DVD drives don't work on PC

aliEnRIK

MilkyJoe wrote: »

I'll try a game if I can find one. CDs do the same though. Could it be that the PC is !!!!? 128 (or something like that) RAM and 10 gig hard drive?

Time for a new computer methinks. them specs are VERY low for this day and age

Anyways. Unplug the dvd drive. Does the cd drive work then?

MilkyJoe

posted wrote: »

Are the jumpers on the drive set correctly? (Master Slave Cable select), and have you installed any software for the drive, Nero etc?

I haven't got Nero or anything. The drive didn't work when there was nothing on it at all, apart from whatever comes with XP.
I think everything is plugged in properly.

MilkyJoe

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Like barber says, define 'work'?
Does the tray open? can it read dvd DATA discs?

The tray opens. I can eject it from the PC. When I put any disc in, not just a DVD, the computer will pretty much freeze, it won't read anything from any disc, just tries I think. The computer will unfreeze as soon as the tray opens.

Psychofly

This usually happens if there's a problem reading the disc - the computer puts all it's resources into actually reading the contents of the disc that it looks like it's hung while it does this. Ejecting the disc stops this process and frees up resources again. Normally I'd say it's a faulty disc or a faulty drive but you've tried more than one of each. Your PC spec certainly isn't the fastest but it should still at least read the disc. The other option if the two drives are on different IDE channels is that one of the channels is knackered. Try switching the IDE cables round on the back of the two drives (the big wide cable) and see if anything changes. Try it with them both plugged in and then one at a time and let us know what happens.

If both drives are on one channel (i.e. both attached to different parts of the same IDE cable) then it's possible that the slave/master jumpers on the drives are set wrong. We'll come back to this if we need to.

MilkyJoe

Psychofly wrote: »

This usually happens if there's a problem reading the disc - the computer puts all it's resources into actually reading the contents of the disc that it looks like it's hung while it does this. Ejecting the disc stops this process and frees up resources again. Normally I'd say it's a faulty disc or a faulty drive but you've tried more than one of each. Your PC spec certainly isn't the fastest but it should still at least read the disc. The other option if the two drives are on different IDE channels is that one of the channels is knackered. Try switching the IDE cables round on the back of the two drives (the big wide cable) and see if anything changes. Try it with them both plugged in and then one at a time and let us know what happens.

If both drives are on one channel (i.e. both attached to different parts of the same IDE cable) then it's possible that the slave/master jumpers on the drives are set wrong. We'll come back to this if we need to.

I put the IDE cable that was in the CD drive into the DVD drive and that worked, so it must have been the way it was connected. I haven't connected the CD drive but I can sort that out later.

MilkyJoe

mdbarber wrote: »

windows xp doesn't support dvd playback as standard, you have to add a piece of software called a codec to play back movies.

Does anybody know which is the best to get? Just a basic one will do.
Or maybe a good player with codecs built-in. Windows Media Player slows my feeble computer down and doesn't work too good.

esuhl

VideoLAN Player (VLC) plays DVDs natively, and isn't too bloated. I suspect the specs of your PC may mean that DVDs don't play too smoothly, but it's got to be worth a go:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

aliEnRIK

Youll NEVER get a dvd to 'play' properly on your machine im afraid.

MilkyJoe

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Youll NEVER get a dvd to 'play' properly on your machine im afraid.

Probably not. It'll be for burning mostly.

aliEnRIK

You dont need codecs to burn.