If the laptop does not read disks. Computer won't accept discs

If your drive does not play discs, do not rush to get a new one! Discs may not play for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the problem is not a faulty drive at all. If the DVD drive still fails, there are many ways to return it to working capacity. Below we will look at these methods, as well as tell you how you can play scratched discs.

Determining the nature of the problem

First of all, you should find out the nature of the malfunction. Check: your drive does not read all discs or only some of them. If some discs play on the drive, the problem is with the hardware. If it doesn't see any discs, the software may have malfunctioned.

First of all, you should try to restore the drive by removing software restrictions. With various failures in the operation of the OS, drives often refuse to play and record discs.

Software solution to disc playback problem

Remember what games and programs you have installed on your computer lately? Problems with disc playback may appear after installing virtual disc managers (Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120%, etc.). Also, the above problem may appear after installing games that create virtual disks for their own needs, which may conflict with each other. Sometimes the drive stops seeing discs after installation Nero- a program designed to burn discs.

To make sure that the reason is in the installed software, you should remove these programs. If the removal of programs did not bring results, do a system restore to the moment when the drive was still working.

If the drive works, we try to install other versions of remote programs that will not interfere with reading disks. All unnecessary software should be removed from the computer device.

Another reason for problems with a DVD drive can be a driver glitch. To solve this problem, you need to enter the "Device Manager". To get into Device Manager", you must first go to " Control Panel' and then go to the tab ' System". Or you can use the keyboard shortcut " win+pause", then select "Device Manager".

After removing the software mentioned above, virtual drives may remain in the device manager, which must be deleted with the right mouse button through the menu, then restart the computer and look at the result.

• Going to the "View" menu, select "Show hidden devices";
• Find the "SPTD" driver in the device tree among the "Non Plug and Play Device Drivers";
• After removing the driver, restart your computer.

All this can remain after installing virtual drives.

If the problem is not resolved:

• Find among the "IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers" the controller to which your drive is connected. To do this, each channel should be opened in turn and check the "Device Type".
• Opposite the “Enable DMA” option, check the box (if there was a checkmark, remove it, restart the computer and then install it again).
• This is often the only possible way to get the DVD drive working in Windows 7.

If all else fails, try opening your drive in Device Manager and see which one is listed in its "DVD Region" settings. If the region is not selected, do not change anything, and if the left one is specified, change it to your own. Remember that you can only change the region five times!

What to do if hardware is faulty?

The first step is to replace the drive cable with a known good one, and also change the power plug.

The cause of the malfunction may be related to the accumulation of dust on the laser head. Having disassembled the disk drive, VERY CAREFUL clean the laser eye from dust with an ear stick dipped in purified gasoline or water.

In order not to disassemble the DVD drive, you can use a special cleaning disk. Brushes glued to such a disc will clean the laser head from dust. However, be aware that brushes that are too stiff can damage the laser head, so be sure to check that they are flexible enough before use.

Using a can of compressed air, you can try to blow the inside of the drive through the open tray. Upgrading the drive firmware may also help. You can download the new firmware from the DVD drive manufacturer's website. Strictly follow the instructions for installing the firmware.

The reason that the drive does not play discs may be a dead laser. With such a breakdown, DVD discs may not be read and CDs may be read well, and vice versa, since a separate laser is provided for reading each type of disc. If none of the above helped you, your drive, most likely, has completely worked out its resource, therefore it must be replaced. Don't worry, drives are cheap these days.

How can you read a bad disc?

There are situations when the drive is working, but the disc does not play because there are scratches on its surface. Try sanding down the scratched disc first with a soft cloth. It is necessary to grind the disc from the center towards its edges. This will allow you to grind longitudinal scratches on its surface, which coincide with the tracks, and therefore are the most dangerous. Special tools are available for stripping discs, but there is little use for them; grinding by hand is much more convenient.

To read bad discs, there are a number of special programs, for example, free or paid. All these programs repeatedly try to read the bad sector, using various parameters for this. If these attempts fail, they simply move on, skipping that sector. Using this method allows you to save as much information as possible. For video and audio files, the loss usually goes unnoticed.

We hope that the information above will help you save money on buying a new drive or looking for a solution to a problem with a DVD drive not recognizing discs.

Drive not reading discs not only due to the physical deterioration of the device, there are other potential problems that are eliminated at the software level. You should not prematurely write off the drive from the accounts, it is better to initially check if the problem is in another area, you will always have time to buy a new drive.

