hello guys, your help will be very much appreciated....
a have a toshiba laptop with a matshita dvdrw drive and its been working fine burning dvds etc, but recently the dvd drive has stopped recognising when a blank dvd is inserted.
i put in a blank dvd, the same ones ive been using for months and the drive light flashes and makes a noise like it is searching for a disc but doesnt recognize that a blank DVD-R is inserted.
on my computer the icon changes from dvd-rom(:d) to cd drive (:d) and that is the only reaction to a blank disc being inserted.
i have tried other discs dvd movies and cd roms etc and they work fine.
Have you tried a different brand media?The media you're using can be the same ones you used months before,i.e,same brand,but there can be a possibility of a bad batch which you're trying to use right now.Bad batch can happen even to best brands,but with lesser probabilities.
Give it a try,using another brand of media,preferably top notch ones,for example,TY or Verbs,but i'm not saying that you're using crap medias,may be you're using top notch medias but as i said earlier,the possibility of having a bad batch exists.
These toshiba laptops have a problem.. The dvd drives seem to last not much longer than the guarantee period (12 months). we must see 10 a week with failed drives throuh the shop. It's a pity as otherwise they are good machines... Try some different disks as stated above, but as the icon is changing I think you will find that the dvd laser has died.. It's very common.
the stupid thing is, every now and again it just decides to recognise that i have one inserted, and this problem with the icon changing has happened b4 with DVD+R, i changed to DVD-R and it seemed to be ok again, but now the same problem is occuring.
its weird because when it works the icon changes to a picture of a disc and states that its a DVD-R inserted and when it doesnt work it just changes to a picture of a drive and changes from dvd-ram drive to cd drive.
however now i have kind of given up because it will not work at all, DVD movies work fine as well as dvd-r's that i have previosly burnt to, just not blank dvds???
Try a different blank media,not the ones you keep on trying.No need to buy a pack of different blank media,it would be a waste if the problem doesn't come from there,just get one from someone you know,a friend for example and try it.If the problem persists then i'm afraid that your drive's laser has just gone south as mentioned by janrocks.
Edit:Here's a link i've found where someone else having that same matshita drive was getting a similar problem to yours.You may try to contact him to see if his problem is fixed and may be he'll be able to help you.
Good plan Ty.. I didn't think to ask if it was still reading printed or already burned disks. Doesn't mean the burning side is intact, but well worth checking.. I mention that because I have a samsung burner which reads disks ok, but refuses to burn anything. May be a problem with the drive firmware??
