Sony Vaio DVD ROM stopped reading home made CDs and DVDs

[seeknpeace]

Hello to all. I saw this topic dating back to 2006 but it seemed that at that time the drives were not working, were stopping. That is not my issue. Before suggested, I have tried what was recommended then, uninstalling the drive and removing lower and upper in the registry (sorry cannot remember what they were).

Ok, here is what I have and what it has been doing for over a year. I have a Sony Vaio laptop, CR120E, Vista. Over a year ago, it just stopped reading home made disks. My daughter's wedding disk, the disk of my X rays from the Doctor, music, regardless, when put in they were seen as blank. Sometimes if I kept putting them in, they would be recognized, but mostly not. I got a cdrom cleaner, used it and it seemed to work for a good while. However, it is doing it again. If I burned the disk on this system before, it would read it but I am not sure if that is the case now. It makes me crazy. I went and got a new cleaner, and have done all that I know to do. Sony, you suck. Too many ppl have had this problem. My next laptop will NOT be a Sony.

So, if I put a commercial cd or dvd in, it works fine. Any suggestions? Can I clean this sucker any other way?

 

[mike1959]

In any CD/DVD RW drive, there are 2 'lasers'. One is for reading, the other for writing.
From what you have said, it sounds as if the 'writing' head has lost power, or is failing in some way.
So when you use a commercial DVD it reads perfectly, but when you try to load from the DVD's you burned on that drive, it is unreliable.
The only real answer is to buy a new CD/DVD drive unit. It's very easy to fit, and not very expensive either. I have found also that some CD/DVD drives seem to read 'bought' discs better than others, maybe some alignment differences between manufacturers ?
When you get a new drive installed, you can make new copies of the unreliable discs.
If you don't like the idea of taking the drive out, you can buy a stand-alone CD/DVD RW that will plug into (usually 2) USB ports. Not good on a laptop ! There are some that will use only 1 USB port though. Hope that's of help.
* This is one I have, but be aware that the read/write speed is only X8 on DVD.
http://www.itechnews.net/2007/05/18/samsung-se-t084l-external-slim-dvd-writer/

 

[seeknpeace]

welll

Yes, any reply with a solution is great but the sucky thing is that this is a common problem, so it seems, with Sony Vaio. If you have burned the disk on the Vaio, it reads it. And, when I cleaned the player, it worked perfectly for months. But, I cannot get that same result now. I have read post after post on so many site and they are all vaios but surprisingly not the same model dvd/cd rom drives. So, what is it that Vaio is doing? As this is a lap top, I am wondering, if I take the back off, is there something there that I can manually clean? I mean, comeon, the thing does not work for crap. It makes me sick. I never cared about burning on this system just being able to listen to a cd or move data around that comes to me via disk. Pain in the butt.

 

[mike1959]

I would think Sony would use the best quality parts on the market, but I did a search and there is a lot of failures around. There isn't much you can clean in a DVD drive, it's just the lens on the read/write head. I have a cleaning CD that has rows of hairs around the surface, that cleans the 'laser' lens. You have to trust that it does, 'cos you can't see it. I could never afford anything like a Sony, but I have found DVD drives have a few good years of use, then start playing up. It could be any brand, I would think they are all made in the same factories anyway.
Any chance it could be the software, rather than the drive? I have found the free program 'Trueburner' to be reliable.

 

[seeknpeace]

agreed

I hear you and that is one of the reasons I chose Sony, I felt like I would get a good laptop...I had to replace the hard drive after two years. And, check this. I could not get it to accept the new one. I put a much larger one in whenever I put a new one in. I called Sony and two agents told me the reason it was not completing setting up the new drive was because you had to put the same size back, and I was like, uh, what planet are you from. Turns out, my recovery disk was dirty. I took it to my desktop, reburnt it, and it went fine. Where do they find those ppl?

I do think they have some big issues with their products now. I just will not buy another. If this system goes, I will need the drive, and they have you burn your recovery disks now, so I will be up the creek. I hear what you are saying but I have four computers, and this is the first one that has given me any of these problems and I use this ones cd/dvd MUCH less, much much less. I have used one of the others to burn so many dvds it's insane and it is chugging along. The two I use most, desktops or towers, are Compaqs and HPs. Sorry to say, Sony will not be my next choice.