IF YOU HAVE DVD/CD DRIVE PROBLEMS - READ THIS>

[Blencogo]

Several members seem to have problems with their CD/DVD drives at the moment. As far as I know, there is no magic solution but you could try some or all of the following: -

1. See if there is an updated driver or updated firmware for your drive at Vaio-Link. Some Sony drives are re-badged from other manufacturers and you may have to search for updated downloads. For example, if you have a Sony DW-D56A drive, you can get a firmware download from HERE (Use PFS2). Many other drives are also supported on this site.

2. Use System Restore to return your Vaio to the configuration when it was last working normally.
Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore - choose a restore date before you had the problem.

3. Look in Device Manager to see if there are any errors against your DVD/CD-ROM drive.
Start -> Right-Click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager - expand DVD/CD-ROM Drives and check the status. If there is an Error Code or a yellow triangle with a ! or ? come back here with the number and we may be able to help.

4. If there is no error and the drive is reported as working normally, try Uninstalling the drive by right-clicking on it in Device Manager and choosing Uninstall. Re-booting your Vaio will reinstall the drivers.

5. Try some different software to read/write your discs and see if that works. Also try a different brand of discs - Sony, TDK and Verbatim seem favourites.

6. Try a liquid lens cleaner on the lens and polish with a microfibre cloth ? this can sometimes help.

7. If your drive works with either CDs or DVDs only make sure the ribbon cable is not preventing the reader head from moving freely - check that the laser head in the drive can move freely for the whole range of its travel. The disc information is held on the outside tracks for DVDs and the inner tracks for CDs.

8. Last resort is to perform a full C:\ Drive System Recovery from your Recovery Discs. Make sure you back up all your Data as the contents of C:\ will be lost and your Vaio returned to the factory configuration.

If none of these work, you may have a hardware problem and you need to contact Vaio-Link. There is no point contacting them until you have carried out a Drive C:\ Recovery as this is the first thing they will ask you to do.

[neilgrafton]

Hi Guys

Apologies if this has been covered, but I have the following problem with my machine.
I have a VGN C2Z running Vista and the CD drive is not being recognised but the DVD drive works fine. I have not had any errors occur and the device managers is saying there is no problem with the DVD drive (Toshiba DVR K17)

Can anyone let me know what to do

Thanks

[sanicho73]

All this RESTORE WITH RECOVERY DISKS is all very well but BE WARNED it looses all your sony updates and you have to start again from when you bought your PC - all the windows upgrades, all the Office updates etc etc - and, if like me, you only have a telephone connection this takes DAYS AND DAYS - Sony should ofer something better - the PCG drive is FAULTY and always has been - they are at fault and they should offer something better that 'use recovery disks' - and be warned - dont bother paying for support - all they say is ...guess what - USE RECOVERY DISKS - well its like going back to DOS and the IBM-PC with 215K RAM - you have to upgrade from 00BC.

[Sasse]

Solved Problems with Vaio - VGN-A197VP. Sometimes things are not what they seem to be.

I got a video clip as the attachment of an e-mail. I got also an interesting dvd movie some days later. I was not able to play either one on my Vaio. And I have had problems with burning cds ever since I bought my Vaio. For safety copies I have used an external hard disk and another computer with Nero. (I have done all the updates except sonics - it does not install.)

My Media Player version played only sounds of the video and no avi at all. So I updated it to Media Player 10. It did not help - I lost the sounds, too. According to the Windows XP Video Decorder Chckup Utility my Vaio decorders were not compatible with the synchronizations feature of Media Player 10. DVD 5 played only the music of the movie.

I decided to test DVD Media Center (Corel free trial). A miracle happened. I was able to see my dvd movie and there were no problems with burning cds on previously rejected ones. However, even though the decorder problem was solved, Media Player 10 could not play more than the sounds of avi or wmv.

I spent many long hours reading newsgroups of Vaio Forum and Microsoft. So many have had same kind of problems but if there was an answer or two (sometimes more), they did not feel right. I especially disliked the idea of clean install with all my other programs. I did learn a lot about Vaio thinking. While reading a Microsoft article about Media Players and changed screens I got the insight. I pushed one button to open my other screen.

Media Player worked like an angel, DVD 5 and DVD Media Center as well. I finally noticed that I was able to draw things to the layout scene of Drag and Drop and forgave at least to some extend that I cannot use the burning feature of XP. I like the new Media Center and I'll keep it. It serves as a nice way to go through photo files (Pixela toy is not for me).

I send this story because sometimes things are very simple but it can take a lot of time to find it out. I hope this helps someone. And I do hope that other and later Vaios have already solved the problem of burning alternatives. All the best.

[mrbrown18]

having problem with DVD/CD drive.
Device Manager:
Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. the driver maybe corrupted or missing.
Code 39, there's a yellow triangle with !

could anyone help

[Blencogo]

Hi mrbrown18

If it is code 39 then a small registry edit should sort the problem.

The following involves changes to the registry and I recommend that you set a System Restore Point.

Then:

1.Click Start -> Run and type: REGEDIT , and hit enter. For Vista, type REGEDIT into the search box and open it).
2. Navigate to –

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

click on this and locate UpperFilters in the right-hand window, (if it exists) right click on this and select Delete and then OK.
3. Under the same Registry Key locate LowerFilters, (if it exists) right click on this and select Delete and then OK.
4. Quit Registry Editor and re-boot the computer, new registry values will be created that will hopefully cure the problem.

After you remove the Upperfilters value and the Lowerfilters value, you may possibly need to re-install your burning software if it doesn't work – but not usually.

[Barkers]

Hello.

I wonder if someone could help me. I purchased a VGN-NR10E/S from currys and im having some problems with the dvd drive not recognising some discs.

The drive is a Matshita UJ870QJ ATA Device. When i put dvd film or music cds in the drive it picks them up fine, when i put a data disc which i have burned with another pc it picks them up but when i try to install games it doesnt show that the discs are in the dvd drive. The games i tried were football manager 07 and 08 and some of the latest sims games. All these load fine on the other 4 computers in the house but the new sony is having none of it.

I downloaded a countless number of updates when i first got it out of the box, 1 of which was a firmware update for the drive but still no joy. Device manager shows everything as working fine.

I finally gave up saturday morning and rang currys back to exchange the laptop as i thought the dvd drive to be at fault. is this the case or will the games not play on the new laptop?

thanks in advance

Gareth

[Barkers]

Anyone?

[GossenRuda]

Hi, I'm having problems too with my newly bought VAIO FZ21M. My drive suddenly disapeared from my system - it's totally dead allthough it spins up but nothing happens at all. No program, the OS, nor the hardware diagnostics prog sees it at all, and I bought my VAIO 3 days ago! I have no yellow warnings under my device manager - there is NO DVD/CD/BD at all.

I have tried system restore in Vista to no avail.

Is it a common problem?

/Jörgen

[Thalamus.]

Hi Jörgen,

welcome to Club vaio..

Have you tried restarting Your Vaio the CD/DVD drive should automatically install..

Failing that then run the Vaio recovery utility and restore your Vaio back to it's original settings, make sure you back-up all your important data first, if the CD/DVD drive does not appear in device manager after the re-install then take it back to the retailer for an exchange..

[salamander1976]

Thanks for this info Blencogo. Works perfectly for code 37 error. Also managed to fix my new 3 mobile broadband modem at the same time - more than I can say for 3 support. Many thanks again!