DVD ROM Fix

[Bayliss]

I recently got a Creative DVD 2240E drive relatively cheap. Unfortunately it will not read DVD's, only CD's. I opened it up to see what was going on. The drive's laser appears to juitter around while attemptimng to read DVD's (ie when they are loaded) or reading CD's at high speeds; the CD-ROM reads at 20X or 24X. The drive will attempt to read DVD's for a while then give up. It will read CD-ROM's but the jittering (laser moves back and forth rapidly in a small space) starts at high read speeds. I upgraded the firmware from 1.5A to 1.8A thinking this would help. It did not, but it did not make anything any worse. The laser will jitter even in the middle of the disc which makes me think that it may be an adjustment on the laser itself (alighnment or focus). If anyone has experienced this before, fixed a problem like this, or preferably fixes stuff like this for a living, please give me advice. thanx

[lonestar76]

Have you tried loading a different DVD? Sometimes it could be the media that is causing the problem especially if you have a sensitive DVD ROM.


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People who live in the past rob the future.

[Bayliss]

Yes, I tried another DVD-ROM and the same thing occured. Both DVD-ROM discs were new.

[CALV]

I often reply to posts regarding Creative products, everytime I say that the only decent products they make are sound cards, I would take it back if I were you and see if you can exchange it- preferably for another brand (er.. dont tell them u opened it!!)
....
Im sure now that people will start replying about how good their creative drives are- this is my opiniion (and many others) so if you have a working creative drive then good luck- hope it holds out


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Next time you wave, use all your fingers.

CALV

[grover]

I have a Creative 2xDVD drive- it's been working great for 2 years now, CALV I had trouble getting it to read DVDs at first, too- it ended up being a problem with DOS compatibility mode "drivers" I was using at the time- autoexec.bat was still loading the MSCDEX from my old CD-ROM, and when it went to load the DVD MSCDEX, it couldn't. And, of course, all this was hidden by Windows' wonderful splash screen so I never knew there was even a problem... Problem solved by remming out the toshiba line from autoexec.bat/config.sys and letting the DVD MSCDEX load. If you're using bus mastering, this doesn't apply to you. I had no problems with this drive on my new mobo w/bus mastering.

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Asus A7V
Duron 650@850@1.80V

[Bayliss]

I checked your suggestion. My system does use bus mastering. I think that the problem with the drive is a hardware problem with the drive itself.