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DVD Drive


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#1
Cthulhu4u

Cthulhu4u

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I have a newish, although refurbished, Dell machine and I'm having some trouble with the DVDRW Drive. When I first got the machine, which runs Vista, the drive would read/write any kind of CD or DVD or writable media I put in it. Then it stopped reading duel layer DVDS, but would still read other DVDS and CDs and write anything I wanted. Now, it will not even recognize that I have put a blank DVD in the drive, nor will it read a DVD. It will read any CD I put in though. I'm stumped. I don't know if it is a driver/Vista problem or a hardware issue. I have thought about doing a format/reinstall, but I'm afraid my drive won't read the restore disk if I start. I burned about 40 dvds, but that surely can't have been enough to ware it out can it?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.
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#2
Neil Jones

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DVD laser is probably burned out. Cheaper to replace the drive. A format and reinstall doesn't cure a dead laser, and in the case of Vista, since the disk is DVD anyway, the drive wouldn't be able to read it anyway if the laser is gone.
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#3
Cthulhu4u

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Is that normal, for a lazer to go out after like 40 burns? If I buy another one, say an external, can I expect a longer life from it. Also, are there two lazers in the drive, one for CD and one for DVD?
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#4
Neil Jones

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40 burns is possibly on the low side, but don't forget the same dual-purpose laser is also used for reading and writing, so you will have used it a lot more than 40 times overall. Most drives have separate lasers for CD and DVD so its entirely possible for a DVD Writer to stop reading DVDs and continue to read CDs.
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