New laptop won't play DVDs

Maureen43

Hi All


I have an ASUS X551CA laptop which I am otherwise happy with, but I can't get it to play DVDs. Once the dvd is inserted it won't play by ASUS DVD or by VLC. The laptop doesn't seem to register that I have put a DVD in.


Can anyone help?
Thanks

GunJack

can you read a data or any other disk, manually?

Maureen43

I don't know what you mean. Sorry!

flashg67

I think Gunjack is asking if you have a DVD without a movie on it - ie data/photos/music that you can try. or even a blank dvd?

Does it recognise other discs, like Cds?

When my Acer driver stopped recognising dvds - I had to replace it. Usually held in with one screw and cheap to buy on ebay etc

is the drive showing as installed? try 'start', type 'device manger' in the box, and search. Under the devices listed, click 'dvd/cdrom drives' and check the drive is actually listed, then right click on it and click 'properties' to check it says it is working properly. Not foolproof, but it's a starting point.

macman

Won't read the disk, or just doesn't Autoplay?

Strider590

I wouldn't be surprised if it's caused by DRM, basically to stop people pirating DVDs, they make them unplayable on a PC or laptop. However, the people who pirate DVDs, they're clever enough to find ways around that restriction.

So basically it's a case of screwing the customers in a pointless attempt to stop the illegal activity of the minority.

I take it these DVDs are UK bought and the region code is correct?

Nilrem

Strider590 wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if it's caused by DRM, basically to stop people pirating DVDs, they make them unplayable on a PC or laptop. However, the people who pirate DVDs, they're clever enough to find ways around that restriction.

So basically it's a case of screwing the customers in a pointless attempt to stop the illegal activity of the minority.

I take it these DVDs are UK bought and the region code is correct?

I've never found a DVD that won't play on a PC with the correct, standard DVD playback software (such a DVD would generally fall foul of being outside the specifications for the DVD standard and likely fail in some blu-ray players and a bunch of other types of all in one system).

Depending on the age of the laptop and if it had ever played DVD's before my guess would be the DVD laser on the drive has failed (they often have a dual laser system, as DVD's and CD's use different wavelengths of light so you can find it no longer "seeing" DVD's, but fine with CD's) if it used to play/read DVD's and no will no longer read a data DVD.

I've had this happen to me a couple of times on PC drives.