Drive renaming problem/DVD not working

Hi there,

My DVD player has been working on and off for about a year now. I've
finally decided to sort it out, and have done the following but no luck:

1. Deleted upper/lower filters
2. Uninstalled/reinstalled drivers
3. Renamed drive letters in Computer Management (as suggested by
Microsoft)

Having looked round a number of forums, they seem to suggest Vista has
a specific problem renaming drives when new USBs/dongles/hard drives are
used on the machine, which results in DVD player problems and 'no disk'
errors.

For instance, other people have had DVD recognition problems when
installing new hard drives, or using USBs to transfer music files.

From the forums, the answer seems to be renaming drives in the *memory
card readers *also, so that windows knows where to go for stuff.

But I don't know how exactly to do this, what to rename and how, and
whether this works when you're using 2 USBs and a dongle.

Help?!

:huh:


--
Katies

Do you keep the external USB drives plugged into the same USB ports and do
they all boot up with the machine every time?
For example a card reader that is built into a desktop and connected to a
motherboard USB port passively activates every time the system is booted and
the card slots always get assigned the same drive letters.
Not so for external USB drives which may not always be turned on when the
system boots or may be plugged into different USB ports.

Your post is very confusing. Is the problem a DVD drive that is not being
recognized? If so, this this has nothing to do with USB issues. The drive
letter of an optical drive will not normally change when USB mass storage
devices are connected or disconnected.

To troubleshoot hardware issues you need to follow a logical series of
steps. Start with these.
Is the DVD drive recognized by the BIOS? If not there is a hardware
failure and it needs to be replaced.
If yes, is it recognized in Device Manager in Windows? Any problem shown.
If Device Manger shows it with no issues, is it visible in Computer
Management?
--

"Katies" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi there,
>
> My DVD player has been working on and off for about a year now. I've
> finally decided to sort it out, and have done the following but no luck:
>
> 1. Deleted upper/lower filters
> 2. Uninstalled/reinstalled drivers
> 3. Renamed drive letters in Computer Management (as suggested by
> Microsoft)
>
> Having looked round a number of forums, they seem to suggest Vista has
> a specific problem renaming drives when new USBs/dongles/hard drives are
> used on the machine, which results in DVD player problems and 'no disk'
> errors.
>
> For instance, other people have had DVD recognition problems when
> installing new hard drives, or using USBs to transfer music files.
>
> From the forums, the answer seems to be renaming drives in the *memory
> card readers *also, so that windows knows where to go for stuff.
>
> But I don't know how exactly to do this, what to rename and how, and
> whether this works when you're using 2 USBs and a dongle.
>
> Help?!
>
> :huh:
>
>
> --
> Katies

Hi there,

Thanks for your posts - sorry for confusion.

I should've started by saying, that the main problem is that I can't
play DVDs in my DVD player. The DVD player will play music CDs and data
disks, but will not play DVDs, so I get, 'no disk in drive e:!' messages
on trying to play a DVD. This has has been an on and off problem for
about a year.

I looked up on Microsoft Help, and did the three steps outlined above,
which haven't solved the problem; and then looked around at other
forums. I thought it might be a similar problem to something mentioned
by other people, who say Vista gets confused about where the DVD drive
is when they add external hard drives. From what I understood, this was
because of how Vista allocated new letters to new drives, and to solve
the problem you had to rename the new drives, but also rename them
deeper in the system somewhere because Vista didn't do it automatically.
Or something along those lines.

Anyhoo, I use 2 external USBs for data storage - I also use a '3'
dongle, too (which I think may be the culprit), which seems to have some
sort of funny software on it. For example, when my dongle is in the
port, my DVD player automatically tries to read from the dongle, rather
than my DVD/RW drive. All of my USBs are in and out all the time, but
never in when I boot. Vista seems to give them different letters
depending on what's in when, but when I've renamed them it seems to
stick to the same letters.

Righto, hope that clarifies and makes more sense. Apologies for
confused explanations; I (obviously!) don't understand everything about
drive mappings and so on. I may be barking up the wrong tree, but have
been having this problem for yonks and is getting frustrating. Every now
and again the DVD player will play a DVD and am trying to work out why
it decides to suddenly play when it does - which has led me to think
it's a software prob.

Okays, so the drive is present in Device Manager, no conflicts, running
best drivers. Also present under CD/DVD drivers, when my dongle is in,
is a USB DVD device.

In Computer Management, Disk Management, the DVD player is usually
present in the bottom window. Though it seems that it disappears when my
dongle is in, and is replaced by CD-ROM 0 and CD-ROM 1.

Like I say, might be barking up the wrong tree completely here, but
very grateful for any suggestions on this one.


--
Katies

nb. - Sorry, have just realised that the DVD drive IS present i
Computer Managment, Disc Management, when dongle is in

--
Katies

A few questions -
1. What is the dongle you refer to. It does sound like that's causing an
issue of some kind.

2. When the dongle and USB drives are not connected, does the DVD drive
then seem to work correctly? With a data DVD? With a DVD player?

