Windows won't recognize any disk I put in

[Macy Mae]

I received a used laptop (Acer extensa 5420-5687) from a friend and when I insert ANY disk in it, nothing happens. It doesn't recognize any disk.
I downloaded Ubuntu to the lap top and every disk I put in while using Ubuntu works.
I dont have the original driver disks or anything. I think it may be a problem with my DVD/CD driver.

 

[mike1959]

Windows can't see DVD drive?

Try going into 'Control panel', 'Hardware', 'Device Manager'
Go to the line 'DVD/CD rom drives', click on the small arrow to the left of it, a new line will appear underneath 'DVD/CD rom drives'.
Right-click on the new line that appeared, which will be the maker's name of your DVD drive, and a new menu will show. Choose 'uninstall'. You will see a warning about this but continue. When you re-boot the pc, you will see a notice in the lower right of screen as Windows 'finds' a DVD drive and installs the driver from the generic drivers included with Windows.
It should work after that.

 

[LookinAround]

Try reinstalling the CD/DVD driver first, per above, but also see if this might apply [post=815753]CD/DVD or Disk Problems? How to Fix Problems Caused by Filters[/post]. CD/DVD disks not getting recognized are sometimes due to problems with upper/lower filters

 

[Tmagic650]

It could just be a worn out CD/DVD drive... They do go bad, more often than desktop computers because of heat

 

[Macy Mae]

Continued problems

I tried to uninstall and reinstall it.
My computer told me that it couldn't find the old devices for it to reinstall and told me to contact computer support with my carrier.

 

[mike1959]

You could try updating the driver from Device manager, but I have found it sometimes finds an older version of the correct driver, it might be ok though.
Otherwise, is it possible that the operating system has been changed from when the pc was new, and so the Acer site won't give you the correct driver.
Also, it's possible that the drive has been changed from new, so that the Acer site won't be able to won't be able to identify that either.
Worth trying the free program from; www.driveridentifier.com
That should find the correct driver, it works well in my experience.