Doesn't read SD. DVD-ROM does not read discs: what to do and why does this happen? The drive does not read discs - why and what to do

Why does not it work dvd drive on windows laptop 7 and what to do in such cases?

After experimenting with the drive, I identified the five most common reasons why the DVD drive does not work on a Windows 7 (XP, 8) laptop.

What to do to correct it is described under each of the reasons below; of course, others are not excluded, but these are individual problems.

Reason one

On an asus laptop or any other computer in Windows 8 or Windows 7 (no difference), the disk drive does not work because its earthly journey has ended (this happens too).

This is a rather extensive answer, but it happens and so you cannot do without a replacement. It’s good if you can remove it and try it on another computer.

What to do? Buy a new one and replace it, they are not expensive today, about 15 dollars. There are no difficulties in replacing it, you can do it yourself.

Remove a few screws and disconnect the two cords. That's all.

Reason two

The disk drive on an asus or acer laptop stopped working (it doesn’t depend on the name, I write this out of habit, I have three of my own asus and one acer) - through the BIOS.

The drive itself is quite good, but Windows does not see it. It's just blatantly disabled in the BIOS. It happened to me once, on a new one I just bought.

What to do? Enter the BIOS and turn on the DVD drive. Usually it is there opposite the CD-ROM line. ENABLED - ENABLED.

Third reason

If the disk drive stops working, the reason may be Windows itself. The system simply doesn't see it.

This is usually driver related. You can see them in the device manager. How to fix it?

Install new (correct) drivers in Device Manager and update the configuration.

Fourth reason

The disk drive will not work if the laser window () is clogged. The reason for this is excess dust in the work area.

How to fix? Open the drive and clean it with ordinary cotton wool (wound on a match).

Fifth reason

The laser head has failed. There are many reasons why this happened.

What to do? Replace, although it is better to replace the drive completely - the laser head is expensive (80% of the cost of the drive)

Of course, the five reasons described in this article are not all possible options Why is the disk drive not working?

This could be a lack of power supply, bad contacts on the cables, and much more.

It is very easy to fix these problems if you have another drive - a working one (you can remove it from a friend’s computer).

Then it is much easier to check which element affected the performance of the drive.

As an option, remember that you can always use an external drive or flash drive - today they are quite capacious and allow you to easily install even operating systems.

Only if the content is on DVD, then you won’t be able to do without a disk drive. Good luck.

Let's talk to you about why DVD drive Doesn't read discs. Problems with DVD drives are something that almost every user will encounter at some point. In this article, we will figure out what could be the reasons why a DVD drive does not read discs and what to do in such a situation.
If your DVD drive doesn't read discs, don't rush to buy a new one! Discs may not play for a variety of reasons. The problem may not be a faulty drive at all.

If the DVD drive fails, there are many ways to restore it to functionality. Below we will look at these methods, and also tell you how you can reproduce scratched discs.
Determining the nature of the problem.
First of all, you need to determine the nature of the malfunction. The DVD drive may not read all discs at all, or only some. Check it. If some disks are still readable, then the problem is in the hardware. I will tell you how to solve it below.

First of all, we will talk about the disks themselves, or more precisely about the condition of the surface of the disks. And then we will try to return the drive to its former agility by removing software restrictions. If the operating system malfunctions, the drive may not read anything at all. By the way, there may or may not be the same problems with recording discs.
Damage to the disc surface.
In most cases, the reason when a DVD drive does not read discs lies in their problematic surface. That's where we'll start. If the CD/DVD media is very important to you, you can try restoring it. To do this, let's look at several ways.

Try gently wiping the disc dry and soft cloth. It is very important that you need to wipe across the paths, from the center to the edges. Under no circumstances should you wipe the disc in circles! In this way, we clean the disk from dirt. If it is not badly scratched, this will be enough to transfer files to your computer.

If the drive still does not read it, we try to polish it. To do this, apply a polish containing wax to the scratches and rub well with a soft cloth. At least we will be able to open the disk once to extract information from it onto the computer.

