Problematic DVD drives

[MSharpeWriter]

 

I've got a weird issue with my PCs DVD drives. Yes more than one. Same issue as well. I had recently found a pile of CD in storage, that I wanted to inventory and back up. (We're talking CD-R that are nearly 20 years old.) But for EVERY CD or DVD I put in Windows 10 give me the same Error: "Insert a Disk". After a few "duds" I decided that something wasn't right and grabbed a Audio CD that is professionally printed: "Conversational Klingon"  same "Insert a Disk" Error. (I was going to rip it.) I placed that Disk in a PS3, and it played fine in the PS3. Same with a Naruto episode Disk PC fail, PS3 good. Normally I would assume that the drive would have died, given that this drive was in a house with someone who smoked. I had a spare DVD drive from an "Old Gaming Rig". Before doing the Drive Swap, I tested the Drive in the "Old Gaming Rig" before I start. All the disks tested worked (Including the Audio CD and DVD mentioned above), including a scratched CDR that I assumed wouldn't work.

 

"Old Gaming Rig" Good DVD drive in the "Modern Rig" but same errors, as before with the working CD/DVDs. I swapped Sata leads around, Still no dice.

 

Hardware (Faulty):

Gigabyte x570 Aorus Eilte MB

Ryzen 7 5800

Win 10

Toshiba-Samsung DVD SH-S203 (Both Drives are the same - I have been moving them from old rig to new for a few years.)

 

Hardware (Good):

Asus Z97-p MB

i5-4690k

Win 10

Toshiba-Samsung DVD SH-S203 (They the exact same drives.)

[BiotechBen]

So I had a similar issue when I tried to play a few old games from my childhood nostalgia collection (Star wars math, Lego Island) and couldn't get them to read on the OG drive that they were originally played on, then tried them in the newer ASUS drive I had just gotten, and it read them nicely after a bit of rapid HDD seek noises from the laser going rapidly back and forth across the disk. This is going to sound really dumb, but try going into compatibility mode in windows settings, and seeing if it detects them in W7 compatibility mode. I had an old HDD from about 1998ish that the newest windows it would even detect on was W7 and required un-mothballing an XP system to see what data was on there.

[Mark Kaine]

Do you have a question also?

 

im going to assume you want to know how to get the drive(s) working ...

 

I would recommend trying to get a "cleaning CD" although Im not sure they still make them. Mine is over 20 years old and it still works.

 

So do all my CDs, DVDs (also CD R and CD RW from 20 years ago etc), CD/DVD players... except a couple of Playstations where not even the cleaning disc does much. 

 

Also my Sony Discman from 1990 or something did only survive a year or so (hint: it was trash)

 

Oh yeah, and my MO discs still work too!  = )

 

Tldr: seems obvious its the laser, try a cleaning CD 

 

Bonus gore, my L.A. Style CD

Spoiler

 

 

(it still works *perfectly* lol)

[mariushm]

Recordable media is only good for 5 years or so.  You're lucky if your 20 year old CD-R discs still work. 

 

It has to do with how air, humidity, light ... all affect the discs ... There's some chemicals that bind the plastic and the substrate in CD-Rs, and there's some laquer which is applied over the edge of the discs ... and these all react to air, humidity, UV and normal light ... and over time the discs go bad.

Unless you kept the discs in jewel case, and then vacuum sealed, it's quite likely the discs are bad.

 

You can check out  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc_bronzing for some explanations about this. 

 

More modern drives have better error correct algorithms because they spin the discs at higher speeds where there's higher vibrations and wobbling of the disc, so that can help recover data from marginal discs, and that can explain why some old discs don't work so well in original old drives, but can be read in newer drives. 

Another explanation could be that the lens is dirty in the old drives.

[MSharpeWriter]

14 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Do you have a question also?

Yes. I should have really mentioned it..

 

In short, I've got a known good DVD Drive, with known good CDs and DVDs tested on other hardware is not reading disks properly. It just spits them out as being unreadable, despite just the same Drive and same CD/DVD being used on another PC hours before. My Gaming Rig currently does not read ANY CD/DVD.

 

I'm leaning towards a Motherboard issue or Driver issue, as I've swapped just about everything else.

 

So what do would you recommend me do to get the DVD drive working on my current gaming rig?

