Problems with Samsung DVD drive

[Hashim]

Recently i upgraded my desktop by replacing New Asus motherboard and a New Samsung DVD drive. Everything was working fine for few days until my Samsung DVD rom stopped reading CD/DVD suddenly. I tried to figure out what the problem is but all in vein. So friends i need your help to solve this issue. Any suggestions on this issue are welcome.

[Hardwareman]

Check if the DVD drive is working properly or not. Many times it happens that the drivers of the devices we use get corrupted or deleted while updating or uninstalling some other application. Therefore first check if the drivers are installed and working properly or not. To check the installed drivers, Go to Device manager and click on the DVD/CD drive, you will see the name of the drive you are using. Now right click on it and go to properties. Now check the status of the device. If the status is "Device is working fine" then the issue is not related to the drivers. If the status of the device is Not working properly then uninstall the drivers and then install them again. After re installation of the drivers the drive will work properly.

[Fabian]

Mostly all the problems with a DVD/CD drive are related to IDE or SATA cable. Depending on the cable you are using to connect the drive to the motherboard, check if it is properly connected. IDE cable have a notch on the upper side which prevents user from inserting the Cable other way round. If the notch is not present then the RED side of the cable should be facing the power cable. If you are using a SATA cable then push the connecting terminals properly as it gets disconnected easily and creates problem in drive detection.

[Killen]

Have you replaced the Power supply unit when you upgraded the computer? All the new peripherals come with a new power rating which is not provided by the older SMPS. The SMPS which were used before came with the power rating of 300watts. But the devices which are available today have power rating which is much more than the provided by the SMPS. Nowadays SMPS which have power rating of 450 watts are available which are required by the latest devices. I would suggest you to replace the SMPS and see if the DVD drive works.

[T.J.]

I think the drive is not getting enough power to function properly. It can be because of the faulty power cable that is attached to the drive or the smps which is not able to provide enough power to the drive. Open the cabinet , remove the power cable which is connected to DVD drive and check the voltage levels of the cables. If the voltage levels are not proper, then try connecting different power cable to the drive and check if the drive works. If the drive does not work after replacing the power cable then the SMPS needs to be replaced.

[Rawko]

There can be many reasons behind the issue you have mentioned. DVD/CD drive comes with an optical laser which is responsible for reading CD/DVD. If the laser develops a fault and is not working then the drive will not read a CD/DVD. Laser will not read a DVD if there are dust particles on it. Get a CD lens cleaner and insert in the Drive. The Cleaner disk will run and clean the laser head. If the laser was not able to read the disk because of the dust, then it will be working fine after the lens cleaner is used. If the Drive does not work even after cleaning the lens then you will need to replace the drive.