Then install it on your computer special program, with which you can read a damaged disk, for example, the free utility Unstoppable Copier. When copying, this program tries to count damaged sectors several times and if it fails, skips them. Thus, you can copy from a disk to a computer, although not all the information, but most of it.

It is also possible that a problem occurred while writing the DVD RW, as a result of which the device does not read it. Most often, this situation can arise if the recording parameters are incorrectly set in the Alcohol 120% program. Try re-recording it or using another DVD media.

Remember what programs you installed recently, what games your children installed? Common cause managers are the problem virtual disks, such as Alcohol 120% And Daemon Tools. Games can install virtual disks for their own needs, and they can conflict with each other. In some cases, the DVD drive does not read discs after installing a disc burning program Nero.

To make sure that this is the problem, the advice is simple - demolish these programs and look at the result. But deleting may not bring results unless you roll back to an earlier state of the system when everything was still working.

If everything works, then we dig into the problem in this direction: we try other analogues, other versions, leaving only what is necessary.

In the case of “alcohol”, try unchecking the program settings "Force other programs to detect disks as CD-ROM or DVD-ROM".

The second cause of the problem may be a driver glitch. To solve the problem we need "Device Manager".

To access Device Manager, go to “Control Panel -> System” or press hotkeys "Win + Pause" and on the left select "Device Manager".

After removing the above-mentioned software, virtual disk drives may still be present in the device manager in the section "DVD and CD-ROM drives". Delete them via the right-click menu, restart your computer and look at the result.

The following is what you can do:

Go to the menu "View" and select "Show hidden devices".

Find the driver in the device tree "SPTD" in the thread "Non-plug and play device drivers".

Uninstall the driver and restart your computer.

This is all an inheritance from virtual disk drives.

If it doesn't help, move on. In chapter "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" Among two or four channels of the controller, you need to find the one to which the DVD drive is connected. These four channels may be called by different names, for example "Primary IDE channel" And "Secondary IDE channel", or "ATA Channel 0" And "ATA Channel 1" like in the picture above. We open each channel in turn and look at "Device type".

We need to find a channel with a device type "ATAPI CD drive" or something like that.

Look at the check mark "Enable DMA". We remove it if there is one, or check it if there is no checkmark.

Reboot the computer and look at the result.

If it works with the option disabled, check the box again. Reboot and check.

We leave the working option, but it is desirable that the function "Enable DMA" was turned on.

In some cases, this is the only way to get the DVD-ROM to work in Windows.

Another loophole to straighten the drive’s brains is to change the region in the settings. To do this, open your DVD drive in the device manager and on the tab "DVD Region" look at the current region.

If it is written "Current region: Not selected", then we don’t touch anything. And if some left one is selected, then we try to change it to our own. The number of attempts to change the region is only 5! If you are completely desperate, you can try to change the region from the state "Not chosen" to some other one. But you can reset it back only by flashing it.
What to do if the hardware is faulty?
First of all, I advise you to replace the cable with a known working one and change the power plug to another one. This could be the end of all repairs.

During operation, the DVD drive collects dust, which partially settles on the laser head. Due to dust, the DVD drive does not read discs, or reads them, but not all of them. It would be good to disassemble the drive and VERY CAREFUL Clean the laser eye from dust using an ear stick slightly moistened with water or purified gasoline.

But not all users can disassemble a DVD drive. In this case, special cleaning discs can help, i.e. CDs with brushes glued on. When the drive tries to recognize the disk, it spins it and the brushes brush dust off the laser head.

Due to excessively hard brushes, there have been cases of damage to the laser head. The brushes must be flexible and come complete with lubricant. So be careful with these cleaning discs!

You can also blow out the insides of the drive through the open tray using a can of compressed air, as an option.

Sometimes updating the drive firmware helps. You need to look for new firmware on the manufacturer’s website and strictly follow the instructions for installing it.

