Can't tell if my DVD Drive is physically damaged or if it's just having a software issue

Hi

Recently I've installed two different burning softwares in my computer, DVD Cloner Platinum, and Roxio Easy Media Creator, respectively.

I wanted to burn a bootable .ISO image into a DVD-R, but since DVD Cloner doesn't have such functionality I only used Roxio Easy Media Creator.

On my first attempt, I clicked on "Burn from disc image" button to burn the .ISO into the DVD properly. Thing is, it's supposed to be a boot OS .ISO file, so I'm not sure if I had to add boot properties to it or not. Anyway, I only chose to burn from disc image and the process went just fine, however once finished the DVD showed no contents at all.

Assuming I had gone through the process the wrong way or that something went wrong in the burning process, even though it didn't show any errors at all, I tried again, this time simply dragging the .ISO file to another recordable DVD. Obviously it merely just copied the .ISO file into the DVD which isn't the way I wanted, but once again the burning process went flawlessly, and this time when I go to my computer and double clicked the DVD to see it's content, I could actually see the .ISO file in there.

So, I switched back to the previous burned DVD, this time it actually read it properly and behaved as if it was the actual OS disk. I proceeded to restart computer, set up the booting order accordingly to install the OS within, but whenever it got to the "Boot from disk" part it would skip straight through to booting from hard drive as if there was no DVD present.

I restarted and retried it several times, and once, I was spamming random keys very quickly dring the boot from disc part and it actually booted from the DVD but also unfortunately selected a bunch of options I couldn't see by accident due to my rapid key spamming, so I had to restart the computer to try again and it never recognized the DVD again.

On top of that my computer had been behaving strangely, sometimes turning off immediately a few seconds after restarting and sometimes it would not restart at all. I later found out that some of the cables inside it had come a bit loose which seemed to be causing that, but I'll admit the whole incident had me lose my temper and I ended up banging on my computer's casing a couple of times next to the DVD-reader on a spot with no hardware or cables underneath, but not directly on the reader, not with much force and not while the DVD reader was actually doing anything, either.

Now, the reader already seemed to have been faulty, not recognizing DVDs after burning those two DVDs (had been working just fine before that, though), but still I'm worried that it may have broken the DVD reader, because I've ran windows "Fix It" tool after my internet came back (hell of a day, nothing's been working properly) and it said it found a problem on the DVD reader but couldn't actually fix it.

I also went to the registry and deleted lower and higher filter entries but it still can't read anything.

I'm running Windows XP, the system still recognizes the DVD drive being there, the drivers are fine and I get no error message when trying to see the contents of a DVD inside the drive, the LED lights even go up for a short time and I get the "reading disc" mouse cursor for a little while after loading a DVD in, but it just won't read them.

TL;DR: DVD reader stopped reading DVDs after burning a couple of DVDs after installing two different burning software, lost my temper and banged on my PC's casing next to it, but not directly on top, not very hard and not while it was functioning.

So how can I tell if the drive is actually broken, or if its' just some software issue? Also, if it's just a software issue, how do I fix it?

 

uninstall all the burning apps that you installed. Then download and install ImgBurn(free) and see if that works or not. Imgburn will give you a layout of whats happening(such as error codes and the rest) that you can post the log here so I look at the log.

 

Ok uninstalled both dvd burn softwares and downloaded imgburn, but what do I need to do for it to produce the logs you need? Or do you mean the little log that opens when you run the app? In that case, here's what it says:

I 21:08:20 ImgBurn Version 2.5.6.0 started!
I 21:08:20 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 3)
I 21:08:20 Total Physical Memory: 3.665.132 KB - Available: 2.126.380 KB
W 21:08:20 Duplex Secure's SPTD driver can have a detrimental effect on drive performance.
I 21:08:20 Initialising SPTI...
I 21:08:20 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...
I 21:08:21 -> Drive 1 - Info: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50 TN02-06 (D (ATA)
I 21:08:21 Found 1 DVD±RW/RAM!

 

The log is updated after you exit ImgBurn.
Restart ImgBurn click 'Help' > 'ImgBurn Logs..' to read the updated logs.

 

Ok, here's what the log says after it closed:

I 21:08:20 ImgBurn Version 2.5.6.0 started!
I 21:08:20 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 3)
I 21:08:20 Total Physical Memory: 3.665.132 KB - Available: 2.126.380 KB
W 21:08:20 Duplex Secure's SPTD driver can have a detrimental effect on drive performance.
I 21:08:20 Initialising SPTI...
I 21:08:20 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...
I 21:08:21 -> Drive 1 - Info: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50 TN02-06 (D (ATA)
I 21:08:21 Found 1 DVD±RW/RAM!
I 22:14:05 Close Request Acknowledged
I 22:14:05 Closing Down...
I 22:14:06 Shutting down SPTI...
I 22:14:06 ImgBurn closed!


Didn't really add a whole lot, I suppose. I tried using the read function in it, but it keeps saying there is no media in the tray when there clearly is one in there.

 

That's just the initial startup log.
Run Imgburn and select 'Write files/folders to disk'.
Click the 'Device' tab and insert a blank DVD.
If it can see the disk it will list the available write speeds and the disk manufacturer ID code.
If you don't see that information, there is something wrong with the burner or it's communication with ImgBurn
.
Assuming you see the disk information:
Click Tools > Settings > Write and check the box for 'Perform OPC before write'.

Load/drag in any data file - a text file or a jpeg)
If the disk is a DVD-R, click 'Test mode'.

Test mode does not actually burn a disk - with a DVD-R you can verify communication between the software and the burner - no actual burning takes place.
Click the large arrow to start the Test.

Assuming that's OK, uncheck Test Mode and burn the disk.

Assuming the burn is ok, verify the contents and assume the burner is good.

Note that you are using the same burner model as myself (except an earlier firmware).

 

No it can't recognize disks in the tray, that's what the whole problem is about. Imgburn never recognizes there's a disk in there.

 

Your drive might have died, or a cable might have come lose. Do you have any other drives to test with ?

 

Unfortunately no.

And can the drive die like that just from burning a couple disks? I mean, I know I did bang on it, but it was already malfunctioning way before that. Also, I rarely ever used it and the few times I used it was just to read disks. That was the first time I tried burning something with it, (wasn't my first time burning DVDs, however, and I'm fairly sure I haven't done anything stupid).

Could it be that the laser became stuck somehow? If so, how do I open it up to let it loose again?

 

yes its very good possibilty that drive died,i had a LG dvd burner,did only 4 discs and then it stopped reading and writing,,took it back and got another one and all is good now,,can you still take yours back for an exchange??