DVD Drive won't read CDs

[1tchy trigger]

Drive = NEC DV5700A

DVD drive plays DVDs fine, but will not recognise CD ROMs/Audio CD's at all.

The drive is recognised correctly when I boot up, but for some reason the driver has defaulted to 'Standard CD-ROM Device' - this is also the case for my Sony CRX 140e CD R/RW drive - although I don't have any problems with it.

Is this a driver issue?

I've tried looking for the specific drivers but they don't seem to exist - driver forums explain that they are included in the OS drivers, but I can't find them!

Should I upgrade to a newer version of Windows? (yes I know...but what I mean is is this the only way to solve my problem?)

This is a problem I've had for a while but just haven't got round to fixing until today and I'm totally stumped.

Windows 98 (SE)
DVD = NEC DV5700A
512Mb RAM
PIII 1Gb

...do you need any other info?

 

[Happy Go Lucky]

Try updating the firmware for your drive, worked for me.

If it's an old dvdrom, get a new one.

I don't think it is a driver problem, as dvdroms are recognized as cdroms in windows.

 

[1tchy trigger]

OK - installed Windows 2000 - everything looks hunky-dory - it recognises the drives and has correct drivers installed (Win'98 failed at this) - but I still have the same problem.

OK daft question, but it came to me in the shower this morning when I was half asleep : Is it possible that the DVD drive has interpreted the CD-Roms and audio CD's as 'other region' and is therefore not reading them? Is it likely that flashing the drive to multiregion will solve the problem?

I'll try updating the firmware as suggested.

 

[xane]

I think we need to clarify what you mean by "not recognised".

CD drivers are pretty much standard now, so I doubt that is your problem, the only exception to this is when Windows runs in "compatibility mode" which can disrupt the IDE drivers and lose CD support, do a search on the MSKB for this.

Are you saying when you insert a CD it doesn't auto-play, this is a separate issue. Insert a data CD and click on the drive from Explorer, if you see some files come up then your system is certainly able to read the device.

 

[1tchy trigger]

Thanks Xane - I'll check the MSKB when I get home.

Just to clarify, it's not an auto-play problem - if I click on the drive in Explorer it I get the same message as if the drive were empty - i.e. 'there is no cd in the drive, please insert one and press retry' or something along those lines.

However, it does acknowledge DVDs.

 

[xane]

You should probably start with this article.

 

[1tchy trigger]

No joy - read through the link and scoured the MSKB - even tried the Windows troubleshooter - nothing.

If anyone else can think of anything please let me know - otherwise I'll be taking up some of the earlier advice and buying a new DVD drive which I can't really afford at the mo.

 

[xane]

Did you update the firmware ?

link