DVD Drive Issues

[Delta-4]

Recently...well, not recently, this has been happening for several months now...my DVD-RW drive has been refusing to scan a few discs and is having extreme difficulty scanning my StarCraft: Brood War disc. Typically, it'll scan it for a little while, then quit in the middle of scanning it. It works fine for C&C3 and Quake 4 (Although, sadly, Quake 4 has a corrupted installation file.), but it hasn't functioned properly for Half-Life 2 or Dawn Of War. It has extreme difficulty scanning StarCraft and will usually take about five or so reboots just to get the thing to scan the disc.

Something to note is that both Half-Life 2 and Dawn Of War are special editions containing multiple games (Dawn Of War being the Gold Edition containing the Winter Assault expansion pack and Half-Life 2 being the Game Of The Year Edition featuring Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, and Half-Life: Source.). My computer has also refused to run my C&C: TFD disc as well, meaning it could be that the drive simply refuses to run discs with multiple games on them.

I'm sorry if this is too little information, but I have no idea as to what could be causing this and I have only moderate knowledge of computers.

A DxDiag document is attached should that be able to help.

Edit: I think I may have a possible reason. A friend of mine wanted me to use Daemon Tools or whatever they're called to be able to use my copy of Halo without the CD, as the disc had started to die on me. I attempted to use them, but failed, and that happened right around the time this began to happen.

[wthigon]

Who's the manufacturer of the drive? If it's a lite-on, then they are notorious for this type of problem.

[Delta-4]

It just says "(Standard CD-ROM drives)", and there isn't a name to be found on the drive itself.
The disc drive came standard with my computer, which is a Dell XPS 400.

Also, anyone who wishes to help, please don't suggest "Get a new one.", as I'm in a terrible financial situation being unable to work and having my sole parent in a low-paying job. Please try to pull any possible solution out of your head before suggesting that dreaded phrase, I beg of you.

[wthigon]

Your attached file says the model is "GWA4164B". I did a google search and a lot of people are having problems with that model. Try to find updated firmware or call Dell and see what they have to say.

[Delta-4]

I downloaded the update, but I can't restart my computer just yet; sendin' an important file to a friend. The file'll take a long time to complete, so I'll have to post the results tomorrow (Or today, as it reads 12:32AM on my clock.).
Thanks for the help, hope it works.

It didn't work, the drive's still givin' me crap...
(Sigh) I guess I do have to replace the thing...

[NuclearDreams]

That drive is made by LG...wthigon is right, a lot of people are having problems with that particular model.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_cddvd&message.id=1553

I happen to have the GSA-4163B from LG and I haven't had a single problem yet.

[HawkEye1102002]

In my experience, LG is one of the worst companies to buy equipment from, LG monitors, LG optical disk drives etc.

My advice, go for NEC for optical drives, buy their DVD-RAM drives, you won't regret it

[pieman224]

Recently...well, not recently, this has been happening for several months now...my DVD-RW drive has been refusing to scan a few discs and is having extreme difficulty scanning my StarCraft: Brood War disc. Typically, it'll scan it for a little while, then quit in the middle of scanning it. It works fine for C&C3 and Quake 4 (Although, sadly, Quake 4 has a corrupted installation file.), but it hasn't functioned properly for Half-Life 2 or Dawn Of War. It has extreme difficulty scanning StarCraft and will usually take about five or so reboots just to get the thing to scan the disc.

Something to note is that both Half-Life 2 and Dawn Of War are special editions containing multiple games (Dawn Of War being the Gold Edition containing the Winter Assault expansion pack and Half-Life 2 being the Game Of The Year Edition featuring Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, and Half-Life: Source.). My computer has also refused to run my C&C: TFD disc as well, meaning it could be that the drive simply refuses to run discs with multiple games on them.

I'm sorry if this is too little information, but I have no idea as to what could be causing this and I have only moderate knowledge of computers.

A DxDiag document is attached should that be able to help.

Edit: I think I may have a possible reason. A friend of mine wanted me to use Daemon Tools or whatever they're called to be able to use my copy of Halo without the CD, as the disc had started to die on me. I attempted to use them, but failed, and that happened right around the time this began to happen.



Your computer might not have enough random access memory to run the program. That happens with my desktop computer. it will read stuff like simm city but when i try to put in the C&C disk it spits it back out. If this does not work you could always call or go to a Best Buy store and ask for a representative from Computers/Software

[Delta-4]

My computer has enough RAM, in fact, it's far past the requirements for all of the games I own, and this topic has been somewhat resolved already.