The disk drive does not read Windows disks because the surface of the disk is damaged

Most often, the problem is not with the optical device, but with the disk itself. The material of the disc is relatively soft, it is easy to scratch it on the metal inserts of clothes, a table, or to catch the corner of the house with awkward movements. The appearance of scuffs and scratches often leads to the inability to read the contents of the media.

To check the serviceability and the absence of severe damage, you can use another, known to be good disk. If, after inserting into the drive, it is displayed in the system, the problem is in a particular drive. An additional check method is to insert a disk into another computer, if data is available, the problem is in the optics, otherwise the disk is faulty. When viewing 3 or more discs and none of them played, you will have to repair the drive.

A worn disc surface will render the data unreadable. It is worth trying to restore the coverage.

There are some methods:

• Gently wipe the surface of the disc with a soft, dry cloth. The main thing is that you cannot wipe the disc in a circle, but only across the tracks. With a light movement, dirt is removed from the disc. Provided that it is not badly damaged by scratches, the procedure will help restore the disk to transfer information;
• polish. It is necessary to apply a polish, it should contain wax, after which it should be rubbed with a soft cloth. This will help you play the disc once to extract data from it;
• install a special program that will help you read a damaged disk. The Unstoppable Copier program often helps, its main advantage is that it is free. When copying data, the utility tries to count corrupted places, if this is not possible, then it skips them. As a result, the utility does not copy all the information, but a significant percentage of it;
• when burning a disc, a failure is possible, which will subsequently lead to the impossibility of extracting information. The cause of the malfunction is the setting of incorrect disc burning parameters. It is necessary to burn again with a lower speed setting or try another DVD media.

What to do if the drive does not read discs at the program level

So, you need to decide why the OS does not see the drive. If the drive worked recently, but now it doesn’t, remember what programs, games you installed recently. Programs that have come to memory can cause problems in the operation of the drive, as well as a failure in setting up drivers. Violation of work with virtual memory often damages the steel work of a PC, because some programs and games create their own virtual disks.

If a malfunction occurs due to the listed software or games, it is better to uninstall them immediately. As an alternative, restoring Windows, rolling back helps restore the previous state and settings.

Did the above methods help? You can also try:

1. Click on Start, RMB on "Computer" and "Properties".
2. Select "Device Manager" from the menu.
3. Expand the category "DVD drives", we look at the presence of virtual disks.
4. On the View tab, check the box to show hidden devices.
5. If found virtual drives, RMB on the item and select the "Delete" option.

To update the driver, it is better to remove all the software of a particular drive. After restarting, the system will automatically restore the drivers.

If it doesn't help, go to the "IDE ATA / ATAPI" tab and pay attention to the detected device, but you should first expand the entire list of parameters. In the “Device Type” item, they find the controller responsible for the drive, the “ATAPI CD Drive” marks will be marked. In the current window, you need to check the box next to "Enable DMA".

The drive does not read Windows 7 discs at the hardware level

Why the drive does not read discs, the reason may be the consequences of cleaning the computer. The risk of damage to contacts is high: violation of the integrity of the winding, damage to the IDE cable, destruction of the SATA isolation from the "mother" or from the PSU. Carefully recheck all contacts for tightness or move the cable to the second IDE / SATA slot. Very rarely, but there is a problem associated with a cable break as a result of a kink.

Fixing the problem with the MicrosoftFixit.dvd.Run utility

MicrosoftFixit.dvd.Run is a utility that will help fix a problem with a drive, it automatically scans the device and fixes problems.

You can download the utility to your computer from the official website by clicking on the "Run" button. When the utility diagnoses the drive, it will ask you to insert a DVD. Check in advance that the disk is in working order. After the diagnostics is completed, all the problems found and the results of their elimination will appear on the screen.

If you still have questions on the topic “What to do if the drive does not read discs?”, You can ask them in the comment

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Here's how it happens: arrange a day off, buy an interesting movie, prepare everything you need for a romantic date, call your girlfriend. And suddenly a wonderful evening that has not even begun will turn into a real problem - the computer's drive will completely refuse to read any media. So, if the drive does not see the disc, what should I do? First, don't worry. There are not so many reasons for this malfunction to repair a computer all day. Secondly, get comfortable and get ready to read this material. The article contains the most common problems that negatively affect the operation of the drive, as well as ways to solve them.

First solution to the problem

Let's start with the easiest - with autorun settings. They can easily go astray, but, unfortunately, they are unable to return to their original parameters on their own. If the drive does not see the disk precisely because of them, the user's task is greatly facilitated. After all, the problem can be fixed in just a few seconds: you need to go to "My Computer", right-click on the drive shortcut and click on "Properties". In the menu that appears, go to autorun and already there in a couple of mouse clicks with a non-working drive. After carrying out these simple steps, it is not necessary to restart the computer at all, since the new settings are applied instantly.

