CD/DVD burner no longer reads DVDs

The optical drive on my desktop PC (6 years old) is a TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223C ATA Device.

When I went to read a DVD yesterday evening it wouldn't do so. It reads and burns CDs ok, It will burn and verify a DVD but when that same DVD, or any other DVD is inserted it completely fails to see it. Similarly with commercial movie DVDs. It sounds as if it's retrying the reads. I've tried the discs on my laptop and they're all ok.

Both desktop and laptop are running Win 10 Pro, the desktop is on 1703, the laptop on 1607. The driver for the desktop drive is dated 2006.

My suspicion is that the drive is on the way out. Is there any way I can actually confirm that? Or do I just buy and install a new one?

I have had this with Samsung optical drives. I sent mine back to the Netherlands under 3-year warranty they sent me a replacement which lasted a month then started doing the same wouldn't read DVDs ok with CDs. So I switched to Sony and after a certain amount of time that stopped reading DVDs. The heads would move 6 times trying to read the DVD but no joy so I got a new Sony and a spare from eBay and fitted it. Haven't tested it in a while but I think it is still reading DVDs. Time for a replacement I am afraid. Seems a common problem with opticals.

I don't mind having to buy a new one, after 6+ years, albeit not used all that frequently, it's not unreasonable. Just prefer not to replace it unnecessarily.

A new drive will cost in the region of £10-20, so just replace it. If you have a free SATA port that's the best bet.

Yep, I'm looking at one ~£16 locally. I'll just take the old one out and put a new one in, it should be a direct swap out.

Fairly easy swap. Wasn't for me my old one got stuck in the tower so I just put the new one below it in a free slot.

I think I took the CD drive out temporarily when I was adding an SSD and changing the main drive. If my memory serves me correctly then it's already been out so - hopefully - should come out again easily.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

I think I took the CD drive out temporarily when I was adding an SSD and changing the main drive. If my memory serves me correctly then it's already been out so - hopefully - should come out again easily.

If not gently persuade it with a hammer, that will get it out LOL.

Paul

I prefer a Birmingham screwdriver

I got the new burner today and installed it, working fine. Clearly I had not removed it before, to slide it out of its slot I had to remove the PSU as that was in the way. I'd have remembered that.

The only tool needed was a standard cross-blade screwdriver, certainly not made in the West Midlands, or I suspect, anywhere in the UK.

What did you replace the TSST Corp with?

An LG GH24NSD0 24x.

Glad its working. I hope you have not wasted your money.

I find I have no need for one nowadays, as most stuff comes off the net and I am lucky enough to have a decent connection. I think the only time I have used mine in the last couple of years was to burn a CD or DVD for others. As that is normally pictures and they normally have a computer or at least a USB stick, then that is the common method now.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

...It will burn and verify a DVD but when that same DVD, or any other DVD is inserted it completely fails to see it...

I think the verify process is questionable at best, I certainly wouldn't trust it if verified disks fail to read on the same drive.

The DVDs read perfectly well on my laptop. And I said the drive didn't even see the burnt DVD, so it never got as far as trying to read the data.

It could only ever 'see' a blank DVD or blank or written CD. A written DVD was to all intents and purposes a non-DVD to the old drive.

Anyway the old drive is now sitting in the bin awaiting tomorrow's bin collection.

If it couldn't see the burnt DVD how the heck could it verify it in the 1st place?

It's a moot point now that you have replaced the drive but I wouldn't trust the verify process.

I suspect the problem lay in the, unknown to me, process by which the drive, when the tray is closed, detects a disc This worked for CDs, blank or burnt; and worked for blank DVDs, but didn't work for ANY written DVDs, whether commercial ones or my DVDs.

The verify process doesn't open and close the tray.

The fact that the written & verified DVD was perfectly readable on my laptop suggests the verify process was OK. And having used Nero for many years I've never had an occasion when the verify process finished OK but the resultant disc was not OK.