3. When the dongle is in and you see the DVD in Computer Management (as per
your other message) can you assign it a drive letter?
--

"Katies" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi there,
>
> Thanks for your posts - sorry for confusion.
>
> I should've started by saying, that the main problem is that I can't
> play DVDs in my DVD player. The DVD player will play music CDs and data
> disks, but will not play DVDs, so I get, 'no disk in drive e:!' messages
> on trying to play a DVD. This has has been an on and off problem for
> about a year.
>
> I looked up on Microsoft Help, and did the three steps outlined above,
> which haven't solved the problem; and then looked around at other
> forums. I thought it might be a similar problem to something mentioned
> by other people, who say Vista gets confused about where the DVD drive
> is when they add external hard drives. From what I understood, this was
> because of how Vista allocated new letters to new drives, and to solve
> the problem you had to rename the new drives, but also rename them
> deeper in the system somewhere because Vista didn't do it automatically.
> Or something along those lines.
>
> Anyhoo, I use 2 external USBs for data storage - I also use a '3'
> dongle, too (which I think may be the culprit), which seems to have some
> sort of funny software on it. For example, when my dongle is in the
> port, my DVD player automatically tries to read from the dongle, rather
> than my DVD/RW drive. All of my USBs are in and out all the time, but
> never in when I boot. Vista seems to give them different letters
> depending on what's in when, but when I've renamed them it seems to
> stick to the same letters.
>
> Righto, hope that clarifies and makes more sense. Apologies for
> confused explanations; I (obviously!) don't understand everything about
> drive mappings and so on. I may be barking up the wrong tree, but have
> been having this problem for yonks and is getting frustrating. Every now
> and again the DVD player will play a DVD and am trying to work out why
> it decides to suddenly play when it does - which has led me to think
> it's a software prob.
>
> Okays, so the drive is present in Device Manager, no conflicts, running
> best drivers. Also present under CD/DVD drivers, when my dongle is in,
> is a USB DVD device.
>
> In Computer Management, Disk Management, the DVD player is usually
> present in the bottom window. Though it seems that it disappears when my
> dongle is in, and is replaced by CD-ROM 0 and CD-ROM 1.
>
> Like I say, might be barking up the wrong tree completely here, but
> very grateful for any suggestions on this one.
>
>
> --
> Katies

1. It's a dongle from 3 (the mobile phone company).

2. There's no change, whether they're in or not. Can only play CDs or
data discs -and not DVDs - at any time.

3. Yes, I can assign DVD drive a letter when the dongle is in, though
it tells me I have to reboot for it to have effect because the drive is
in use (which is what it says when the dongle is not in).

- Have also realised my laptop recognises the dongle as a CD-ROM, but
dunno if that's usual or not.

DVD software is attempting to source from dongle when it's in; and
reverts back to DVD player when it's not in. I can change where it
sources from in the software, but thought it might be redirecting itself
due to windows telling it to for some reason.

For at least two months now, I've not been able to play any DVDs;
whereas before this was an on and off problem. Been using dongle for
around four months, though much more frequently for the last two (ie.
every time I boot).

GTS;1141577 Wrote:
> A few questions -
> 1. What is the dongle you refer to. It does sound like that's causing
> an
> issue of some kind.
>
> 2. When the dongle and USB drives are not connected, does the DVD drive
> then seem to work correctly? With a data DVD? With a DVD player?
>
> 3. When the dongle is in and you see the DVD in Computer Management (as
> per
> your other message) can you assign it a drive letter?
> --


--
Katies

ooops

--
Katies

It sounds most likely that there is a hardware failure in the DVD drive.
DVD drives have separate lasers for CD and DVD use and one can fail. The
fact that the drive can always read CD's and cannot read DVD's under any
circumstances strongly indicates this. This would have been my first
thought, but the dongle issue raised questions. (Drives are inexpensive and
easy to replace.)
--

"Katies" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> 1. It's a dongle from 3 (the mobile phone company).
>
> 2. There's no change, whether they're in or not. Can only play CDs or
> data discs -and not DVDs - at any time.
>
> 3. Yes, I can assign DVD drive a letter when the dongle is in, though
> it tells me I have to reboot for it to have effect because the drive is
> in use (which is what it says when the dongle is not in).
>
> - Have also realised my laptop recognises the dongle as a CD-ROM, but
> dunno if that's usual or not.
>
> DVD software is attempting to source from dongle when it's in; and
> reverts back to DVD player when it's not in. I can change where it
> sources from in the software, but thought it might be redirecting itself
> due to windows telling it to for some reason.
>
> For at least two months now, I've not been able to play any DVDs;
> whereas before this was an on and off problem. Been using dongle for
> around four months, though much more frequently for the last two (ie.
> every time I boot).
>
> GTS;1141577 Wrote:
>> A few questions -
>> 1. What is the dongle you refer to. It does sound like that's causing
>> an
>> issue of some kind.
>>
>> 2. When the dongle and USB drives are not connected, does the DVD drive
>> then seem to work correctly? With a data DVD? With a DVD player?
>>
>> 3. When the dongle is in and you see the DVD in Computer Management (as
>> per
>> your other message) can you assign it a drive letter?
>> --
>
>
> --
> Katies