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.

[Glencoe1952]

Hi guys I need help. I've never been on one of these forums before (age is a terrible thing) and I'm unsure just exactly what to do , however here goes.  My problem occurs when I am trying to create a AVCHD disc. Everything appears to be progressing well until an error message comes up during the authoring process. The error is 0070-0012-8019-00008000. Regards Len

[adoador5]

hello,

i have also a VGN-FW21Z and have a problem with my optical drive - 'can't read cd/dvd'.

did you get any solution? if so, would you mind sharing it to me?

many thanks,

ador

[Lisaby]

I tried all the fixes proposed by Sony, including Microsoft hardware fixes, but none worked.

Accordingly, I decided to go the Recovery Disk route.

But how was I to read the Recovery Disk if the DVD reader wasn't working?

Sony gave me a solution to this problem, involving the Boot Menu.

The fact that the Boot Menu approach permitted my DVD reader to read the Recovery Disk gave me hope that the underlying problem was software based and not a hardware problem.  This hope was realised.

By extension, I would recommend all users having this problem to see if they can make the DVD reader work through the Boot Menu route.  If it works, they can assume that the problem is software based.  If it doesn't work, they can assume that there is a hardware problem with the reader.

As with all uses of the Recovery Disk, it took me the better part of a week before I had returned my PC to its previous status - despite having done both a Windows back-up and a back up with the software I usually use (ffBackUp).

Despite this bother, it was certainly worth doing in my case, because I travel with my notebook.  Better to fix the problem at home where I had copies of the Recovery Disk and access to Sony's advice than to find myself in the situation of absolutely needing to read a DVD on a trip and not being able to do so.

For a desktop, it might be easier to buy an external DVD reader and not bothering to try to fix the problem.

[Jonteknik]

I have a VGN-N11M/W with DVD drive AW Q540A

The DVD drive has stopped working and I'm getting error code 39. Any ideas how I get it starting again, I can't find the driver/firmware anywhere on line.

Thanks

Jon

[Lisaby]

Have you read my post of 5th March?

I thought that it pretty well covered the issue.

Plase let me know if you have more questions.

Lisaby

[Blencogo]

Hi Jon,

A small Registry edit will fix your problem.  Be careful and don't change anything else while you are in the Registry.

1.Click Start > Run and type REGEDIT and hit enter.

2. Navigate to –

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

and  highlight it.  Then locate UpperFilters in the right hand window, (if  it exists) right click on this and select Delete and then OK.

3. Under the same Registry Key locate LowerFilters, (if it exists) right click on this and select Delete and then OK.

4. Quit Registry Editor and re-boot the computer, new registry values will be created that will hopefully cure the problem.

After  you remove the Upperfilters value and the Lowerfilters value, you may  possibly need to re-install your burning software – but not necessarily.

Good Luck !

[Lisaby]

We all owe a debt of thanks to Blencogo for his guidance on this issue, but - in my case - his fix didn't cure my problem, thus the need to restore the hard disk as described above.

[havers58]

Hi,

I have a VPCEB3F4E.

In the last couple of days I have had driver issues on my CD-Rom Drive and CDC Serial and my Samsung phone GT-I9100.

I have tried uninstalling and restarting, buut errors do not clear.

The CD Driver error is Code 39

CDC Serial error is Code 28

GT-I9100 error is Code 10

I would be grateful for any help or advise...hoping its not terminal!!

[rich912]

Hi havres58,

For the CD driver error code 39 see Blencogo’s post – two above yours...

Rich

[celavey]

Wow.. Awesome information. Thanks a lot for sharing it.. Got a lot of problems with my CD driver lately.