“Dying laser” is a common occurrence if a DVD drive does not read discs. Due to a jammed laser, CD discs may be poorly readable, but DVDs can be read perfectly and vice versa, since each type of disc has its own laser.

The drive has probably done its job if none of the above helped. Don’t worry and buy a new one, since today they are inexpensive.
How can you read a bad disk?
To read a bad disc there are special programs, for example paid Bad Copy or free Unstoppable Copier. Programs try to read the bad sector several times with different parameters, and if nothing works, they simply skip it and move on. In this way you can save everything you can. As a rule, for audio and video the loss is not noticeable.

Today you learned what you can do when a DVD drive does not read discs. I hope the information above will help you save money on purchasing a new drive or finding a solution to your DVD drive not recognizing discs.

That's all for now! I hope that you found something useful and interesting for yourself in this article.

What to do if a DVD-ROM does not read discs, why does this happen and how to fix the problem?

Some users ask this question when they discover that the media inserted into the drive is not detected by the operating system.

Then, before fixing the problem, you need to establish how it appeared?

Content:

Signs

The problem is nonspecific and can be detected in a very diverse manner.

Make sure they are connected securely (tightly in the ports, free of dust and debris, etc.).

If the cables are connected normally, then the problem is in the drive. Fixing it is more difficult than buying a new device.

It is much easier to purchase a disk drive - the price of such a component is about 1000 rubles.

In the case of, and at all, you should not try to fix anything yourself. Since the drive connection system there is connected to many components.

You can accidentally damage the entire device.

The solution in the case of laptops is to use a drive connected via USB.

With the drivers installed and correct software, such a device works properly and stably.

In principle, to repair it, it is often enough to disassemble the drive. And then wipe the lens with a cotton swab.

It’s just very difficult to do this, since these devices are selected without taking into account the fact that they will be disassembled (although in principle this can be done, general algorithms No).

Disassembling and cleaning the optical CD/DVD drive of a PC if it is not working well

If your computer drive does not read, does not see, freezes, takes too long to read CD DVD RW discs, or simply does not work.

Software reasons

Sometimes driver malfunctions or system problems cause the device to stop working properly.

This cause of the problem can be easily eliminated and does not require additional fees. Therefore, before disassembling the drive, make sure that the problem is not in the software.

Signs of a software problem

How to diagnose software problems in the system? By what criteria are they determined?

Such a malfunction can be assumed if the following factors are present:

The device stopped functioning normally after it was carried out or after its update;
The problems began after manual or even (which happens quite rarely, but still happens);
Discs written specifically by a particular program, a disc of a certain format or with a certain type of data cannot be read (this can equally be a sign of a hardware or software problem);
Difficulties appeared immediately after installing a particular program (such problems are especially often caused by programs for working with media - Nero, Alcohol 120%, Daemon Tools).

It is quite easy to diagnose the cause of the problem in this way:

Turn off your computer;
Place the boot disk in the drive;
Turn on your computer;
Try booting from the disk.

Accordingly, if loading occurred normally, then the drive is working properly (at least with this type of disk).

Troubleshooting

If there is a program or update that is causing the problem, uninstall that program.

Moreover, this must be done through Control Panel, and also delete all its files from system folders.

Sometimes they also advise, but most often this is not required.

If it is not established exactly which program caused the problem, you can roll back the system to the point at which the drive was definitely still working.

Quite often this is enough, and the discs begin to be read properly.

<Рис. 4 Диспетчер устройств>

If problems arise after updating the drivers, you can do this:

Press Win + R on your keyboard to call command line, users can simply click on the start menu and write Command line manually;
A small command line window will open with an input field, enter the command devmgmt.msc in it;
Will start device Manager, in which you need to find the Disk Drives section;
Expand this section and find in the list the drive with which the problem occurred;
Right-click on it and in the drop-down menu click on the Delete section;
Now select the Action button from the menu at the top and find the item Update hardware configuration;
After clicking on it, the operating system will find the drive again and install the necessary driver on it.

Sometimes a section has some sections. It is also advisable to remove them, as they may be the cause of the problem.