What else could be causing it?

The second trifle, which, however, can also prevent the drive from working stably, is a non-enabled drive in the device manager. In this case, you only need to turn it on: you can do it with one click. But it is important to know exactly where the necessary button is located. In the menu of the above dispatcher, it is located in the "using devices" window. By the way, it is important to first see if the drive is turned on and only after that change something there. Otherwise, you can turn off the “formally” working drive, jeopardizing the success of all further attempts to heal the computer by this action.

If the above manipulations did not help, there is no need to rush to exit the device manager. In its menu, you can perform another operation that can help solve the problem with the drive. It is possible that the drive is not working simply because something happened to its driver. To check this, you need to completely remove the installed driver: you can do this all in the same device manager. After it is successfully removed, you will need to restart your computer. After booting up again, the system will guide the user to download from the Internet and install the new driver. If after that the drive still does not see the disk, you will have to take more decisive action.

Let's dig into the registry

If the drive works, but does not see the discs, the problem may be in programs designed to create images, if any, of course, were once installed on the computer. Such programs sometimes leave completely unnecessary "traces" in the registry, which are easy to remove, but difficult to find. It will be much easier to return to a certain point when the drive was still working and successfully performing its tasks. By the way, many users make a mistake when they remove the harmful programs themselves, and not the culprits of the problems “registered” in the registry. The CCleaner program, which is one of the most popular programs for the system, can help clean the system of unnecessary “garbage”, although it will not fix the drive, but it will make the repair process as quick and comfortable as possible.

Are the loops to blame?

Have you “climbed the system” enough, are you very tired and want to relax? You will have such a chance right now, and without prejudice to the time of repairing your computer. The fact is that the drive may refuse to work for the reason that the cables connecting it to the motherboard have come off. In this case, you will need to disassemble the system unit. And there already disconnect and reconnect all the cables leading from the drive to the PC. If the user does not understand well in "all these strange pieces of iron", he does not need to disassemble anything at all - it is better to attract people who can find the necessary loops and correctly carry out the necessary actions. The same advice should be given to happy owners of laptops - no need to try to fix something where nothing is clear! You can make sure that the problem is in the loose contact in the BIOS: if the drive is not displayed there, then you may have come very close to solving the problem. By the way, wandering through the BIOS menu, understanding absolutely nothing there, is also not worth it - you can lose the system.

User, help yourself!

When wondering why the drive does not see the disk, people often completely forget that the problem may be in the system itself. If this is the case, you will need to alternately install various antiviruses and scan the system for vulnerabilities. By the way, not only specialized programs for searching for viruses can help. It successfully searches for system vulnerabilities and instantly eliminates them with the Advanced System Care program, which can also optimize the system in the meantime.

Cleaning the drive: why is it needed

Have you tried all the ways to solve the problem, but the drive still does not see the disk? Perhaps he was just very dusty. It is not recommended to disassemble and clean it yourself. It is better to buy a special cleaning disc, which, thanks to the presence of special cleaning brushes, can do its job very well. It is important, when purchasing it, to pay attention to the softness of the cleaning devices - too hard, inflexible brushes can scratch the drive laser.

One problem and one solution!

If it is the CD drive that does not see the disc, it is possible that it simply does not support it. In order for absolutely all discs to be played on the computer, you need to buy a multidrive. Nothing helps to eliminate the problem that the drive does not see the disk, despite numerous attempts to "cure" it? Then just make sure that the problem is in it and go to the store for a new drive. Nowadays, thanks to rapidly developing technologies, you can buy a high-speed, high-tech drive: it will please its owner not only because it works, but also with a high recording speed.

Hello, friends. I decided to write an article on the topic: the computer does not see the windows 7 dvd drive. The tips written below are also relevant for other versions of Windows.

Now, probably, few people use CD, DVD drives, but even if a breakdown occurs, do not rush to order a new drive. There are many reasons why it stops working. If the breakdown is in the drive, then you can solve the problem by knowing some secrets. I must say right away that the drive is not always the main problem. Next, you will learn about the main breakdowns and how to fix them. Also at the end of the article there is a video with another solution to the problem.

Problem Features

Try to identify the nature of the breakdown. Let's start by checking the disks. We take the disks and try to start, if some of them start, then we start looking for malfunctions in the technical part. There is also a moment, if a failure occurs during the operation of the operating system, then the disks are not readable at all. The same fate will affect the recording of discs.

