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.

[Jar-Jar]

Hi guys,
 I have read all through this thread, and have not really come up with much. 

 I recieved my ne VGN-FE31Z yesterday, and after watching a DVD yesterday, and burning my recovery discs this morning, it now won't work!

 I have a Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-850S, that is apparently upto date with the drivers! 

But the thing doesn't work and is shrieked in the device manager, i've obviously unistalled it and re-installed it, but it doesn't work! 

Does anyone else have this drive/problem?? Everything on the system is standard i've only installed, mozilla, macromedia dreamweaver, fireworks, flash etc. Itunes and Photoshop CS2! so nothing crazy!

 Do sony take long to reply using e-support, i entered the info in about 2 hours ago.

 Thanks guys

Hi, I have the same problems that this user, but with dvd-r/+r, but the cd-r (original & copies) works fine, dvd-r (movie) works fine, dvd-r/+r (movie) sometimes work and other no work. Only have the problems with the dvd-r/+r (burner).

The recovery dvd that I burned in my VAIO somethimes works and somethimes no.

Windows say that the last firmware is 1.20.....

What Can I do..... I'm very

I

[Hansc]

Dear Blencogo,

I want to thank you for this advise as it helped me after spending more than 12 hoyrs trying to work out what had happened and trying to download drivers and transferring to the sick Vaio.

FANTASTIC support, most appreciative

[Baggsy]

I haven't read the whole thread, so apologies if this has been posted before.

I have a lot of problems with the DVD drive in my desktop computer (not a Sony, but bear with me for a little bit) for some time now, and the culprit is pretty clear to me. If you have installed any games on your computer, see if any of them was using StarForce for copy protection. StarForce is known to seriously hinder performance in optical drives, as well as affecting sytem stability and security,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starforce

For me, StarForce has managed to render my DVD-RW incapable of writing DVDs, and reading them has become increasingly slow. It's actually been more than a year since I've been able to watch a DVD movie on that computer without having to copy the DVD to harddrive first due to the constant buffering and disc read errors.

If you have any problems, and have any of the games listed here http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php on your system, uninstall the StarForce driver by following the instructions here http://www.glop.org/starforce/remove.php

I know this seriously improves optical drive performance as I have seen it work first-hand, but since I'm an active TrackMania Nations player I'm sadly unable to remove them from my own system, as TM:N won't run without StarForce installed.

[schrambo]

Hi everyone,

i have a problem with my DVD-Drive Pioneer DVR-K16M in my Vaio FE11S. I installed the latest driver on Vaio-Link-Page Version 1.10, but my problem, that during burning DVD's (doesn't matter if "plus" or "minus") often the process stopps before 100%! When i burn a Movie and it stopps before 100 never the less i can play the Movie in my TV-DVD-Player (till the point where the burning-process stopped). I use the latest NERO 7-Version. Any Ideas how i can solve my problems? Should i ask the Vaio-Support?

More Informations about the Setup: Windows XP SP2, Updates from Winboard Version 2.22!

Thanks a lot!
Schrambo

Sorry, but my english is not very good.... 

Can no one help me with my problem??????

I can also send some Log-Reports from Nero after stopping the Burning Process. Last Message was "Invalid block adress" and then the directory from my DVD-Drive....

[lizmac]

Thalmus. Many thanks for suggestions. Tried it, but still no good. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Lizmac

[gldn]

I just want to thank Blencogo for this solution as it fixed my pioneer dvr-k16m in my vaio vgn-c1z. Thank you very much.

[souldeluxe]

Hi,

Just bought my FE31M a few days ago, and tried to do a clean install with a winxp pro cd. Everything worked, installed the drivers, but could not get some buttons to work properly. So I used my recovery discs to get the factory state back up again. Worked fine and shut down my vaio.
Next day I start it up, and the dvd drive is not working. It's not showing up in windows explorer, with or without a disc in the drive.
In the device manager it states the drive's name:

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16M

But with this message:

"Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"

I deleted the recovery partition, so I can't reinstall everything, and I can't access the recovery dvd. I also can't find drivers on the internet.

What can I do?

*** UPDATE ***

Fixed, thanks to this solution.

When I reinstalled from the recovery discs, I also deleted a lot of software. A LOT! So also some cd/dvd recording software. Works great now. Thanks a lot!

[souldeluxe]

Thanks for the quick response. As you can see above, I found your solution. I sort of looked over it.

But thanks!

[Blencogo]

Hi souldeluxe and welcome.

Glad you found the original post and it sorted your problem.

Hope you enjoy your Vaio !!!

:smileygrin:

[l.rabaglia]

The dvd-rw drive of my VAIO N11S has a lot of problems!
Just an example: It cannot read any TDK DVD !!!!!!!!!
The hardware is QSI DVD +-RW SDW-085.
Is there anyone who can help me?
(I've bought the notebook in December 2006, it's incredible!)