After this, restart your computer to resolve the issue.

Features of Windows 7

Some specific problems are observed on computers with . Try this:

Open Task Manager as described above;
Go to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section;
Items like ATA Channel 0, ATA Channel 1 should open;
In the right block of the menu, right-click on these items and one by one go to the section Properties
DVD drive repair
DVD player with a problem in the drive, it would not play. The repairs were made and everything worked.

If you encounter exactly one of the problems described, then there is a high probability that all the reasons lie in the drive itself. Among them, the most common culprits are dust on the lens and the laser, which is about to fail.

But before making any final conclusions, please note: if the cables are poorly connected to the drive (or from the drive to the motherboard), you may encounter the same problems that have already been described. Therefore, first of all, you need to remove the cover from your system unit and make sure that all wires are securely connected.

In any case, the best solution would be to buy a new drive, especially considering their low price. Although, if the disk reader in a laptop breaks down, it is often extremely difficult to find a replacement. Here you can solve the problem by using an external drive that is connected via USB.

Very as a last resort, if you want to try to solve the problem yourself, you can disassemble the DVD drive and carefully wipe the lens with a cotton swab. Sometimes this can get things back to normal. Please note that the drive is not intended for disassembly and various cleanings, so do everything very carefully.

The problems that we describe in today's article can occur not only due to physical breakdown. You can suspect the cause of the software in the following cases:

If you reinstalled Windows and after that the problems described above appeared;
The drive stopped working normally after you installed a program that was somehow related to optical discs and their images, for example, the well-known ones: Alcohol 120%, Nero, Daemon Tools and the like;
Not very often, but it also occurs when updating or installing drivers, regardless of whether you do it manually or the system installs it automatically.

You can make sure that the problem lies in the software part using a boot disk. Set the options to boot from optical discs and try running the Live-CD operating system. If everything works successfully, then look for the reason in your software.

What to do if it really turned out to be a software error? The first step is to try to remove the application whose operation may have led to similar consequences. If nothing happens, you can install another version of the same application. Good decision will roll back the entire OS to an earlier state when everything worked fine.

If the DVD drive stops reading discs after updating the drivers, you can do the following:

By the way, if in the same Device Manager you find installed virtual drives for working with disk images, you can safely remove them and restart the computer. Sometimes it helps.

Let's look at another method in case the drive has stopped performing its functions in Windows 7:

Operating room users Windows systems XP users can try to open the device manager, find their drive and click on it, select the “Update drivers” option and click on install the driver manually. After this, you need to select a standard system driver for your drive.

Usually, one of these methods is quite enough. If nothing helps, share it in the comments to the article, and we will try to figure out the problem together.

This might come in handy.

What to do if DVD ROM does not read discs? The computer freezes when a disc is inserted, or when copying a movie or music, an error appears. So what is the matter - a scratched disk or the disk drive is to blame. Let's look at the causes and methods of eliminating these computer malfunctions.

If previously the disks were read normally, but after the next reboot the computer cannot read more than one disk, then most likely the reason is in the software or, more simply, some installed program conflicts with the DVD drive.

If you're having problems with one drive but other drives are working fine, try these solutions. Please note that your console does not require repairs or updates to resolve this issue. Solution 1: Make sure the drive is clean and defective.

Clean the disc with a soft, clean, slightly damp cloth. Hold the disc by its edges without touching the top or bottom surface. Solution 2: Playing the disc on another console will help you determine whether the problem is with the individual disc or the disc drive on the console. Try the disc on a friend's console or at a retail location that can test the disc.

If the computer does not read only some discs, then the problem is in the drive itself, but we will try to fix even this problem ourselves; we will discuss this below. First, let's see if it's possible that the problem lies in the operating system.

For reference, the problem may be not only with reading disks, but also with writing them. The instructions below may be equally effective in resolving both problems.

