Broken DVD drive?

[mikeyp]

Recently my dvd rom drive has stopped recognising all disks. My motherboard broke, and so I replaced it. I then decided to reinstall windows while I was at it. Since then, although the DVD drive seems to be recognised as a valid drive, no CD or DVD is detected when put in. If I click the drive, it just says please insert a disk. Is this just a broken drive? I don't think it's installed incorrectly, since windows recognises it as a drive. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[BillyNoMates]

When you replaced the Motherboard did you check all the cables were seated properly ?

What make is the DVD drive ?

Have you installed al of the necessary drivers for that drive ?

Have you checked the manufacturers website for the latest drivers ?

[Ralph]

I was going to suggest checking the cables to make sure they're seated properly, but if Windows is seeing it, then that's unlikely to be your problem. You shouldn't need to install any specific drivers, the drives are pretty generic with any writing functions being added by Nero and the like.
Also fairly unlikely is that the Master/Slave jumper setting is wrong but it's worth checking. If you don't know how/where, post back.

In my humble opinion, it's most likely a knackered drive. You can get a dual layer DVD writer from Dabs now for �32.05 which may be your best bet. That is also the major problem, the guys who make these have to build to such a ridiculously low price that the internals are going to be of a fairly poor quality. But when it breaks again, you'll probably get another for �15!

[Thunderchild]

the laser head is burnt out. so although the electronics is fine and is reconised by the pc even at a hardware level 8the most esential) it can't actually read from a disk as the laser has worn out and won't pick up any more. just buy a new drive. u could try opening it and cleaning the laser but that is unlikly to yeild hope. just get a new drive