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.

[pianostem]

The CD-DVD driver in my VAIO PCG K315Z does not recognize a CD any more, so I cannot play a CD, and I cannot burn a CD. It is, maybe, the problem that Microsoft Windows XP has with some software in Service Pack 2, e.g. some Adobe applications. www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/328585.html gives a solution. I found in Http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=883523 a website in Dutch describing the problem of the not recognized rewritable-station in Windows XP Service Pack 2. There must be one in English too. Microsoft offers a supporting hotfix, which is not tested yet 100%.
Did anyone of you contact Microsoft Product Support Services to get the hotfix?

[MXMotion]

No I did not.

Personally I got my drive working in an operational condition using the technique I outlined

May the force be with you with your attempts

Motion

[euripyd]

No sucess. Maybe I do a detail wrong.

My next question:

Is it possible I to replace a drive?
To buy one in the store and to replace by myself. Is it difficult?
I am not an expert.

[TNS]

hi to everyone
i have a vgn fe21b and last month everytime i insert a dvd,a weird noise comes from the machine(the part where the dvd-ram is).it sounds like a crackle and makes the laptop a little bit unsteady....
anybody can help
thanx
sorry for my bad english

[Damfoose]

Well I just spent 3 days trying to sort the problem with my VGN-S3HP DVD combo drive ( matshita UJ-822Da ) it refused to see any dvd -R disks and fell over when burning DVD +R disks , after much searching I decided to bite the bullit and 20 min later after talking to a drone on the sony help desk telling me what I needed to do i asked how much to send my laptop back for repair ....... Guess whos out of warranty so £249 was the quote .... This I declined so being a computer techie and armed with my trusty Phillips screwdriver I decided to ppull the offending laptop appart and see if I could get to the route of the cause which I did. Generally after almost 2 years of being used here their and everywhere dumped on desks and thrown into the back of the car droped on the floor the plug in the back of the drive had worked slightly loose so even though the drive read some disks it was not happy with alot of them , after generally cleaning out the inside of the laptop and reattaching everything securly I powered up and burnt a DVD -r recovery set followed by a DVD +R set and just to make sure a set of CD recovery disks. So 1 hour lost lunch break or £249 to Sony to do pretty much nothing and im going to guess at a HD wipe for fun for them because it seems a standard thing to do when returning these things other than that im fully up and running and happy again.

Words of caution though if your not a trained techie DO NOT open your computer and take it appart. Unless you're just plane crazy then if you do bust it you only have your self to blame...

[chautaqua]

Hi,

I have a VGN FE 21M and my cd writer SONY DVD RW DW G520A burns DVDs only with 0,76 speed and CDs with 4-5. It also can be seen that in Nero the drive's buffer always fluctuates between 5 and 100%.

I have tried to reinstall it and to flash it, but the prog says that it cant  find the device, but sony says thats normal if the current firmware is installed. 

What can I do? Burning a four gig DVD takes !!!! two !!!!! hours.

I hope you can help me.

Thanks!!

I have the exact same problem!!! I have VGN FE 21B, with the exact same dvd writer! Please help us!

[lizmac]

Damfoose. Just read your post after returning from store with a replacement Sony DVD writer for my VGN T1XP Matshita UJ-822Da which can burn, but not read, a data CD or DVD. Fed up trying to get Sony to sort it out. Was all set to ask a pal to install the new one but was a bit worried by your words of caution . Is it very difficult to do?

[pianostem]

I want to do the system recovery, but before I loose everything: can anybody tell me how I can copy my Mozilla Thunderbird emails and addressbooks to an external device?

[robertito54321]

So I lost my drivers for my dvd/cd-rom stations. I dont know how but I lost them. Does anyone know how to reinstall them. I have a Vaio FE21B notebook and my dvd drive is a

SONY DVD RW DW-G520A

Here's a picture of the message I get:

http://members.lycos.nl/robertito54321/drivers.jpg

So if anyone has a solution, please help.

Thanks in advance

[Blencogo]

Hi robertito54321 and welcome.

Just right-click on each drive in Device Manager and choose Uninstall.

Then re-boot your Vaio.

If it doesn't work come back here and we will try something else.