Strange DVD drive issue

[Lucio]

Ok, I've not run across this one before and I'm not quite sure where to start debugging it. My DVD is a Samsung SH-S230N, I've got CyberLink Power DVD loaded to play movies.

On certain discs, STALKER and Neverwinter Nights 2, I put the discs in and the computer spends ages and ages trying to access the disc, often with no sucess. When it does this, the entirerity of Explorer often locks up as well, stopping me doing anything else.

Part of me suspects an issue with the copy protection, because both discs use the same "is disc present" notification screens, but I don't know enough about how the DVD drive works to confirm it.

Driver wise, I'm just using the standard ones that came with Windows as there doesn't appear to be any specific ones for the drive that I can find.

[stevie lee]

my guess - bear in mind this is just a guess...
is that there are movie files on those discs, stalker and nwn2, but they are encoded in a format Power DVD doesn't recognise. you did say you had that program loaded (i take this to mean its open and running in background), so power DVD is trying to open them via an 'automatically play when disc is inserted' feature you have loaded.

try exiting power dvd and see if the discs still lock up.
have a root around in the power dvd settings and disable any autorun features, have a check for other programs aswell that do this, Nero InCd springs to mind.

the above is just a guess, but it does sound logical to me.

[Rosaline]

I presume from your description that power dvd does not have to be loaded for this error to occur.

I've found that similar issues can occur for other DVDs, and yes, I am fairly sure it is copy protection that's to blame

[Lucio]

my guess - bear in mind this is just a guess...
is that there are movie files on those discs, stalker and nwn2, but they are encoded in a format Power DVD doesn't recognise. you did say you had that program loaded (i take this to mean its open and running in background), so power DVD is trying to open them via an 'automatically play when disc is inserted' feature you have loaded.

try exiting power dvd and see if the discs still lock up.
have a root around in the power dvd settings and disable any autorun features, have a check for other programs aswell that do this, Nero InCd springs to mind.

the above is just a guess, but it does sound logical to me.

That's actually not a bad idea, I did notice Vista has been removing the autoplay settings for PowerDVD and I kept changing it back... Maybe Vista is trying to help


EDIT: Ok, it's worked this time straight away, you could be onto something there! Guess I'll have to actually have to press play damnit when I watch a movie

[stevie lee]

reply to rosalines
yes, sounds that way doesn't it. i'm starting to think it could be an autorun conflict with copy protection. try disabling all the auto run programs you have, see if the disc causes a lock up, if it doesn't then you have your answer.

what you then could do, is re-enable 1 autorun program at a time and re-insert disc, and then you will find out which program cause the problem.


(one of these days i might actually do a reply that makes sense)

you could be onto something there!

i'm very insightfull, just absolutely useless at putting my thoughts across to other people (don't know whether anyones noticed.)

so happy you fixed it although time will tell whether it stays that way. have you tried the other discs yet? restarted pc to see if the autorun reloads when you start windows?