Douger Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Maybe someone can point me towards a solution that's eluding me.I bought an old IBM Thinkpad 600E on eBay. My intention is to use this at the hangar, as I now have my maintenance manuals on CD.After a bit of upgrading...40 gig HD, and a boost from 128 meg to 256 meg of PC133 memory, I bought an old Matsu****a SR8171 CD/DVD ROM.I installed it with no problems, and it reads CDs just fine.DVDs...that's a different story.Windows recognizes the drive as a CD/DVD in device manager, but it won't in System Info, My Computer, or Media Player. It recognizes the device as a CD ROM only. When trying to access a DVD disc, I get an error about an unrecognized media. The disc works fine in my desktop. I've tried both data discs and video discs...no dice.I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drive, physically as well as in device manager and a search for drivers on the internet has proven fruitless...all info that I can find says the drivers are on the Windows XP Pro installation.I'm amenable to the fact that the drive may be defective...at $35, I'm not out much. But before I give up, I'd like to see if there's something I'm missing.Help?added in edit...in summary, what I have is an IBM Thinkpad 600E laptop...366 PII CPU...288 meg memory...40 gig HD...Win XP Pro with all updates current...and a balky CD/DVD ROM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douger Posted March 25, 2004 Author Share Posted March 25, 2004 As I find suggestions I've tried in other places, I'll post them in this post, so someone doesn't waste their time offering suggestions I've already tried...but I appreciate the thought.Both the primary and secondary IDE channels are set at DMA mode...and the CD/DVD is on the secondary channel.I've tried the hardware test in the "BIOS" setup...it is recognized as a DVD ROM at the base level, and the diagnostic ran fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Are the DVDs you are trying to access, DVD movies or data DVDs? If they are movies you will need to add a DVD playback codec as XP did not ship with one. That is you need to purchase DVD playback software. The XP Plus Pack has the DVD codec. Or you could get something like Cyberlink's PowerDVD. If it's data DVDs you are having problems with, then that's another issue. By the way, welcome to the forums! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douger Posted March 25, 2004 Author Share Posted March 25, 2004 Thanks for the welcome.It's both types of DVD that I'm having trouble with.I did add the Power DVD trial version, but that didn't help either.What I didn't try, and the issue came up here at work with one of the computers here, is that the DVD wasn't recognized in My Computer, but it was seen in the browse part of the "run" dialog box. Since my interest at the time was installing a program, that's what I did...it's not my job to fix hardware or software issues. But as one of the "geeks," I've inherited the job of keeping the machines up to date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2cm Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 I'm amenable to the fact that the drive may be defective...at $35, I'm not out much.It looks like that. If it were mine I'd try to update the firmware and any XP drivers if available. Will help look for these. This is a Matsu****a SR8171? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2cm Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Try this link for the drivers:http://members.driverguide.com/driver/deta...d&driverid=3128When the Driverguide.Com site asks you for user name and password, use: "drivers" and "all", respectively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douger Posted March 25, 2004 Author Share Posted March 25, 2004 It looks like that. If it were mine I'd try to update the firmware and any XP drivers if available. Will help look for these. This is a Matsu****a SR8171?Yep, that's the drive it is.I went to drivers.com looking for drivers...all they had were drivers for Win98 and DOS. According to all of the information I can find, the drivers are integrated with the Win XP setup.I did see something for firmware, though. I was a bit loathe to try that solution, not being clear on the procedure.Then again, what the hey...I've really got nothing to lose, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2cm Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 I went to drivers.com looking for drivers...all they had were drivers for Win98 and DOS. According to all of the information I can find, the drivers are integrated with the Win XP setup.There was one that was claimed to be "All Windows" and specifically cited NT/2K. I thought it was worth the shot.Yes, I've been to Panasonic/Mat****a/Matsu****a (different names, same animal--but the slim model was distributed as Matsu****a) download site and saw the DVD model driver as the default XP driver.I wasn't able to find firmware but good you found and thinking of using one. Careful. Like motherboards when flashing the BIOS, don't power off during the process.If it still doesn't work, then the DVD lens is probably not functional anymore. (There's 2 of these, one to read CD/CDR media, another to read DVD.)Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rons Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Could be that the lense are dirty - might try a quick squirt of canned air - a low shot from a compressor. I use a CD/DVD disk cleaner on my home theatre system to keep it clean.Worth a shot............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douger Posted March 26, 2004 Author Share Posted March 26, 2004 If it still doesn't work, then the DVD lens is probably not functional anymore. (There's 2 of these, one to read CD/CDR media, another to read DVD.)Allow me to play devil's advocate for a second...even with a dirty lens, wouldn't Windows still be able to recognize the electronics of the drive, and report it's existance?There's a computer show here in Baltimore this weekend...the more I think about it, the more I need something I can write to. I'm thinking CR-RW/DVD-ROM drive. I would have liked to have kept the one installed now as a backup. I was hoping to get this one up and running before spending a $100 or more on new hardware, only to find out it won't work on this unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2cm Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I use a CD/DVD disk cleaner on my home theatre system to keep it clean.Yes, you should try this. (And, if you can find one, a DVD disc made in 1999/2000 that's Panasonic/Toshiba compatible.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douger Posted March 26, 2004 Author Share Posted March 26, 2004 Guess what?Remember how I posted that one of the machines here at work...the DVD is recognized in device manager, but not in My Computer? And how I could see it in browse?Well, I took a look this morning at the laptop...and I can see it in the run dialog box if I browse. It isn't exactly what I want...I want it to work properly. But it's accessable, and therefore workable.I'll keep at it. Thanks to all for your suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkspike Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 Douger,I know it's been a while since you posted this but I've been having a bit of a battle with a brand new Plextor burner that went AWOL because of some dodgy PowerProducer software and I just wondered if you had looked at this possible fix that helped me out?Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douger Posted April 27, 2004 Author Share Posted April 27, 2004 Thanks Andy.I'll have to file that one.I went an extra step in solving my problem...I decided that I needed DVD read capability along with the ability to write to a portable medium, so I bought a DVD/CD-RW drive...one with updated firmware, which I think the original problem was...and presto! Everything now works perfectly.I again thank all that offered possible solutions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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