Serious problem with DVD player

[syrianking]

I just reinstalled windows after a format of my drive. Everything is working alright, except for the DVD player. When I insert a DVD or one of my burned DVDs (the ones I saved ALL my previous data on ) the computer lags up and can do nothing until I eject the disk. If I restart my computer with a DVD in, the screen will stay black until I eject the disk, then my computer starts up (Weird?). I downloaded the proper drivers (I think) and tried updating my firmware from the Samsung site with no success. My DVD player/burner used to work flawlessly.

Please help, as I'm helpless without my previous data!

 

[Fragrant Coit]

1st thing to try - after you've checked all the connections to the Drive! - is to go into Device Manager, right click on whichever IDE channel the drive is on [generally Secondary], and UNINSTALL it.

Reboot, and it forces Windows to go through the whole "Found new Hardware" thing, and hopefully sort your problem!

 

[sghiznaneck]

After you reformatted the hard drive, did you install the DVD playback software?? Windows contains the DVD compression drivers built in, but it doesn't contain the software to playback a DVD. I'm assuming that you have a pre built computer, and if so, did it come with reinstall disks for all the programs initially loaded on the computer?? If not, you'll need to purchase a DVD software playback program like WinDVD, Nero or Cyberlink.

 

[Cinders]

Did you install your chip set drivers? If you did (and you probably did) chances are you have the wrong version of your IDE driver. Optical drives usually work best with the IDE driver provided by Microsoft.

Click the Start button, right click My Computer and then choose Properties from the context menu. Click the Hardware tab and then the Device Manager button. Or click the Start button, and then type devmgmt.msc in the run box. Click the + symbol to the left of IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and then right click the top most device and choose Properties from the context menu. Click the Driver tab and then the Driver Details button. The provider should be Microsoft Corporation. Click the OK button and then the Update Driver button. The Hardware Update Wizard will come up, so click The "Yes, this time only" radio button and then the Next button twice. Let the wizard search for the driver. It should find the driver and and install it. You will have to reboot to finish the install.

I just reread your initial post. It seems that your optical drive is either broken or is sharing a cable with a device it's incompatible with. If you have a second drive of any type attached to the same cable you should remove that device and try to use your burner again. A quick test of your optical drive is to insert your Windows install disk into the drive, make sure the burner is set as the first boot device in your BIOS and then try to boot your computer. If your computer boots into the disk your drive is probably OK, if it doesn't boot into the disk then your drive is probably not OK.