Why won't my computer play DVD's?

Factual Questions
1

I found a thread when I searched but none of those solutions worked for me.

Over Christmas I was given a few DVD’s, but when I sat down to watch them my roommate informed me that our DVD player had died and that we need to get a new one. Not a big deal, but I want to watch my movies while I have time off from work. So I thought to myself “I have a DVD rom drive in my computer, that should play DVDs!” When I insert the DVD into my computer though, the computer tells me that I don’t have a disk in the drive. I downloaded powerDVD (free 30 day trial), and that also will not play the disks. I am running Window’s XP, and I triple checked that the drive is a DVD drive, and tried numerous discs (including ones I have watched before so I know they work) to make sure it wasn’t just the one disc I was trying to play that was the problem. No matter what disk I put in it tells me that there is nothing in the drive. I have also double checked to make sure the drive works by inserting audio CD’s and a video game disk, and they both play without issue.

I have exhausted everything I know of, can anyone out there help?

My computer SHOULD be able to play DVD’s right?

2

See this thread

3

Thanks Mr. Blue Sky, that is a thread I didn’t see, but the solution offered there seems to be to download a DVD decoder, which I already did. I downloaded powerDVD and it (just like if I click on the drive in mycomputer) tells me that there is nothing in my drive, specifically it is saying

“please insert disc”

even though there is already a disc in the drive.

But thanks for the attempt.

4

Does the drive read CD/CDROMs?

Try “removing” the drive from the Device Manager and rebooting.

5

Frequently the cuase of this problem is autoplay. If somebody has configured the drive to not autoplay when you insert a disk, then the DVD player program never gets notified when you put in a disk.

Open your Windows Explorer, right-click on the DVD drive and check out the settings under the autoplay tab.

6

I had this problem with a few (but not all) DVDs in my DVD/RW drive. The solution ultimately turned out to be updating the drive’s firmware. Go to your drive manufacturer’s website and see if they have a utility to do this–basically it involves flashing the ROM in the DVD drive. Update to the latest firmware revision for your drive and try the DVDs again.

7

Ok, so I rebooted the computer and adjusted the autoplay, and nothing changed. I am a little nervous about the firmware thing because the website has all sorts of disclaimers about fooling with the firmware and having to reboot in DOS to do anything with it, so I may wait until tomorrow when I can get a tech person on the phone to talk me through it. I also updated the drivers just in case.

BTW the player is a pioneer DVD-115r. Just in case that little bit of info helps.

Thanks for the advice so far.

8

I would suggest against tinkering with any firmware unless you really know what you’re doing.

As far as it playing DVDs, it seems the problem isn’t about reading, it’s about recognizing that the disc is even in there?

Have you checked to see if the drivers have been installed / are up to date?

9

I would also check the cables going to the drive to make sure they’re firmly connected. Though you have to open the computer for that.

10

I agree. This should be a last resort. One wrong move and your drive is toast.

11

Don’t worry I am not touching the firmware unless I have a qualified computer tech person either on the phone with me or at my apartment, and I plan to exhaust all my other options first. And I have updated the drivers.
The thing that is confusing me is that the drive seems to be working fine except when a DVD is in it. CD’s/CD-ROMs, no problem it functions perfectly but I put a movie in the drive and like Azadeh said, it doesn’t recognize that there is anything there. Also, it didn’t used to be a problem. I have used my computer to play movies in the past, but it has been over a year since the last time I used it for this, and I have had to reformat my hard drive once since then. I suppose it could be a loose wire, but would a loose wire effect only the one function? I would think that it would cause the whole drive to stop working.

Thanks again for the help.

12

What happens if you navigate to the DVD/CR-Rom drive in My Computer and just try to look at the files on the DVD. Is there anything there?

13

No, it just shows up as an empty drive.