Help my DVD/CR-RW won't read DVD

[rotenburk]

I ask someone to burn a dvd for me. The disk is a DVD-R, it has 4.7GB of space and the file inside the disk is somewhere around 1.3GB. The drive is Enlight DVD-ROM/CD-RW 52x32x52x16x. But then I inserted the disk into the my dvd rom the dvd drive just glows for a few seconds and i check in my computer and i check my dvd/cr-rw drive (E) nothing came out!! as if like i didn't insert anything on the drive. I tried to put a different dvd on it and the same thing happened, it won't read but when I tried putting an ordinary cd on it, it works perfectly fine.

Just half a year ago my DVD/CR-RW can read dvds but now it won't. A friend of mine told me that my drive is temperamental and all i have to do is to reinstall the driver but unfortunately i lost my driver. Is there anywhere i can download the driver for Enlight DVD-ROM/CD-RW 52x32x52x16x for free? and the worst thing i feared is that does my drive lose it's capability to read dvds permanently(hardware damage)?

 

[raybay]

There is no driver, as such. Drivers are part of Windows.
If your DVD is a year, or more, old, it has likely reached the end of its useful product life. If under heavy use, it could fail in 8 or 9 months. That is just the way it is. The optical drives used nowadays are built by machine. They mabe be belt drive, or wheel driven. Both can fail easily. There are at least two, and sometimes three or four lasers, inside the drive. Any one of them can burn out like a light bulb, or the laser can slip ever so slightly out of alignment so the reader cannot read, or the writer cannot write. In addition any of the hundreds of chips, diodes, resisters, and circuits can burn out under the heat.
Next to the floppy drive and disc, the optical drives are the most failure prone components in a computer.
Luckily, DVD drives are relatively inexpensive. You should be find a LiteOn, LG, Samsung, HP, or unbranded drive in your area for under $44... or at an online store for $39 to $59.
You can install it yourself if you have a #2 philips screw driver handy.

 

[rotenburk]

I don't use my cd drive often. The last time i read dvd was 6 months ago, and the last time i burn a cd was 1 year ago. so i don't use it much. but then my drive can still read ordinary cds just a few hours ago before i made this post so i doubt it's a hardware thing, i hope....

 

[raybay]

The problems with DVD and CD drives are inexplicable.
Your problem with DVD's vs CD's is likely due to the fact that the DVD component is a different laser inside the drive, than the one used for CD's. They do not burn out at the same time.
Age of the unit, humidity, lateral impact by an accident bump of the knee, wheel or belt rotted by heat or humidity... all are as critical as the wear.
The bottom line is still likely that a replacement is needed. There are no drivers, but sometimes there are firmware updates that will fix things. You can find them at the website of your computer manufacturer, or the website of the optical drive manufacturer... if that is possible to know... you can get that information off of the required lable on the top or bottom of the optical drive.
Some drives just fail because they can.

 

[Tedster]

While I have never had a CD/DVD player go bad on me, I suppose they can. It would be far cheaper just to replace the unit.

 

[rotenburk]

I talked to 3 people end each of them has an opinion

Problem with:
1. Drivers
2. Dvd lens is dirty
3. Hardware (replace the whole thing)

How bout the people here in techspot? what can you say? I hope that i don't have to replace my drive because it's a waste and i don't have money.

 

[nismo91]

Hmmm..
I got lots of thing to say, that's why I rather post an attachment...

for DVD drives... I also experience the same problem...
in the attachment, mine is affected with "C".
so when I manage to reinstall the hardware physically one more time, the drives able to read DVD again...
(happen to my dvd/cd-rw)

then I realised that it's not reliable to stick to that dvd/cd-rw anymore... so I get a LG dvd burner and install it. even worse, the new drive cant detect cd and dvd frequently. then I manage to reinstall it one more time physically and remove the obsolete dvd-cd/rw from my computer. luckily, until today, the dvd-rw has no problem. (18 months old).

my suggestion is, try to reinstall it physically and also try to flush the registry key. however, I strongly encourage you to get a new dvd burner...
its kinda cheap nowadays... I saw mine sold at half price of the price I bought last year...

 

[raybay]

If your current drive was heavily used, or is more than a year old, your drive is likely bad... due to alignment or a laser that has burned out, or a broken drive belt or drive wheel that is slipping.
Heat gets them. Overuse gets them. Chips on board burn out.
Borrow and try another drive.
You can buy a DVD-RW drive online: LiteOn, Sony, Samsung for $34. LG, Sony NEC for $35, Pioneer, Phillips, and ASUS ffo $39 with free shipping. Or you can get them for $5.00 more at your local CompUSA, Best Buy, Wal-Mart or Circuit City.
If you have a Philips #2 screwdriver, they are relatively easy to replace.
If you need a laptop optical drive, eBay resellers have drives for most brands for $40 to $90.