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Movie DVD's will not play in laptop

Discussion in 'Video playback problems' started by highlndr, Jun 16, 2008.

  1. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    Trying to help my dad figure out what is wrong with his laptop (in other words, what he goofed up!! :) )

    His Gateway laptop has a dvd -r/rw drive. Laptop is maybe 1 - 1.5 years old.

    The laptop will not show store bought DVD movies. You can feel the drive spinning, but nothing shows on screen. Have tried a couple of different dvd viewing programs (Cyberlink, WMP and one other one) but to no avail.

    Windows Explorer does not show any files on any of the dvd’s, looks like they are empty. Same DVD's play ok on my PC and on standalone DVD players.

    DVD drive will play audio cd’s.

    Problem seemed to start after re-install of Windows XP (or so I am told).

    DECCHECK shows the cyberlink decoder is the preferred decoder.

    Have not tied to delete the IDE/Drives in device manager since it will play audio cd's.

    Suggestions?
     
  2. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    Yeah, do what you didn't do. Delete the IDE/ATAPI controller, and reboot.
     
  3. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    Now I need to wait for him to get back in town....

    I'll do that when he returns and let you know how it turns out...

    Thanks,
     
  4. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    You're welcome. I hope that it works. You may also have to get a DVD player software for the computer. XP does not have one built into the OS.
     
  5. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    Update.... laptop is back in town. Had my dad uninstall the dvd drive in device manager. When rebooted, it found the drive ok, but still would not play dvd's.

    He uninstalled a couple of programs (virtual earth beta and voxware), and now the laptop doesn't even see the dvd drive.

    I'm going to pick up his laptop this evening and take it home to try my luck with it.

    Would removing any upper and lower filters have any impact on this?

    Thanks,
     
  6. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    Yes, after removing the right ones, and rebooting, XP should find the burner again.
     
  7. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    After removing the filters..... same problem...

    DVD drive shows up in bios, my computer, device manager, but when you put a cd or dvd in it... spins it, but can't read it....

    Suggestions?
     
  8. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    Lets see....

    The dvd drive will not read cd's or dvd's. The drive spins up, acts like it wants to read the cd/dvd, but then doesn't show anything on the disk....

    Tried it booting to a xp cd... tried in safe mode...

    Sooooooo... don't know how I would even try to re-install xp..... since it woun't read a disk..

    I'm baffled....
     
  9. MAndretti

    MAndretti Member

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    Maybe your DVD drive is just plain shot.My friend had that same problem.One day it played everything just fine,the next day it would not play movies.It would play music or install games or other programs but not DVD movies.He did nothing to his computer,no settings changes or anything at all.We tried a system restore and that did not bring it back to normal.His drive was junk.Since your will not play anything,I would bet yours is also junk.Hope you get it sorted out soon.
     
  10. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    Thats what we are doing next.... trying to find a replacement drive and put it in.

    The current drive willl not even read a WinXP boot CD, so... makes it hard to reinstall winXP to see if that is the problem....

    I'll let you know what happens when we get the new drive in.
     
  11. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    Dad put in the new dvd drive, and it will read music cds, but not movies.... telling hime a codec is missing...

    He said that is what the old dvd drive said before it would not read anything.

    Guess I'll take a look at it this Sunday when he comes over...
     
  12. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    You still need to put in a DVD player software to play movie DVD's.

    I use N-ero Show Time, Roxio's Cineplayer and have tried a couple of others.

    VLC Media Player is free, and that should work for your dad.
     
  13. highlndr

    highlndr Member

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    After getting the laptop from dad....

    Installed cyberlink power dvd and its working again..

    Guess the drive was bad, and then I had taken off Cyberlink and thats why it would not play the dvds when the new drive was installed.

    Thanks for the help everyone!!!!
     
  14. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    You're welcome, and high fives for getting it up and running again.
     

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