Solved Optical drive often won't read DVD data disks

Mustang

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Both optical drives are shown as working properly in Device Manager, but 70% of the time will not read data DVD disks. That includes data disks burnt using Nero and ISO Joliet format; and either mutli-session or finalized after burning. And disks formatted like a flash drive in UDF format using W8 burning software. And is the same for R or RW +/- disks.

Rebooting sometimes fixes the program, other times not.

I have an Intel mob and CPU but Intel do not support drivers for W8 so all drivers are generic W8. Running driver update from device manager says all drivers are up to date.

I also intermittently, but regularly, get the printer and webcam USB2 drives not detecting these devices. And occasionally the USB3 external hard drives. USB drivers are also up to date.

Any suggestions?
 

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System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
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    Built as DIY
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    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
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    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
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    12GB & 8GB
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    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
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    In built in graphics card & onboard
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    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
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    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
  1. Your DVD/CD might be dirty. Wash in warm water with soap.
  2. The read head in the DVD might be dirty. Get a dvd/cd cleaner
  3. Last resort. Replace the DVD.
 

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@ topgundcp; Thanks for the input. Have done all of the above. Took a near new but different brand DVD burner from backup PC which runs perfect on Win7 and put it in flagship and same result. Weirdly enough, sometimes the burner on SATA 2 socket does not work, but the one on socket 1 does ... and vice versa. I can't help feeling it's just the mobo not being supported with proper drivers by Intel.

Both burners in flagship are only 3 or 4 months old and don't get a lot of use. Mainly for filing once a fortnight on the Nero burnt discs, and maybe every second or third day on the UDF RW discs
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built as DIY
    CPU
    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
    Motherboard
    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
    Memory
    12GB & 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
    Sound Card
    In built in graphics card & onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
    Screen Resolution
    High def
    Hard Drives
    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
Have you tried installing Windows 7 drivers? Create a restore point or make an image before you try it and see what happens. I'd give the chip-set drivers a go.
 

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    Asus
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    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
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    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
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    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
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    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
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    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
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    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
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    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
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    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
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    Thermaltake TR 620
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    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
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    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Hi Mustang,

I certainly can't account for why you are having all of these intermittent issues all over the place but as far as the DVD drivers go, they are pretty much generic, and haven't been updated in ages as far as I know. Here's mine for reference:

Screenshot (30).png

You can also try this Intel utility to check for the latest drivers if you haven't done so already:

Intel® Driver Update Utility

Good luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Have you tried installing Windows 7 drivers? Create a restore point or make an image before you try it and see what happens. I'd give the chip-set drivers a go.
Yes I tried that when I first installed Win 8. And it really was a no go zone. In fact by a process of elimination, I found that the Win7 drivers for USB3 actually corrupted my West Digital USB3 external hard drive and I could not retrieve any data from it. Fortunately I had it all backed up on a 2nd external USB3 HD.

I also tried installing Rapid Storage drivers which Intel say enhance and stabilize the use of SATA drives ... and all my devices are on SATA, eSATA or USB. With Win7, Nero on the same machine would not burn discs until I installed Rapid Storage drivers.

Aside from the drop outs on USB for webcam, printer and external HD on USB3; and on optical drives plugged into SATA ... it runs seamless and very fast.

I'm hoping that Win 8.1 may solve the sporadic glitches.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built as DIY
    CPU
    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
    Motherboard
    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
    Memory
    12GB & 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
    Sound Card
    In built in graphics card & onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
    Screen Resolution
    High def
    Hard Drives
    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
Hi Mustang,

I certainly can't account for why you are having all of these intermittent issues all over the place but as far as the DVD drivers go, they are pretty much generic, and haven't been updated in ages as far as I know.

You can also try this Intel utility to check for the latest drivers if you haven't done so already:

Intel® Driver Update Utility

Good luck.
Thanks for the input. I tried the driver updater from Intel and the only driver it offered was for the wireless LAN. All the others had the same message that it was unsupported.

These are the drivers in mine:


Capture.PNG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built as DIY
    CPU
    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
    Motherboard
    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
    Memory
    12GB & 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
    Sound Card
    In built in graphics card & onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
    Screen Resolution
    High def
    Hard Drives
    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
No problems here on my old M4N68 ASUS motherboard in Windows 8.1. It's an NVidia chip-set though. The onboard VIA audio was the only thing that didn't work with the stock drivers. I found a driver for that though. I had an old Acer Aspire 5920 that had an Intel chip-set. I never could get windows 8 to run correctly on that old laptop. Like you I couldn't find drivers. It is really old hardware so that wasn't really a surprise. I just put Windows 7 back on it. I did have issues running 8.0 on the M4N68 and eventually went back to Windows 7. Lockups, apps that quit working and some other stuff I can't remember at the moment. I'm actually quit relieved to not have any of those issues with 8.1. Knock on wood, not yet anyway. I did a clean install of 8.1.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Yep, we have the same generic drivers and, as you are aware, the unsupported device response simply indicates that is not an Intel based hardware item. Hmm... what is the specific model number of the affected mobo? I saw your specs but I'm not sure what Intel extreme and Intel standard means? BTW, any BIOS updates available for your mobo?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Yep, we have the same generic drivers and, as you are aware, the unsupported device response simply indicates that is not an Intel based hardware item. Hmm... what is the specific model number of the affected mobo? I saw your specs but I'm not sure what Intel extreme and Intel standard means? BTW, any BIOS updates available for your mobo?
The mobo is a DX58SO2 and is less than 2 years old. And I've got the latest BIOS installed. Intel has all the drivers for it for Win7, which I ran on this motherboard before W8; and there were no problems with Win7.

