Are there any comprehensive diagnostics to verify that a DVD drive on a laptop is writing and erasing correctly?
The reason I ask is that I am having increasingly frequent problems with the DVD drive on my ASUS laptop (running Win 8.1). Windows keeps complaining about the disks. Not every time but quite frequently. I use DVD-RW and a few DVD+RW single layer disks of various brands and Windows seems to object to quite a few of them, even very new ones that have only been burned once or twice.
The errors vary. Sometimes, it is unable to complete erasing a disk. Sometimes, it won't finish a format. Sometimes, it complains that the write speed is a problem even though Windows itself chose the write speed. Sometimes, the burn of the disk fails part way through.
Given how new many of the disks are, I can't seriously believe that so many of the disks are defective so I thought perhaps the DVD burner itself was at fault. I'm hoping you can help me find some diagnostics to check out the drive before I try to replace it.
The one thing that undermines the failing DVD drive theory is that I have trouble with the disks in my *other* laptop too. (It's an Acer running Windows 7). Now, maybe BOTH laptops have failing drives at the same time - I once had a failing disk controller on both my work computer AND my home computer at nearly the same time so it is possible - but that seems unlikely.
Is it possible the ASUS laptop is failing and writing bad sectors to the DVD in such a way that the Acer will have trouble reading it when it tries to erase or format the same disk? If so, then the failing drive in the ASUS may be causing the trouble on the Acer and this may explain the apparent coincidence while leaving the Acer free of any need to replace its own DVD drive.
I'd be grateful for any advice on how to figure out why my ASUS is having so much trouble burning DVDs. (I'm not sure if it has trouble burning CDs since I so rarely burn those.)
The reason I ask is that I am having increasingly frequent problems with the DVD drive on my ASUS laptop (running Win 8.1). Windows keeps complaining about the disks. Not every time but quite frequently. I use DVD-RW and a few DVD+RW single layer disks of various brands and Windows seems to object to quite a few of them, even very new ones that have only been burned once or twice.
The errors vary. Sometimes, it is unable to complete erasing a disk. Sometimes, it won't finish a format. Sometimes, it complains that the write speed is a problem even though Windows itself chose the write speed. Sometimes, the burn of the disk fails part way through.
Given how new many of the disks are, I can't seriously believe that so many of the disks are defective so I thought perhaps the DVD burner itself was at fault. I'm hoping you can help me find some diagnostics to check out the drive before I try to replace it.
The one thing that undermines the failing DVD drive theory is that I have trouble with the disks in my *other* laptop too. (It's an Acer running Windows 7). Now, maybe BOTH laptops have failing drives at the same time - I once had a failing disk controller on both my work computer AND my home computer at nearly the same time so it is possible - but that seems unlikely.
Is it possible the ASUS laptop is failing and writing bad sectors to the DVD in such a way that the Acer will have trouble reading it when it tries to erase or format the same disk? If so, then the failing drive in the ASUS may be causing the trouble on the Acer and this may explain the apparent coincidence while leaving the Acer free of any need to replace its own DVD drive.
I'd be grateful for any advice on how to figure out why my ASUS is having so much trouble burning DVDs. (I'm not sure if it has trouble burning CDs since I so rarely burn those.)
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- ASUS K55N
- CPU
- AMD A8-4500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.90 GHz
- Motherboard
- not sure
- Memory
- 8.00 GB installed, 7.46 GB usuable
- Graphics Card(s)
- Radeon
- Sound Card
- not sure
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Built-in laptop screen
- Screen Resolution
- 1366x768
- Hard Drives
- one 750 GB
- PSU
- Not sure
- Case
- Not sure
- Cooling
- Not sure
- Keyboard
- Built in to laptop
- Mouse
- None; I use the touchpad
- Internet Speed
- 6 Mbps down, 0.25 Mbps up
- Browser
- current versions of Firefox, Chrome and IE
- Antivirus
- Avast Free
- Other Info
- I *think* many of the questions to which I've answered "not sure" are irrelevant because it is a laptop but if you need to know specifically what model of cooling fans or keyboard or whatever where built in to the laptop, I can try to find that out if you tell me where to look. I don't see this information in the Windows/System display but maybe it is elsewhere. I'm not sure what a "PSU" is: Powe