My disk boots but has not been installed

Solution 3. Previous section. In this article, we will show you how to solve the problem. After all, you want to get your data quickly. The main rule in this situation is to remain calm and act analytically. In most cases the cause is harmless. Our practical article shows what you can do in this case. Obviously nothing happens after connecting an external storage medium, which could have many reasons.

Determining the reason why the drive does not read discs

In the worst case scenario, the hard drive is actually faulty and can no longer be used.

Connection problems, such as a mechanical problem.
The wrong driver is being used for access.

You must eliminate these sources of error one at a time. In advance, however, it is important to note: with active processes in the background, the system can be so loaded that it takes longer than usual to say. Before attempting to fix the problem, simply plug in the drive and wait a minute or two.

Software conflict

In the event of a software error, the drive stops reading discs immediately, rather than gradually getting worse and worse. This may be preceded by an installed program or toy. Programs for creating virtual drives often conflict with drivers installed on the computer for DVD-ROM drives. The most popular of these programs are Alcohol 120%, Daemon Tools and Nero. We simply remove these programs and undo the changes they made through System Restore. Let's go to Control Panel => Action Center => System Restore and select the date to which you should restore. Select a date when the drive was still working without problems.

Check your external hard drive connection

Each technician will also start working on the hardware while analyzing the hardware problem. If HDD detected, then most likely the first port of the computer is faulty. Especially with cheaper plates, their quality often leaves much to be desired. The cable may be broken and therefore a stable connection cannot be established. Be sure to connect the AC adapter. And make sure it's turned on. Check the indicators on the plate and power supply.

Get an alternative cable.
Many external hard drives are not the cause of the power cable.

Of course this won't work.

We look at the result; if the problems have disappeared, then the remote program is to blame; if not, we move on.

Driver error

The drive may not see the disks due to errors in the driver. By pressing the key combination “Win + Pause”, open the device manager from the menu on the left.

In the list of devices, we delete virtual drives, if this did not happen after uninstalling the programs that we met above. Right-click on the virtual drive and select “delete” from the drop-down menu. To completely remove the traces left behind, we need to find the driver " SPTD" and delete it. To display it, turn on the " Show hidden devices" on the menu " View" You will be able to view the changes after restarting your computer.

The control is simple. Bring up Computer Management, preferably by typing the term into the search bar. If the drive needs to be found here, but no drive letter is assigned, right-click the item.

From the Data Storage submenu, select.
Then all connected hard drives are displayed.

Select Disk Management from the Storage submenu. Communication between the operating system and the connected internal and external hardware requires some kind of translator. Drivers are very specific to the corresponding module.

If the problem does not disappear after rebooting, proceed to the next step. In the task manager, go to "", and among the devices with the name " ATA Chanel"We need to find the one that is responsible for the CD-ROM. To do this, you need to open the controller properties and go to the “Advanced parameters” tab.

The line “Device type” should contain “”. See if there is a check mark next to the item “ Enable DMA", try starting the system both with the function enabled and disabled. This method often helps to get the drive to read discs in Windows 7.

If the wrong one is used, it leads to problems. The entry "Edit environment variables for this account" also appears as a hit.

Enter the entry " Environment" in the search box in the Start menu.
Click "Create".

In the second, the value is 1. Only now the system provides the user with access to outdated drivers or remote devices. Right-click the entry to open a context menu where you can update the driver or remove the device.

Open Device Manager.
In the View section, select.
Devices or drivers that are not activated will not be available.
Now find the model name of your entry.

Under View, select Show hidden devices.

If the drive does not read only video DVD discs, then perhaps the wrong region is selected in the drive settings. In order to change regional settings, go to the task manager and open the properties of the DVD-ROM. Go to the “DVD Region” tab and select your region, but if the “Current Region” line is set to “Not Selected,” then it’s better not to change anything.

The disk or file system is faulty

However, make sure that you only really remove the drivers that you know are no longer needed or are causing the problem. To ensure safety, restart the system and reconnect the external hard drive. Often the problem is fixed. If the drive is now recognized but you still can't access your files, you may have to face the truth that the drive is indeed faulty. Then we just reformat. The function is achieved by right-clicking on the disc entry in Explorer.