How to solve the problem programmatically? Think about what programs were recently installed on the PC. They might have played games. Sometimes, during installation, they randomly install "their" virtual disks, as a result, they conflict from here and there are problems with the DVD drive. Another popular cause of "breakdown" is the Alcohol or Daemon Tools programs - as you understand, they are needed to mount these very virtual disks. All of these can affect the operation of the drive.

How can you check everything?

The answer is simple: remove the programs listed above and try to start the drive. If everything starts and works, then the answer is obvious. If you didn’t notice the changes, then you have to “dig” further. Another popular problem is driver glitches. In this case, use the "Device Manager". Go to "Control Panel -> System" or who are used to working with the keyboard, press "Win + Pause", then select "Device Manager" on the left side.

If we uninstall the above software and open the device manager, we can still see the virtual drives installed by the programs we mentioned above. You need to look at them in the "DVD and CD-ROM drives" branch. Now we will use the right mouse button, the menu and delete them. Then restart your computer. See if there has been a change.

What other actions can be taken? We list below:

- click the "View" menu, select "Show hidden devices";

- find the "SPTD" driver in the device tree (it is located in the "Non-plugin device drivers" section);

Is there a positive result? If not, we move on. Find among the 2 or 4 controller channels in the IDEATA / ATAPI controllers section the one to which the DVD drive is connected. As a rule, each such channel has a different name. Open each channel one by one and look at the "Device Type".

What we are looking for is "ATAPI CD Drive". What to do next? You need to look at the "Enable DMA" birdie. If it is, then remove it, if not, then put it on. Then reboot, look at the result. When everything started working fine with the option disabled, check the box and reboot again. Leave the working version. For the best, the "Enable DMA" feature should be enabled. Sometimes this condition is considered the only possible one when Windows 7 is installed.

How else can you configure the drive?

Go to device manager, open the DVD drive there. Further, as in the picture, select your drive, click "Properties" and go to the "DVD Region" tab, see which region is indicated here. If the region is "Not selected", then leave it as it is, do not change anything. If not your region is shown, then set your own. Please note that you can only change the region 5 times. Try to additionally change "Not selected" to any other region. Flashing will help to return everything back.

What to do next if there are no problems with the hardware?

• The first thing we look at is the train. Maybe you did something recently in the PC and could damage it. Replace it - maybe you have a spare, or you can take a replacement from one of your friends for testing or buy a new one. Next, look at the power plug.
• Open the tray, blow (as far as possible) the insides of the drive. What is it for? During operation, the DVD drive is covered with dust, this directly affects the operation of the laser. If there is a layer of dust on it, then the discs will not be read, or they will be, but selectively.
• If you have dealt with the repair of any equipment before, then you can take advantage of this advice. Carefully disassemble the drive, soak an ear stick in alcohol and clean the laser eye with it.
• For those who are not strong in repair. Not every person will be able to properly disassemble and assemble a DVD drive. Tip: Use a cleaning disc that has brushes. If the drive recognizes the disk, it will spin it and the brushes will remove dust from the laser.
• The second option is the firmware of the drive. Try to find the firmware on the manufacturer's portal, download and follow the instructions for proper installation.

Also watch the video, it contains another solution to the problem

Very often, the computer does not have enough memory to store all the accumulated information. With the filling of the hard disk, it becomes necessary to transfer data to other media. Flash drives are expensive, but disks, in comparison, cost a penny. But even here problems can arise, disks can suddenly stop being read by your drive. This article will tell you about the possible causes of the breakdown and help you solve the problem.

There can be many reasons for this, ranging from problems with the disk to a complete failure of the drive. However, all causes can be divided into two categories, hardware and software problems.

Hardware problems are related to hardware problems. The following problems fall into this category:

1. The reason may be the disk itself, its deterioration can be so strong that no disk drive can read it.
2. The drive may stop accepting discs due to its contamination. For all the time of work, a large amount of dust accumulates inside the computer, which can get into the drive and settle on the read head.
3. Outgoing connecting wires will also affect the performance of the device.

These are the most common hardware problems; it is possible to determine which of these led to a failure only by “surgical” means, that is, you need to get into the system unit.

Diagnosing software problems is much easier. If problems appeared after installing any software, then we can talk about software incompatibility.

Solutions to hardware problems of reading disks.

Is your drive not reading discs? Do not rush to throw it away and run to buy a new one. To begin with, check the condition of the disk inserted into the drive, if it is in poor condition, then the reason may be the damaged disk, and not the drive. Remove the disc from the drive and inspect it for scratches and abrasions.

