Disc Drive Problem

[Edwin Phate]

I think there is something wrong with my disc drive I cant Play Guildwars or Red Alert 2 or burn dvds I try to burn my media it gets converted and stops at the burning part,v guildwars says data repairing and ra2 doesnt load the game only a little screen. Ive tried running scans for virus's on avast nothing spybot got 64 problems fixed Uniblue fixed 500+ registry problems any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.

but i can burn images to disk using things like Power Iso or magic Iso can still burn discs.

 

[raybay]

a lot of the symptoms of a failing drive.
Run the drive fitness test of the manufacturer... at least check the S.M.A.R.T test.
If it is going bad, it will either get worse, or quit at once without a whimper.

 

[ChaoticFlame]

I agree, there are some cases in which a registry conflict will prevent you from being able to burn CDs, however, not being able to read discs is indicative (to me) of a more hardware oriented problem.

If you resolve to getting yourself a new drive, (which you probably need to do) first try taking apart the old drive and cleaning the optic lens.
While it's not likely that this will magically cure your drive's problems, there's a small probability that a sufficient amount of ick has gotten on the lens over the time you've owned it that it's unable to read/recognize discs correctly.
Besides, it's not like you're potentially breaking something that already worked.

 

[raybay]

A waste of time, except you will learn a great deal about how optical drives are built.
Currently, there is no device in a computer more susceptible to failure... Depending on they amount of hard use, they can fail after four months, although most have a one-year warranty. They are now so inexpensive that they cannot build them well for that kind of money... You can see how they value them by the prices for which they sell on any of the top ten online sites.
I have yet to see one repaired by cleaning the lense. But we go through about 600 to 700 a month in our shops.
You can do better by getting a Plextor, Pioneer, Yamaha, but then you pay three times as much to make them last three times as long.
It takes 5 minutes to replace one so you can get back to what you need to do.

 

[Edwin Phate]

thx ove never replaced a dard drive

 

[Edwin Phate]

I was thinking that it might be a failing Hd 2 of the usb ports went now the hard drive I really like this laptop too! Dv1040us by Hp.

 

[raybay]

When you have multiple failures of various components, you must suspect the power supply as well as the hard drive. That could be the source of the noise, as well as the USB ports.
This is a serious issue if you want to save your system. It could be anything, so you must consider it an urgent issue.
Tell us more about your hardware brand and model, and hardware configuration.

 

[Edwin Phate]

Would a everest summary do it? well i read the usb ports always fail anyways im on my last one. its way to big like 1.65mb

 

[ChaoticFlame]

When you have multiple failures of various components, you must suspect the power supply

I'm sorry to interject but... Not to say that there isn't one, but I haven't taken apart/ seen schematics of a laptop yet with a PSU. From what I've seen, power is delived to components via the same ports into which they are "seated" rather than being connected through a cabling system.

@Edwin Phate

Is this consistent regardless of your power source?
i.e Whether the laptop is plugged in or running off of battery power?
raybay is correct in that your laptop's symptoms could be caused by failure to receive adequate power to components, and the AC adapter which is integrated into most laptop motherboards has been known to fail.

If you can, I'd try the basics, reseat your RAM, try a test hard drive if you have a spare, etc.

Other than that, depending on the age of your system, it might be checking out piece by piece, or the motherboard itself might be dieing slowly.

Personally though, I'd say it would be very unsual to have so many components fail in such a short period of time, and look for a universal factor in component failure.
What integrates all of your laptops components? Well, since there's no PSU per se in a laptop, the universal link is the motherboard.

Laptop boards aren't built to any industry standard that I'm aware of, and thus are model specific to laptops.
i.e. Your replacement options would be limited to the identical board you already had, and pricing for laptop boards usually starts around $150, even for older models.

Unless you have spare laptop components lying around your house, diagnosing a laptop problem like a failing motherboard can be complex, and most definitely requires some extent of system disassembly.

If you really like your laptop, you may need to take the laptop to a local repair shop or Best Buy and explain the failures that you've experienced, and request to leave the laptop for diagnostic testing.
If you decide that this is the route for you, I suggest you read this short, but enlightening, article first:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/call7investigators/16023394/detail.html
Things like this tend to be somewhat universal, I wouldn't assume you're safe just by not living in Denver.

For now, I'll see what I can dig up about the laptop model you listed, the "HP Dv1040us".

 

[Edwin Phate]

here is the report direct download sorry its to large to host here its just a txt file.
http://hyperfileshare.com/d/005dae10

 

[ChaoticFlame]

Ahhh, so you're a salesman...

A waste of time, except you will learn a great deal about how optical drives are built.

For something that could potentially save someone 40 bucks for a new drive, I think 10-15 minutes is a pretty small waste of time. And this is when we were assuming he was using a 5.25" drive, I haven't priced laptop drives, but I'm sure they're not any cheaper.

I have yet to see one repaired by cleaning the lense. But we go through about 600 to 700 a month in our shops.

So, you did or did not try lens cleaning as a potential avenue of repair for all six to seven hundred of these customers before perscribing that a new drive was in order?
I understand that in business terms, it's not a time effective procedure given the probability that 1 in 100 people might bring in a cd drive that simply isn't working because it has crap on the optic. So all that determining that means is lost time and a lost sale. For the individual that actually takes sufficient interest to attempt it though, the potential benefits should outweigh the loss of 15 minutes of their time.

 

[ChaoticFlame]

Would a everest summary do it? well i read the usb ports always fail anyways im on my last one. its way to big like 1.65mb

A. USB ports shouldn't just "fail". :/

B. What's too big?

 

[ChaoticFlame]

Everest posted statistics regarding your hard drive and clearly you're able to boot into XP, what makes you suspect hard drive failure?

 

[Edwin Phate]

the txt file is over 1mb so it cant be hosted here ill try to get a more condensed version. The usb ports are poorly made they dont really have anything to do with the problem i think. they just got loose and are wobbly I know it sounds bad but really it sounds worse then it is.

Im fairly certain the computer is going to die given that its previous problem that i couldnt resolve was that it wouldnt burn at anywhere near its reported speed of 16x for dvds it burns max at 4x for dvd-r and like2x for dvd+r or vice versa

I wonder if reformatting would help at all i only have 18% free space on my harddrive..

 

[raybay]

If you have only 18% free space, after defragging, there is the souce of your problem. The trouble line is really listed by Microsoft as 17%, but that is close enough to the cut off to be real trouble.

Once you have adequate free space, large enough Page file, and plenty of memory, most problems will go away.

An OLD drive with limited free space is just waiting for the moment when it can mak your life misearable. Save or get rid of some unneeded files until you have 25% or more... then go downtown to shop for a new hard drive.

 

[Edwin Phate]

I free'd up some space im at 32% and will try to get more once i get back ups of my files on disc if i can.