DVD playback/recognition problems

[znod]

I'll check back to see if you get the DVD to work. Good luck with it.

 

[Duckface]

I'm working on it

 

[Duckface]

If anybody is still awake (if not tomorrow is good) do you think this might matter?

If I go into File Explorer and click on Computer I get this



As can be seen the dvd drive is shown as BD-RE and the drive letter is G:

But if I go to Disk Management I can see that the DVD drive is listed as drive E: - is that odd?
As shown below I've expanded the properties box for drive G: and and according to this it's a SD1 device, whereas drive E: shows as a dvd rom



What do you think?

 

[Duckface]

Hmm, not done much really except turn off fast boot and set power options. After a couple of reboots the dvd drive is now Drive E: in both File Explorer and Disk Management so that seems to be ok now.
As an update I can say that 3 of the pre-recorded dvds previously tried have worked, but only once each and they no longer work I'm thinking a hardware problem now, though why it should start just in Windows 8 I'm unsure.

Oh, also Windows Media Centre now behaves itself - no heavy cpu usage.

 

[znod]

All very strange. Your first snip above shows BD-RE. It's not a Blu-ray drive is it? Seems to me it should say DVD-RW, for example. But, hey there is some good news: (1) things are getting better on your computer and (2) the world didn't end.

 

[Duckface]

That's true and yes it is a Blu-ray drive.

 

[znod]

Check the first post here out. Sound familiar? Maybe the problem was encountered frequently when upgrading to Win7 from Vista. To find this thread, I just searched on MATSHITA BD-MLT UJ-220S ATA. Maybe other searches utilizing this description, in part, will turn other interesting things up. Not sure if this is the firmware update the poster tried (the one he tried didn't work). The update might not have been designed to solve problems of your type anyway. I found that using G: is typical.

 

[Duckface]

Thanks znod I'll mooch over there for a look.
My problem with firmware updates and the like is that it's a Sony Vaio and everything like that needs to come from Sony - and they have nothing. My experience with the manufacturers is that they won't offer updates at all if it's for a Sony.
Thanks again.

 

[znod]

Got it. Note that my second link is to a Sony site.

 

[Duckface]

I downloaded and installed the firmware update, even though from memory the version was the same, and it ran ok.
After rebooting the first pre-recorded dvd (U-571) made some whirring and some head seeking noises and then just spooled down. I ejected and tried again and it worked ok this time. The film played in WMC
I tried a second dvd (Shawshank Redemption) and this made whirring noises for a while and a huge amount of head seeking noises before it spooled down - not playing. That didn't work second time of trying.
The third dvd (Men of Honour) never worked either.
I tried the first one again and that never worked again after many tries.
It seems that the drive really tries to read the discs but can't quite manage it, so never really gets up to speed. It's odd. Sadly I don't have another drive to try.

 

[Duckface]

Lol, I just tried to re-install Click to DVD from original (Vista) recovery discs and it failed with an error 5. May be something wrong with the discs now. I was thinking that may help. Oddly though this messed up my Boot/BCD file and stopped the system booting so a quick automatic repair from the install usb did the trick. Very odd though.

 

[znod]

I downloaded and installed the firmware update, even though from memory the version was the same, and it ran ok.
After rebooting the first pre-recorded dvd (U-571) made some whirring and some head seeking noises and then just spooled down. I ejected and tried again and it worked ok this time. The film played in WMC
I tried a second dvd (Shawshank Redemption) and this made whirring noises for a while and a huge amount of head seeking noises before it spooled down - not playing. That didn't work second time of trying.
The third dvd (Men of Honour) never worked either.
I tried the first one again and that never worked again after many tries.
It seems that the drive really tries to read the discs but can't quite manage it, so never really gets up to speed. It's odd. Sadly I don't have another drive to try.

Poop!!!!!

 

[znod]

Lol, I just tried to re-install Click to DVD from original (Vista) recovery discs and it failed with an error 5. May be something wrong with the discs now. I was thinking that may help. Oddly though this messed up my Boot/BCD file and stopped the system booting so a quick automatic repair from the install usb did the trick. Very odd though.

Thank goodness.

 

[Duckface]

Wow, 2 of the 3 films I tried earlier have just played in WMC at the first attempt. Sadly they won't play again. This is very odd.
Failing hardware?