Serious DVD drive issue!!

[BarontheFirst]

Ok just put a new DVD drive in my cab. It worked fine then my system froze after trying to install 7zip. Now the DVD drive light is on but the door won't open or close. It doesn't show up as being in my device manager or Windows Exlporer except in safe mode and it is in the Device manager then.

The drive is a ASUS DVD-E616P2
Operating System Win 98 SE
MOBO Is a Biostar M7VIG
CPU Athlon XP 1800+ 1.53ghz

I have disconnected and reconnected with no luck. Any ideas or do I need to claim my warranty. The dam thing is a day old! I just got the ASUS motherboard hope that don't crap out!

So please any ideas? I am going to raise hell on Monday and demand a overnight replacment!

[pocketpal]

Is there a disc in the drive?  If so, and if you haven't already done so, shut the system down and push an unfolded paperclip in the tiny hole on the front of the drive to manually force the drive door open.  Then remove the disc, shut the drive door, and fire the system back up.

Will this help?  I haven't a clue, but it would be one of the first things I would try. 

[BarontheFirst]

Thanks but already did that! Anymore ideas out there?

[pointdablame]

- Uninstall 7zip if you think that could be more than a coincidence
- Try drive in another system if possible
- Try a different IDE cable, preferably one that you know works
- Switch IDE channels and position (master/slave) for HDD and Optical Drive
- Double check jumpers on optical drive... play with those settings as well.
- Try another drive if possible to see if it's a problem on your IDE channel.
- If its a new install of the OS, try reinstalling it and see if it gets detected (this is a bit of a nuisance, but if you have the time, and you haven't done much with the system yet, its worth a shot... otherwise I probably wouldn't bother)


After doing that, you can be sure whether it is the drive that is at fault, or the system.  Those tests should only take a few mins.  Keep the case off, change one thing at a time, boot up.... rinse and repeat until you can draw some concrete conclusions.

[BarontheFirst]

Well I will change out the drive right now but I don't think the cable is bad I disconnected the DVD drive and now it has picked up the HD wich was set to master. The DVD was set to slave I also tried both on cable select. Now with the IDE cable disconnected the DVD drive still wont open or shut with just power applies so I will go with it being bad! This is a first for me! Never had a problem like this. A dead stick! Just a light.

[pointdablame]

Try the drive on a seperate IDE channel altogether.  It's possible (but unlikely) that the slave connector on your cable could be bad... it wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've heard of.  And don't bother with Cable Select, just double check that your settings are correct.

It sounds like the drive is bad though... I think your instincts are right on this one.

[BarontheFirst]

Ah not going to bother the tray should still work with just power and it doesn't. Looks like return


Just to test the cable I will hook up my regular extra cd-rom drive. That will tell for sure!

[Sprucemoose]

Had the same problem with my ASUS drive.  I had to send it back.  Have fun dealing with their customer service...they are terrible.  Don't get me wrong I like ASUS, but am a bit sour of their optical drives

[BarontheFirst]

Well everyone was saying how great there mobo were so I thought I would give there dvd drive a shot guess I was wrong! I am very happy with the mobo I got so far! Well we will see what happens!

[pocketpal]

If you happen to get a refund, and begin to look elsewhere for a drive...

I've been very happy with my Lite-On brand optical drives, and the customer reviews I've read back that up.  I have one of their DVD burners in my desktop and a DVD-ROM in my arcade setup.  If you use Pricewatch.com, you can find them very cheap.

[BarontheFirst]

It is offical the cr-rom drive works! So I got a bad DVD drive after all. Now I am not dealing with ASUS on this I was shipped a bad drive and will not wait 2 to 3 weeks for warranty service I want www.zipzoomfly.com who I ordered it from to send me another. I needed this drive like yesturday all my stuff is on dvd -r so this temp cd drive only goes so far. Thanks for the help all

[SteveJ34]

Lots of inexpensive options from Lite On at newegg.com....

http://tinyurl.com/eygtw

I recently picked up a black face unit which was $22.00 with free shipping. They don't have that specific item and sale option at the moment but there are others that are close.

[BarontheFirst]

Well since I got a ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE I decided to just hook my cab up in a network with my home pc took all of 5 minutes so no real need for the DVD drive at the moment

[DrewKaree]

Lite-On and Plextor had drives ship with the alternate's labels in the past, meaning some of their drives are manufactured by the other.  Who, specifically, makes what, I don't know, but I've purchased ONE Plextor, and 4 Lite-On's and had no problems with ANY of them. 

Plextors are generally excellent and reliable drives, and I have yet to see a reason to see otherwise about Lite-On drives, AND they are less expensive to boot!

[Havok]

Plextor's are the best out there, but are a bit pricey. I would go with the Lite-On drives, they work well, and actually are the OEM for Dell. Never had a problem with either brand...