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My problem is similar to the one posted earlier in this forum (IDE DVD-ROM 16x not working properly any more) but I don't have the diagnostic tools or experience to apply the suggestions made in that case. I hope no one takes it amiss that I'm posting here and not to the newbie forum.
My DVD drive has stopped working. Several weeks ago it stopped being able to play some audio CDs that it used to play, but it still played some audio CDs, data CDs and read DVDs. Then it simply stopped being able to play any disks at all: CD audio, CD data, DVD-ROM. (I'm running Win98SE on an Intel 4 PC. The entire setup, including the internal DVD drive, is 18 months old, and I have no plans to upgrade the operating system.)
When I insert a disk and close the tray, the DVD drive light comes on but the disk refuses to spin at all: the disk just sits in the tray. If it's an audio/data CD, I can still use the PC or eject the disk by pressing the button so long as I don't try to view the disk in Explorer: doing so freezes the machine and I have to restart it and eject the disk before the blue Windows startup screen appears. With DVDs, just inserting one seems to freeze the PC, requiring a restart and quick eject. Turning autoplay on/off has no effect. Using system information shows that the drive is functioning OK. Although I have a Nero toolkit, I don't have NeroInfoTools (just NeroCDSpeed, Nero DriveSpeed), so I can't provide the long diagnostic list that appeared in that other post.
To complicate matters, I recently downloaded and tried a stack of DVD playing and copying shareware, plus some audio copying shareware. I also updated Direct X. I have since uninstalled all this shareware, except those that wouldn't uninstall (RipCast; Direct X), although I reinstalled DirectX8 from the CD that came with my system. The DVD drive still won't work (although the liteonit CD burner in the same tower continues to be able to read CDs).
I checked the Sony website and found that there are no drivers to update, because the drive is automatically installed by Windows. (Device Manager shows that the device is working properly and that no driver files are required.) The Sony website did have a fix for ASPI problems, but I haven't been receiving any error messages relating to ASPI and am wary of restoring the ASPI driver. (Mind you, I don't really know what ASPI is other that it regulates the way the PC communicates with the DVD drive.)
Any suggestions as to what I should do? Perhaps the DVD drive has simply failed and needs to be replaced?
TIA
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