If everything is in order with the disk, then we move on. It is worth testing the drive on other discs of various types: CDs, DVDs and small miniCDs. It is recommended to use the newest disks for the test.

Do not forget about other hardware problems, open the cover of the system unit and carefully check the connection of the drive and the motherboard with connecting cables. If there is no obvious damage, still try to connect the drive using other available cables. And for prevention, clean the drive from dust and dirt. This can be done using special disks.

There is another way to clean the read head, but this option is for more experienced and confident users. This method involves disassembling the drive and cleaning the laser with water or high-quality gasoline. Never use cologne and other alcohol-containing liquids, as well as acetone, to clean the laser. Their use will lead to disastrous results.

Have you cleaned the drive, checked its performance on other disks and tried to make it work using other cables, but it still refuses to read disks? Don't be upset. You can move on to solving possible software problems, and consider all the above actions as preparatory.

Solutions to software problems of reading disks.

If it turns out that the problem is not hardware reasons, remember what you did with your computer earlier, what you installed, what you changed and deleted. Because you may have accidentally deleted or changed the files necessary for the drive to work.

To fix it, you will need to reinstall the device drivers required for the device to function normally and properly on the system. Mismatched or buggy drivers can cause the drive to fail to read discs.

In addition, you can disconnect the drive using the operating system and then reconnect it. For Windows, this is done in the system properties.

My Computer window

In the window that appears, click on Device Manager.

System Properties window

The manager looks for your drive and then deletes it.

Removing a device

After removing the device, you must restart the computer so that the system can detect the drive again and automatically install the appropriate software for it, that is, drivers.

Often, third-party software installed to emulate virtual drives becomes the cause of the drive not working properly. These programs include: DAEMON-Tools, Alcohol 120%, etc. All these programs can cause your drive to malfunction. If you have these programs on your computer, remove them one by one, and test the drive after each removal.

To uninstall, you can use the CCleaner program, it not only removes programs from the computer, but also cleans the system from unnecessary files and system records left after uninstalling the software. The process of cleaning system records is called registry cleaning.

Installation and tips for using the CCleaner program are given in the article: Utility for uninstalling programs

In practice, there were cases in which the solution to the problem was in flashing the device. But this action can lead to a complete failure of the drive. So before proceeding with these measures, it is highly recommended to read the following paragraph.

Solving the problem by means of the program MicrosoftFixit

Sometimes, after the next reinstallation of the Windows operating system, the drive stops opening only DVD discs, while CD discs still open normally.

This also does not mean that the drive "died", because before the reinstallation it functioned properly. The most important thing is that this issue is solved with the help of a free and effective program. MicrosoftFixit.dvd.Run. You can download the program from the link:

Download window

After downloading, a window containing a link to the license agreement will appear, you can read it or immediately click the Accept button.

Thus, you will proceed to the stage of installing the program components on your computer, wait until the installation is complete.

Program installation window

Once the installation is complete, the program will offer you two options to choose from. You need to choose the second option shown in the screenshot.

After selecting the option shown, the utility will scan your computer for connected drives. After a while, the scan will finish and the program will display the scan results. The screenshot shows the drive Optiarc DVD RW AD 7593A, in your case it is your drive with a different name. We select it.

The program will scan the selected drive, after which the user will be presented with several tasks to choose from. Since the drive does not read the disk, we actually select the task Read CD or DVD. In case of problems with writing to disk, you must perform all the same steps above, but select the second task Burn a CD or DVD.

After selecting a task, the utility will check the drive. After waiting for the end, you need to select all the items with checkmarks, as in the screenshot, and then click Next.

Change selection window

In the program window that appears, the utility will ask you to insert an optical storage medium into the drive and open it for insertion itself. At this stage, it is still recommended to use as fresh discs as possible. After the disc is inserted, it remains to click Next. The program will automatically read the disk and fix the problem.

Troubleshooting Results Window

After that, the media contents window will open, or a dialog box will open containing several options for working with the disk. If none of the above happened, then open the disk manually using the My Computer shortcut. Thus the program MicrosoftFixit easily solves the problem of failure to read DVD or CD discs.

And if this does not help, then you can already think about buying a new drive. For a better understanding and optimal choice of a new drive, it is recommended to consult with specialists.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you will have the opportunity to try to fix problems with the drive on your own, first excluding possible hardware causes, and then software ones. By using the methods given in this article. It must be remembered that self-correction can end in bad results, therefore, nevertheless, do not neglect the help of qualified specialists.