CD drive problem

All DIY drive repairs come down to replacing the IDE or SATA cable from the drive to the motherboard. You can also try connecting a different power connector; usually the power supply has a couple of free connectors. And the last thing that remains for us is to clean the disk drive laser.

To clean the laser head, remove the drive cover and very gently wipe the laser with a cotton swab.

If the drive still doesn't show up in Device Manager, the drive may also be mechanically faulty. In this case, you have no choice but to buy a new record. Before troubleshooting, first make sure that the drives you are using work with your computer. Inserting a disc of a non-standard size or shape into a drive that is not designed to accommodate it may damage the drive.

Standard round disc 120 mm

Examples of non-standard or formatted drives that are not supported

Troubleshooting. Here are some of the symptoms that may occur. Follow the steps for the corresponding symptom to verify that the problem is coming from or within the drive. Be sure to inspect the discs before using them to ensure they are not cracked, scratched, or damaged. The inspection should include the inner ring of the disc, which should be smooth and free of roughness. A failed drive may become pinched or damage the drive.

Do not use acetone, alcohol or other aggressive liquids. Instead of the expected result, you will lose the drive forever. Optimal choice There will be water or, as a last resort, high-quality gasoline for lighters.

If you don't want to risk disassembling the drive, you can purchase a special cleaning CD that will also effectively clean the laser eye of accumulated dust.

Accepts discs, but discs are not readable or are automatically ejected

If the disc is curved on both sides or in the center, do not use it as it may get caught in the drive. If you have difficulty inserting the disc into the device, or if the disc stops in the middle of the disc, look closely at the disc for marks that may be interfering with the disc. If you can't find the bright shortcuts on the disc, try loading it a few more times. Try inserting a different drive to see if the problem is caused by a specific drive. Make sure you insert enough of the disc to engage the drive mechanism. You have to insert almost the entire disk to activate the disk and remove it. If you do not insert the disc all the way, the device will reverse and eject the disc. Give the drive a second or two to accept the drive when it is fully inserted. Reset.

Do not eject discs or discs are ejected slowly

If the disc ejects slowly or is difficult, insert and remove the disc several times. Make sure there is a label or other material stuck to the disc that may increase its thickness. If the disc does not eject, try dragging the disc icon to the Trash. If the disc still does not eject, try holding down the trackpad or mouse button after restarting your computer. Please note that because optical drives operate by spinning the dial quickly, it is normal for them to vibrate or emit noise. If you find that the drive is making more noise than usual when inserting or removing disks, try inserting and removing the disk several times to correct the problem. Try using other drives to see if the problem is with just one drive or drive type, or if the problem is specific to the drive. If the disc has uneven weight distribution, it may cause additional noise and vibration as the disc rotates in the device. Vibrations resulting from using an optical drive may be exacerbated by using the system on a surface that is neither rigid nor flat. Make sure that all of the laptop's feet are present, as the lack of this support can create an uneven surface. Please note that the device should only operate in a horizontal position and may make more noise if it is tilted. If you lift or move the unit while reading a disc, it may become unbalanced. Any damages incurred by the device or disc as a result of using it in accordance with the above conditions will not be covered by the product warranty. Although some noises and vibrations are predictable, if you find that the noise or vibration generated by the device is not normal.

Check the disc to make sure it is flat.
You can do this by placing the disc upside down on a flat surface.
Do not use discs with objects attached or suspended.
Make sure the device is not turned upside down.
Select System Information from the menu.
Remove the label if possible.
If the disc does not eject, try pressing the eject key on your keyboard.

Insert the disc into the optical drive of the shared computer.

To understand the reasons why the laptop does not read disks, it is necessary to analyze the situation - how exactly did the malfunction occur? What events preceded the problem?

If the computer has been in use for a long time, it is logical to assume that the power of the laser beam has decreased significantly over time. In this case, the drive usually first stops writing information to discs, and after a few months it becomes impossible to play back.

