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.

[jlmerino]

hi my vaio model is pcc-grt 916z , thank you and only can write in 1x,2x and 4x DVDs

[LEVELman]

Hello guys. Again the same problem with reading DVDs. At first I experienced this 2 months ago, reading all DVD (movies) was choppy. Full system recovery solved this but I have thought that it was caused by updated video drivers which I havent ever downloaded and installed again. Today the same problem occured, in ALL dvd players I have installed (windvd and win. media player). I am suspicious that this is caused by a conflict with a not-so-great sony drivers and a game I tryed to install: WoW:TBC, my dvd drive was behaving like crazy, speeding up and slowing down, I thought it was about to explode. Game couldnt complete installation and I had to manually turn laptop off. I dont know whether to restore system once again and install all my software again, it takes lot of time! then I will install one program and my drive wont be able to read DVDs ?! Should I contact service or it is caused only by a software. Any hints, ideas? ... Esupport told me to be sure that my drive is set to DMA but it has always been DMA enabled so they were absolutely useless and slow... I dont know how to solve this. My fe21b is half year old.

Edit: Now I seriously need to restore my system again because I have installed "updated drivers" right now and DVD playback is even worse ... cool ...

[BornToEnd]

I have an fe21b with the SONY DVD RW G520A drive and I've been having funny problems with it from the beginning. I've had it since August and initially it had no software to play a DVD movie on it. I installed PowerDVD and although it will play the sound is glitchy - like a stuttering? It's fine with audio CDs and also avi files too so it's not the sound card. It also takes a looooong time to write DVDs - I'm actually using Sony DVDs as well and it won't burn higher than 0.6x which is annoying when you have 4gb to burn! Also in games where there is a cutscene with a mini movie, the sound always become separated from the video, with the video seemingly running slower. It's almost like the sound doesn't pause when people are pausing in the coversation and it carries on regardless?

I've made sure that it is DMA enabled, I've tried cleaning it and moving the lens back and forth to make sure that the ribbon isn't catching so I'm a bit stumped.

I was a bit bemused also when I noticed that the driver for the drive itself is dated July 2001? Surely there must have been one for the firmware since then?!

I also thought I'd mention that I find it surprisingly difficult finding sony drivers ANYWHERE online. Also SonicStage doesn't work very well and media center (the progam) is always coming up with errors. Don't know if it's related but I'm just having a moan! Other than that it's a great laptop and I'd really like to sort it out really.

[LEVELman]

Borntoend In my opinion you have some software problems, because what you are describing here has never happened on my FE21B, media center is working fine and DVD players which came with laptop (windvd, windows media player) have both no problem to play dvd. However, I must say that I am not sattisfied with drivers thingie (according to my previous thread). It is whole very annoying because it seems like some sony experts are unable to master their hardware. Sorry to say- it looks like they were some beginners.

[BornToEnd]

Thanks for the reply LEVELman. I think I might try uninstalling windvd perhaps then. Media center is really buggy - it keeps wanting to debug when I go into it. For some reason when I got it, when I tried to play a DVD it said that there was no decoder on it so neither media player nor windvd would actually play DVDs. Installing PowerDVD enabled me to play them but I still have problems so I'll carry on fiddling with it I think. If I sort it out I'll report back.

I know what you mean about the whole beginners thing - it doesn't bode very well!

[BornToEnd]

I uninstalled Windvd. Using media player, playback is really stuttering. I tried VLC media player and it reported 450 lost frames in the space of 90 seconds of playback. However watching avi files on the hard disk is fine. PowerDVD seems to minimise the problems and gives the smoothest playback of the bunch, though there are still some problems occasionally with glitchy sound in places.

[LEVELman]

Borntoend basically I believe you have exactly the same problem with dvd playback as me (both sound and video choppy, sometimes only sound...divx playback from HDD is fine... ) But I dont have any problems with Media center, IMO you have problems like viruses, mby some missing or corrupted media center files. I would try full system recovery. From my own experience I can also tell you that dvds are choppy in all players- windvd and windows media player but LESS in windvd. strange and annoying, makes a feeling that laptop you have bought has never been worth money you payed for it. (reminds me Apple policy (and I am angry cuz of fact that all other Sony products are perfect but not sure about Vaio anymore...) )

[Blencogo]

Hi LEVELman, Hi borntoend,

I think you should both contact Sony's official helpline at Vaio-Link.

All the users (and experts) on this forum are simple Vaio users like yourselves - we do not work for Sony and we all give our time free trying to help fellow members of the club. This means that unless someone has managed to fix a problem themselves and are prepared to share it with us, we may not be able to help and you need to contact Sony support at Vaio-Link HERE

I'm sure you both know that Windows has little or no support for DVDs. It relies on other software to be able to play and record DVDs. For this reason it is not a good idea to uninstall the DVD programs that came with your Vaio such an WinDVD as you are likely to remove a codec that Media Player is relying on to work.

I don't usually recommend it, but you could try downloading a codec pack such as K-LITE CODEC PACK

Hopefully Vaio-Link will be able to help.

[ciccione]

dear,

so i have the same problem about the DVD.
My DVD/CD-ROM is MATSHITA UJ-832D.
i have alredy read the post http://www.club-vaio.com/clubvaio/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=36996
but this is my situation:

1- my firmware is 1.7 and there is not firmware update(not in vaio link and not in web side)
2- i dont have a restore date so i can not come back.
3- in Device Manager hardware DVD working correctly, no error code and no yellow triangle
4- Tryed already to uninstall the driver and rebooting the system, no good results
5- change the brand TDK, Verbatim,ecc. dont change the result. I can try only with two software. no good resulds.
6- i no want to try liquid lens cleaner, my vaio is still in garanty. Why should be a lend problem when befoare everything worked perfettly?
8- well i shoud becakup my data by DVD burner, but it doent work. Why sould buy a HD external for a sony problem?

i would like to install a old driver but i dont undestand where is located the DVD driver in the "Original Drivers Package" (there are a lot of folders as audio,camera,ecc but not DVD or something like that.)

Please let me know what i should do now.
Please i need my DVD ready and working in next 15 days

[Turrester]

Hello all!

I have a broken Matshita UJ-832D drive on my Vaio VGN-S5HP. Sony refused to replace the drive under warranty (although the faultiness wasn't my fault, grrr..)

So, I need to find a replacement drive for the busted one. Does anyone know a drive that would work as a replacement? I've been googling for a good while now but reliable information seems to be scarce. 😞

-T