I've spent some time searching google in the hopes of finding a solution, but I have an odd problem and when I found this forum it seemed like a good place to ask.

The DVD drive on my laptop won't read a DVD I have. The odd part about that is that I've never had a problem getting it to read other CDs or DVDs before, plus this DVD is part of a three-disk set, and both of the other disks play without issue. Everything I could find online involved a drive not reading most or all DVDs, nothing so specific as this.

I'm running Vista with Service Pack 2 on an HP Pavilion dv2700 laptop, and the DVD R/W is Slimtype DVD A DS8A1H with Lightscribe. The DVD in question is a region-free PAL disk, but as I said the other two disks in the set do not have the same issue. When I put this disk in, it acknowledges that there is a disk in the drive but thinks it's empty. I can't find it in Windows Explorer or play it in either Windows QuickPlay or Media Player. After seeing them recommended on a website and having some success when trying to salvage a DVD a friend had burned I tried Nero Recode, DVD Decrypter and DVDFab 6, but they couldn't find anything. Isobuster managed to tell that there was something there, but not well enough to do anything about it.

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the disk itself, because it played successfully and with no issues at all in the one DVD player we have that accepts PAL encoding.

I can't begin to think of what the problem could be, but this set was a difficult to find import and I'd love to be able to watch it on my laptop (and maybe make a backup so that this doesn't happen again!) instead of having to find time when my brother isn't using the TV that will actually play it. I don't know what else to try, or if there is any more information I should give to help diagnose the problem. If there is, please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello OutBriefCandle and welcome to the PCHF


It sounds like to me,that it is a faulty disk or just a plain empty disk. If your DVD drive is reading the other disk and has been working,that what it sounds like to me........

Hi, and thanks.

I don't see though how the disk could be faulty or empty when I've watched it on a DVD player. It was the same day that I tried both, and nothing happened in between that could have had an affect on its readability. It's only when I put it in the laptop that I have an issue with it.

Frommy experience,with DVD players and the way they make disk these days who know. My own DVR will not play any DVD's from Liongate films,but my cheap wally world special will......go figure....

I reloaded my computer and now I don't have any DVD Playing software... I've searched on the internet, but everything I download is either "Free for a limited time" or doesn't work at all... I'm running XP and I need a TRUE FREE DVD program to download! Your help is appreciated! I have a Dell Inspiron E1505

You are hi-jacking a thread, when you should have started a new thread with your problem.

Go here and download the free Media Player Classic, this will play dvd's straight up...

AWESOME! Thank you for your help! That program worked! I can watch DVD's again!