 

I'm actually surprised a few of the CDRs still work, as they're nearly 20 years old.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, MSharpeWriter said:

In short, I've got a known good DVD Drive, with known good CDs and DVDs tested on other hardware is not reading disks properly. It just spits them out as being unreadable, despite just the same Drive and same CD/DVD being used on another PC hours before. My Gaming Rig currently does not read ANY CD/DVD.

 

I'm leaning towards a Motherboard issue or Driver issue, as I've swapped just about everything else.

ah, ok i get it now. well that really sounds like something with the motherboard,  cables or software... honestly i don't really know what to do in this case other than check that everything is really connected properly. 

 

Is the drive sata or what? i really dunno, my only drive that i ever connected to anything is SCSI lol...

 

 

16 hours ago, mariushm said:

You can check

honestly just because there is a wiki page or two doesn't mean its a widespread problem,  because it isnt.

 

My (umm several hundred, i never counted them...) cds, cdrws, etc proof that theory to be wrong indeed.

 

 

That L.A. Style cd was stored for several years in the attic... in a jewel box admittedly,  but it gets below ⁰ in the winter and 40+ in the summer... so even bad weather conditions dont really do anything to a cd as long as its kept dry, and maybe protected from the sun...

 

 

I bet thats the problem some people have,  they literally didn't care much, didn't use jewel cases or the cds got literally wet (cause that's what these cds look like as if they were stored underwater,  probably saltwater or something lol)

 

16 hours ago, mariushm said:

and these all react to air, humidity, UV and normal light ... and over time the discs go bad.

pretty much inadequate storage, yeah. 

 

16 hours ago, mariushm said:

Recordable media is only good for 5 years or so.  You're lucky if your 20 year old CD-R discs still work. 

no, because *all* my cdrs/rws still work and most of them are ~20+ years old , and stored appropriately,  in a jewel box (for the most part)

 

There is no "luck" involved.

 

Btw MO disks are rewritable  and are specifically used for data storage apparently

 

my oldest cds are ~30+ years old, they also still work just fine, only thing is some paper inlets and stuff may dont look brand-new anymore,  which is expected,  its just paper after all. Not saying i never had a disc die, but that was my fault then for scratching it, etc.

 

No, no, "disc rot" is not a widespread phenomenon, except for "cd video" (which wasn't  designed properly) or similar niche stuff maybe.  

 

edit: i don't think he has a video about "disc rot" specifically (because its just not interesting or relevant) but if you haven't you should check out techmoan... he really does more mini disc (which is a magneto optical disk btw) and tape stuff, but also cds, probably mentions disc rot at some point/video but under hifi enthusiasts its just pretty much well known that its not really a thing. Personally i find tapes somehow worse,  the players are finicky as heck, the tapes sometimes deteriorate for no reason, "wow and flutter" etc... its just not very great, reel to reel might be better though with those huge wheels of tape lol.

 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

dp

[MSharpeWriter]

22 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

ah, ok i get it now. well that really sounds like something with the motherboard,  cables or software... honestly i don't really know what to do in this case other than check that everything is really connected properly. 

 

Is the drive sata or what? i really dunno, my only drive that i ever connected to anything is SCSI lol...

It's a SATA Drive, unless there's another standard that use the same type of Port as SATA. I've give the Model and Motherboard info in the first post.

[Robchil]

if it works in one.. why not just share CD and copy it over network? 

 

[MSharpeWriter]

14 hours ago, Robchil said:

if it works in one.. why not just share CD and copy it over network? 

 

That PC is not mine to keep, it's actually for family member who doesn't live in the same house as me. Once I repaired it, it goes. And the repair that I needed to do is done.

 

Plus I'd want to keep the fact that many of the CD/DVDs are game disks, I'd rather have it in a form to use. So I'd be force to make ISO many disks, so I'd need to find a few drives to store them.. Sure, some of the Game disks are available as GOG/Steam downloads, but not every game I have is available to buy, and many aren't exactly ones I could see appearing on GOG/Steam. (I'm surprised that Mission Critical is on GOG.)

 

Anyway, my next task is to make a USB drive with a "live" Os on it so I could see if it's the drivers.. If it is, may be it's time to upgrade from Sata SSD to NVME..

[Robchil]

just buy a USB external DVD reader writer for 30 bucks? 

 

[MSharpeWriter]

10 hours ago, Robchil said:

just buy a USB external DVD reader writer for 30 bucks? 

 

I've got a pair of working internal drives already.. and I may be able get a loaner External DVD drive.

 

Personally, I'm more annoyed at the fact I've got working DVD drive, but the computer doesn't read it..