Bizarre CD drive Problem

I've got a bizarre CD drive problem. I'm not sure which version of windows, the machine is in Korean, I'll have to see if I can check later. It's likely updated to the latest service pack. We have a strange problem on this school computer. Putting in a CD from one of our books into the drive causes it stop functioning. It is still visible in the device manager, but putting in any subsequent CD doesn't work. It just acts like nothing is in there. This happened 2 weeks ago, but then after a day or two it just "magically" fixed itself. I had tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drive, but at the time it did nothing. rebooted/etc A couple days later it was just working.

A week later, on a whim, i tried another copy of the same CD that caused problems (printed from the manufacturer, not a copy I made) and immediately after inserting that CD the same problem happened again. Obviously something is wrong with these CDs. Other CDs I tried in between worked fine. The problem is now that the CD drive is not correcting itself as it did last time. It's not been 6 days. I again tried uninstalling the drive, and my coworker tried running the MSfixit tool (I'm going to try it again today to make sure she did it properly) but nothing seems to be getting the drive back.

Any idea what might be going on here? Any thoughts on what might fix it or where I can check to get information? Keeping in mind that the OS is in Korean, and while I can read some, more complicated error messages will be beyond me, but it's not giving any messages really. Just put the CD in, and nothing happens.

 

if you find out what the drive is (device manager) for example lite on or samsung etc, go to the manufacturers website and see if maybe there are any updated drivers for it or maybe the drive itself is bad.

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As for the os being in Korean, you could reinstall with an English os.

 

This has been an exercise in futility. Drive is a liteon-526s
liteon now uses an update app..why i have no idea, but you can't seem to download individual firmware. You have to download the app, install it, and then try and find updates, but oh.. this computer has no internet connection.

I don't think it's the drive, because it was using other CDs without issue. Tons of CDs, and it only choked on one specific CD, honestly they're pretty junk weird CDs from this Korean ESL company, they look kind of odd on the back as well. I tried some other troubleshooting which involved looking for and removing upper and lower filters, but those entries weren't in the register.
The Fixit program doesn't work, because even though it says "Download here if the machine you want to use this on doesn't have internet" as soon as you try to run fixit portable, it tries to connect to the internet for updates and then fails to run..

I need a solution to this that doesn't require being connected to the internet.

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/cd-drives/liteon-ltn-526s-cd/4507-3207_7-31635921.html

these are the specs, are you sure the cd is not a dvd as that cannot be read by this drive.

http://www.liteonit.eu/en/download/firmware.html

read the instructions here, you will have to burn the package to a cd-r for the firmware update package.

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as for the drive, if other cds play, and it is just that one cd or from the same company it is my guess that it is a bad cd.


I would like to see if any errors are in event viewer, but if they are in Korean....

if you could copy to a usb flash and then copy paste to a reply here from a working pc, then I could translate the page and see what it says?

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http://www.liteonit.eu/en/support-service/supportservice.html

lite on support
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The problem is that after putting in this 1 CD it breaks the drive.
The drive is broken right now.
I put in the CD about 2 weeks ago..and the drive broke. But 2 days later it was fine again. For 2 days it couldn't read any CDs. Then suddenly it was working again. It worked fine for a week, then I got a new copy of that CD. I put it in and suddenly the drive is broken again. However, this time, it's now been 5 days and it still isn't coming around.

There are no downloads for the firmware on that website. The only link for a download is their smartpack. You have to download that, install it, and then once it's installed, it needs to connect to the internet and download your update. The firmware page only contains links to instructions and no links to the actual firmware, that I can see.

I'll check the event viewer day after tomorrow when I'm at the school again. See if it says anything, but when you put in a CD now, absolutely nothing happens, not like it's reading it or anything. There isn't the normal spin up you get when you put in a CD. As i said, i've uninstalled and reinstalled the drive, tried to roll the driver back and nada. The first time, as far as I can tell, it just fixed itself through normal use, turning the machine off and on.

 

Optical Storage Products Firmware Upgrade Instruction



Before you start...
You need the following items to proceed the firmware upgrade procedure.

Data compression utility (for example, WinZIP or WinRAR)
Firmware Upgrade Program Run Under Windows

Check the model type + installed firmware version by using the Windows DEVICE MANAGER and NERO TOOLKIT.
Download the ZIP file with correct model name.
Please unzip the downloaded ZIP file.
Please close all applications under Windows.
Execute the firmware upgrade execution file.
Select the drive you want to upgrade (if you have more than one LITE-ON drives).
Don't interrupt the firmware upgrading process.
Reboot your PC to see if the firmware has been changed.

[Close]

http://www.liteonit.eu/en/utilities.html

this is the download site, you want version 1.21 you can download to a flash and then install on the affected machine, but of course it will have to connect to the internet to check for a firmware update.

other than that the first thing I would do is remove the drive and check it in another pc and see if it works. If it does, then there is a problem somewhere on the affected pc. and the next thing to do is to try a system restore to a point where it was working and check again.

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Note: why can you not connect to the internet?

 

Yes, I've read all that. As i pointed out, the liteon utility is useless, I have no idea what kind of company would make an update utility like this for firmware..

this particular school does not have internet in their classrooms, only in the main office and teacher's area. So connecting to the internet is not a possibility.

 

http://driverscollection.com/?file_cid=4091876226995487424e4ad4888

this site is supposed to be a reputable site and the firmware is available for free download

save to a flash drive and carry to affected pc and install

 

Thanks I'll try that tomorrow when I'm at the school.

 

okay will check back tomorrow