If you can't use a shared drive

If you enabled the option to request permission before using the drive, click Accept on the computer that is sharing its optical drive. Summary: External hard drive not recognized or appears on your computer or drive?

Hard drive overview is not displayed or recognized

This problem occurs frequently and can ultimately lead to a data loss disaster. So far the hard drive not showing up issue has caused problems for a large number of users.

Some types of disk drives have an option to increase laser power. For this purpose, there is a special adjustment screw on the body. The problem is that laser amplification will force the equipment to work in a forced mode and this will soon lead to the final destruction of the laser source.

If the discs are not only unreadable, but the tray does not open at all, it can be assumed that there is no power to the device. There could be several reasons for this.

Make sure your external hard drive appears under Disk Management

When you find that your external hard drive is not showing up on your computer, you first need to open the Disk Management tool and make sure that it shows up in Disk Management. This will help you determine why your hard drive is not recognized and find the right solution to display or locate the missing drive.

Make the hard drive recognized and appear on the computer in different cases

When the hard drive appears in Disk Management. If you see your external drive listed in the Disk Management window, this means that the drive is not showing up in your computer window because it does not contain partitions. To backup or restore data to an external hard drive is not recognized.

The contact in the connecting wires is broken. You need to turn off the computer, perform an external inspection, disconnect and reconnect the power and data cables.
Malfunction motherboard or south bridge.
The tracks on laptop boards are very thin and often burn out. A short circuit most often occurs after liquid gets on the laptop keyboard. Burnt tracks and contacts can be detected by visual inspection. Some advanced users even repair gaps in tracks on the motherboard themselves.
If the laptop has not been recharged for a long time, the battery may not have enough power to operate some of the computer's power-consuming devices properly. To check this version you just need to connect the charger to your laptop and wait a while.

The disk drive could break, and not only at the laser level. The test is usually carried out by installing a known-good analogue or installing the problematic unit in another computer.

Software problems

Sometimes a situation where the laptop does not read discs is caused by the operation of certain applications, such as Nero. If any virtual disks were previously created on the computer, the system could switch to them, and the physical drive would seem to disappear from the general list of connected equipment.

To find out if the drive is connected, you need to open Control Panel and view the list of connected devices. If the problem is with your disk management software, the physical drive may not be listed in the hardware list, but virtual disks will be shown.

To begin with, you can try simply removing the virtual disks and turning on the physical drive. Perhaps after a reboot, reading DVDs and CDs will be restored.

The next probable reason is that the device drivers are not working correctly. How can you reinstall the drivers if the drive does not read and it is impossible to use the set of files from the Windows installation distribution? All that remains is to look for the necessary drivers on the Internet. The best way is to go to the official website of the manufacturer of the type of drive that is installed on your computer.

If you are not sure which drivers are required, you can go another, simpler route. Download and install a special program from the Internet that automatically analyzes the computer system and checks the availability and relevance of drivers.

The utility itself will check the availability and functionality of drivers and then automatically find and install them. As an option, you can run the Windows OS automatic update system; in the overall process, the latest drivers for the optical drive will be installed.

Problem with BIOS settings

For some reason, the laser drive was disabled at the basic BIOS settings level. Go to CMOS settings and check. If it says that the drive is unavailable, you just need to re-enable it by selecting Enable instead of Disable from the drop-down menu. Then restart Windows. Even easier is to reset the BIOS settings to default. If you did not do anything special with the BIOS settings, such an operation will not harm the performance of your computer.

The computer is infected with viruses

If you are an active Internet user, like to visit little-known sites, often install new programs, follow links in emails, the likelihood that your computer will receive a portion of malicious viruses is very high.

First you need to check the system. Enable antivirus scanning. After removing infections, the antivirus usually prompts you to restart the operating system for a final repair.

If after an overload the disks are still not readable, it could very well turn out that your digital horse got a really serious illness that severely destroyed the operating system. Viruses often destroy important system files and disguise themselves as their names.