unrecognizable blank dvds

jessicamk · 09-06-2007, 07:16 PM

when i put a blank dvd into my computer for burning, it doesn't recognize that a dvd has been inserted. i don't know if it is a driver problem or what.

PeckerWood · 09-06-2007, 11:46 PM

Welcome to techsupportforum jessicamk.

To save a lot of hassle, the quickest way to find out what is going on is to try to boot the computer up from a bootable DVD. This eliminates all the Windows side of things, and finds out if the drive can actually read a DVD at all. The symptoms you're getting are very characteristic of the drive being physically unable to read the disks. Usually this is due to the DVD section of the dual laser failing, although a somewhat dirty laser lens could perhaps have the same effect but still allow CDs to be read.

If you don't have any bootable DVDs, you could probably borrow or otherwise find a Linux Live DVD - many computer magazine's cover DVDs are a bootable Live disk. It doesn't really matter what it is, you're not going to use it, just see if the drive can read & boot from it. You'd need to make sure the drive is set to boot from as the first boot device in the CMOS setup. If the drive can't boot from DVD, but can boot from a CD like the Windows setup CD, and the laser lens is clean, then the DVD portion of the drive is bad.

09-06-2007, 07:16 PM	#1 (permalink)
jessicamk Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 1 OS: windows xp	unrecognizable blank dvds when i put a blank dvd into my computer for burning, it doesn't recognize that a dvd has been inserted. i don't know if it is a driver problem or what.

09-06-2007, 11:46 PM	#2 (permalink)
PeckerWood Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: USA Georgia Posts: 26 OS: Windows XP	Re: unrecognizable blank dvds Welcome to techsupportforum jessicamk. To save a lot of hassle, the quickest way to find out what is going on is to try to boot the computer up from a bootable DVD. This eliminates all the Windows side of things, and finds out if the drive can actually read a DVD at all. The symptoms you're getting are very characteristic of the drive being physically unable to read the disks. Usually this is due to the DVD section of the dual laser failing, although a somewhat dirty laser lens could perhaps have the same effect but still allow CDs to be read. If you don't have any bootable DVDs, you could probably borrow or otherwise find a Linux Live DVD - many computer magazine's cover DVDs are a bootable Live disk. It doesn't really matter what it is, you're not going to use it, just see if the drive can read & boot from it. You'd need to make sure the drive is set to boot from as the first boot device in the CMOS setup. If the drive can't boot from DVD, but can boot from a CD like the Windows setup CD, and the laser lens is clean, then the DVD portion of the drive is bad. __________________ Where Do You Folks Keep The Liverscuits?LOL!! Last edited by PeckerWood; 09-06-2007 at 11:48 PM.