[Todger]

Hi,
I've got a strange problem on my granddaughter's Sony Vaio GR114 laptop.
It won't read CDs (haven't tried Dvds). After lots of whirring etc it comes up with an error message - something
like - "Cannot read this cd - not formatted or is formatted in a way that cannot be read by windows" - or something very much like that.
This happened once before and we solved it by replacing the cd drive (Toshiba C2502) and all was fine until now. Have tried unseating and reseating the drive. Have uninstalled it and let windows reinstall it.
Thought it may have been an unfinalized cd - but no - same problem with a regular genuine music cd.
Annoying part is that I took the drive home (50 mile round trip)and refitted it into my own laptop - works fine.
On the strength of this I tried her original cd drive (I throw nothing away) in my laptop - worked fine - POOH!
Any thoughts or suggestions gratefully received. I don't have immediate access to her laptop due to distance, but it can be arranged.
Thanks
Todger

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Hi. Have any changes been made to her system recently? Are there any driver updates that you can install by going to the drive manufacturer's website?

[Facedown98]

Hi. Have any changes been made to her system recently? Are there any driver updates that you can install by going to the drive manufacturer's website?

[Todger]

No and No, all available updates from the sony website have been applied and she hasn't tried to install any software herself.
Todger

[Facedown98]

That's pretty bazaar... I would suggest running a system defragment... To do this click on Start, put your mouse over all programs, and then hilight Accessories, hilight System Tools, and then click on Disk Defragmenter.

[Knight_Wolf]

trying cleaning the lens maybe

[fleamailman]

As you have rules out in turn, driver, cdrom, connection that only really leaves the software which I hope you won't mind my saying is about the worst going, considering that there are many that are free and work better than xp's cdburnner. So we have two routes now an overall spring clean of the comp for something that caused this problem, or finding alternative software to burn with. Lets do both, first the spring clean then link:

http://www.kickenhar...read.php?t=3835

then thinking about alternative software link:

http://www.bleepingc...topic61952.html

Yes, I too, wish it were easier, good luck then and let us know what happened then.

Edited by fleamailman, 01 October 2006 - 10:48 AM.

[Todger]

That's pretty bazaar... I would suggest running a system defragment... To do this click on Start, put your mouse over all programs, and then hilight Accessories, hilight System Tools, and then click on Disk Defragmenter.

Hi Thanks for your reply. Can I just say that I am very,very familiar with XP and cannot understand how doing
a defrag would solve this problem.
Todger

[Todger]

trying cleaning the lens maybe

Hi, Thanks for your input, but as I said in my original post "both the cd drives work in my own laptop" - so
unlikely to be a lens cleaning issue.
Todger

[Todger]

As you have rules out in turn, driver, cdrom, connection that only really leaves the software which I hope you won't mind my saying is about the worst going, considering that there are many that are free and work better than xp's cdburnner. So we have two routes now an overall spring clean of the comp for something that caused this problem, or finding alternative software to burn with. Lets do both, first the spring clean then link:

http://www.kickenhar...read.php?t=3835

then thinking about alternative software link:

http://www.bleepingc...topic61952.html

Yes, I too, wish it were easier, good luck then and let us know what happened then.

Hi, Thanks for your reply.
However, I don't follow your logic re the software, it's not a 'burning' problem - it's a 'reading' one and the CD we were using was burnt on my own PC. (Also it will not read store bought Music CDs etc etc). She actually has Nero installed if she wants to burn anything - but never has on the laptop - always uses Mums desktop. Why did you assume we were using XPs burner?
The spring clean is probably a 'good housekeeping' idea, but probably not the answer to my problem.

To recap:- Original CDRW/DVD drive 'died' about a year ago - I replaced it because a spare I had at
home that worked in the laptop, so I naturally assumed it was a faulty drive.
Now, one year on the same thing's happened again. (Both drives Toshiba C2502s). This time, as she
needed to use the laptop for collecge work I just brought the drive home with me.
When I swapped it over with my own laptop drive it worked perfectly, so out of curiosity I dug out
her original drive and that worked perfectly as well.
Why?
Best regards
Todger

[fleamailman]

Although a cdrom drive may not be recognised or seem faulty by the system while running, often one can still boot up on it. Please try a repair with XPcd. Also, could I have the exact error message to go on next time you see your daughter. The warrenty is no longer valid I imagine, the maker's site has no infomation about this either I suppose.
dfrag alone agreed is unlikely to solve this problem yet with the other spring cleaning steps it may flush out the bug.

recap as ruled out:

- isn't the driver, driver is recognised in devmgnt.msc with no yellew blobs, the poster has uninstalled then reinstalled the driver. = not that
- isn't the CDromdrive, becasue both cd roms give the same result when connected = not that
- CDrom drive is recognised in diskmgmt.msc = not that
- G2G recommended spring clean has not yet been done =
- repair with XPcd =
- result of using other burning program is =
- exact error proport is =

Edited by fleamailman, 02 October 2006 - 03:56 AM.

[Todger]

recap has ruled out:

- isn't the driver, driver is recognised in devmgnt.msc with no yellew blobs, the poster has uninstalled then reinstalled the driver. = not that
- isn't the CDromdrive, becasue both cd roms give the same result when connected = not that
- CDrom drive is recognised in diskmgmt.msc = not that
- G2G recommended spring clean has not yet been done =
- repair with XPcd =
- result of using other burning program is =
- exact error proport is =
[/quote]

Fleamailman, thanks for speedy reply, will try and wrestle laptop from granddaughter and will do all of above
and post results for you. Probably won't be for a week or so (long distance).
regards
Todger

[fleamailman]

Thanks, hope I don't come over the wrong way, I am very interested in this sort of problem and would like to know what you did even if all my ideas came to nothing, please keep in touch then.

[wannabe1]

Hi Todger...

Let's take a look at the upper and lower filters for the cd-rom problem. Click Start then Run and type regedit...click "Ok"

In the left pane, expand (click +) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, then CurrentControlSet, then Control, then Class, and click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} In the right pane, are UpperFilters and/or LowerFilters listed?

wannabe1

[Todger]

Hi Wannabee 1,
Hoping to get the laptop tomorrow and will run all the checks asap and advise you
Regards
Todger

[Todger]

Hi Todger...

Let's take a look at the upper and lower filters for the cd-rom problem. Click Start then Run and type regedit...click "Ok"

In the left pane, expand (click +) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, then CurrentControlSet, then Control, then Class, and click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} In the right pane, are UpperFilters and/or LowerFilters listed?

wannabe1

Hi Wannabee 1,
Have just checked and only have UpperFilters ........ Dvd43
Should I have LowerFilters as well? If so, how do I get them?
Thanks
Todger