When I contacted Intel as to why there were no drivers for W8, they said it was unsupported, but they would test that board model, which came out after the original DX58SO was recalled. Intel tech department said they had loaded Win8 on the exact same board and it ran fine with the generic W8 drivers.

@ alphanumeric:
As an experiment I've just tried putting in the Win7 chipset as a one off. Last time I loaded the chipset it was with all the other Win7 drivers. When I installed it just now, the whole screen went black and nothing was working. I rebooted and tried to run it again and it said it had successfully installed. I'll test it for a few days and see if it makes any difference.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built as DIY
    CPU
    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
    Motherboard
    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
    Memory
    12GB & 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
    Sound Card
    In built in graphics card & onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
    Screen Resolution
    High def
    Hard Drives
    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
Good feedback and good alternative testing strategy too! Good luck and let us know.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
There are no BIOS updates listed at all for Win8. And I thought I had put the latest Win7 one in. However, on checking, I found a new version was released just over 4 weeks ago. So I've installed that along with the Win7 chipset.

I haven't given it a long enough trial, but on three test starts from power off at mains, everything worked. Too early to celebrate, but here's hoping. :p
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built as DIY
    CPU
    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
    Motherboard
    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
    Memory
    12GB & 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
    Sound Card
    In built in graphics card & onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
    Screen Resolution
    High def
    Hard Drives
    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
Fingers crossed for you!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
So far so good, but I wanted to know if it was the Win7 chipset or the updated BIOS which made the difference. So I reloaded a pristine Acronis image of the OS which meant it now had the latest BIOS, but not the chipset. The same problems kept occurring, so I installed the Win7 Chipset and so far no problems.

So it seems the chipset solved the problem. Even so, the BIOS update served a good purpose because it did seem to run appreciably faster once it was installed. I'll continue to test it for a few more days yet before showing the thread as solved.

UPDATE:
Everything working OK so consider solved by:

  • Updating BIOS
  • Installing Chipset for Win7

Thanks to all for your input. :thumb: :D
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built as DIY
    CPU
    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
    Motherboard
    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
    Memory
    12GB & 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
    Sound Card
    In built in graphics card & onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
    Screen Resolution
    High def
    Hard Drives
    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
I have an ASUS DRW-24B1ST Sata DVD Burner in my Media Machine, when I installed it under Windows 7, it would read well enough but it would burn coasters on a regular basis. I was getting ready to toss it out, but then I installed Windows 8, and it has been burning successful DVDs and CDs ever since.

Did your Optical Drive come with the OS you have installed now, or did you add it in later? Usually most DVD drives will be detected and installed properly during a fresh Windows install. Sometimes, when you change out an Optical drive, the system may still have the drivers or whatever for the old one still in the system. Now, I usually remove the device and it's drivers (From the Management Console/Device Manager) if I am changing out my Optical Drives. and when I put the new Drive in, Windows pulls out the drivers for the new device, either from cached install files or from the Net.

One thing I have noticed, with drives like Lite-On, is that when there is a Firmware Revision available, they stop working well. You can usually find the latest firmware for a wide variety of drives here:

The Firmware Page • Index page

And there is a request area to request firmware for your model.

There actually is a Firmware Revision for my Asus drive, and I downloaded it, but it does not detect my Sata drive - It's looking for an IDE/PATA drive. I assume the drive I have was made originally as an IDE drive - Or, it came from an OEM system and the firmware may be on the Driver's page for that system, whatever it is or was.

If you have an OEM system, the best thing to do is go to your Drivers page on the OEM website and look for any Optical Drive Firmware Revisions they have available- You will have to know exactly which drive you have. I use Aida64 to tell me what my model number is, there are other programs like Speccy that may give you this info. Otherwise, you have to open the box or and physically inspect the drive and write down any numbers that are on the drive.

After reading through the other responses on this topic, I have to add, Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 - it doesn't matter. The Firmware revision is for the Device, not the OS. You can install the firmware revision from any OS and it will detect properly on any other OS. They are little EXE packages that upgrade the firmware of the device, so the only limitation would be if the OS will actually run the EXE file, which Windows 8 usually will do.

So if you find a Firmware Revision for your drive, and you are concerned about the file itself being compatible with windows 8, you can use Hiren's Boot CD and Mini-Xp which is on that CD to run the executable from there. If it does not need to pull up any System drivers or files, it should work.
 

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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
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    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
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    2 GB/3GB
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    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
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    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
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    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
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    Works 550w
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    MSI "M-Box"
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    Water Cooled
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    Dell Keyboard
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    Microsoft Intellimouse
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    Cable Medium Speed
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    Chrome/IE 10
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    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
@XweAponX Thanks for that very informative post. Nice to know exactly what's going on and Firmware page noted.

Cheers M :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ult Reatil & Win 8 Pro OEM
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built as DIY
    CPU
    6 core 12 thread & 4 core
    Motherboard
    Inel Extreme & Intel standard
    Memory
    12GB & 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    3 top end SLI linked & onboard
    Sound Card
    In built in graphics card & onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24 & 23 inch Samsung LED backlit
    Screen Resolution
    High def
    Hard Drives
    Corsair Force 128GB SATA3 SSDs in each machine. Plus several external USB3 and eSATA spinner HDs
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