is set as Slave.

I'm not as familiar with computer hardware as I am with most software, so if this somehow affects things I'd love to know - thanks for the responses so far!

Also, the settings I toggled in BIOS were the drive's speed or something like that (one of the settings was STANDARD if that's any help) and I also played around with some settings that changed the drive's MODE (it was MODE 0 - MODE 4, I think)

[Mirror_Image]

The master/slave thing would seem to be OK.Have you tried setting both the drive mode to AUTO in the BIOS, rather than specifying a speed?

[Jaybo955]

Ok, here's another thing - my computer wants to think that the drives need to be installed and it can never find the file to do it. I know it's there, it just says there's an error.

I remember that before, when the drive could read, it would read once or twice and then poop out and the computer would pop up a window claiming I took the drive out (unplug or eject hardware).

This is so complicated it's ridiculous.

[mh2360]

Could be a bad IDE cable or connection...

[Jaybo955]

hmm ok, This is interesting - I copied some drivers in various folders (being desperate, but I think I know what I was doing wasn't harmful) that relate to the device. Now it doesn't ask to install the dvd drive anymore, and I can see "SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD 612" in the device manager.

Currently my CD-RW will read cds... that's good too.

But the problem persists - when I instert a regular OR double layer dvd into my dvd drive, I can hear it spinning, see the light on, but eventually the spinning stops like it gives up or something. The region is set to region 1, too, and I'm in America so that shouldn't be a problem. The computer will lock up until I take the dvd out, then all's fine.

I still think its a configuration problem and I don't want to give up. Plese help!

[Jaybo955]

They could be set to CS (cable select) too. Make sure like mirror image said to make one slave and one master.

What's that and how do I toggle it?

[Jaybo955]

Also, I figured out how to set it to AUTO in bios, and that makes it appear during the bootlog, and I can see that now.

Still won't read. - and it won't even read music cds

[DanW]

CS is a jumper setting just like master and slave. Just check the configuration on the jumper pins and see what they're set to now. Chances are its master/slave and CS typically wont hurt anything. Its best not to use that configuration tho.

[Lino]

Jaybo,

Once I had a problem trying to plug a DVD-ROM and a CD-RW onto the same IDE cable. One of the drives did not work, while the other was ok. Swapping the Master/Slave jumpers on them has solved the problem.

May I suggest:

1) Go for another IDE cable, just to be on the safe side.

2) Try to swap Master and Slave jumpers on your drives, so that the Master becomes the Slave and vice-versa.

3) Try plugging one drive at a time. First try the DVD alone on the cable, setting its jumper to Master. Then, do the same, setting the jumper to Slave. Put the DVD aside, move on to the CD-RW drive and try it alone, Master and Slave. Only then try both drives together, experimenting with Master/Slave combinations.

4) Do not use any of the drives with their jumpers in the CS (cable select) position. I don't know about other people, but this has never worked well for me.

5) Find out if there's a newer BIOS version for your motherboard (check the manufacturer's website). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

6) Go to your BIOS setup and reload the BIOS default values to start all over again.

7) If your BIOS setup has the "Plug-and-Play OS" option, try setting it on and off. It seems that when you set it to "on", some peripheral initialization is not done by the BIOS, but is left to the Oerating System. This may cause problems.

8) Lastly and unlikely, check whether there's a new firmware version for your DVD (and possibly, the CD-RW). You can check that out at http://www.firmware.fr.st.

Hope any of this helps. Good luck!

Cheers!
Lino

[Jaybo955]

Wow, thanks a ton LIno and others! If any suggestions do work, then I'll be sure to message you to thank you.