Problem with my DVD burner, Please Help.

[angellamongus]

I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I'm running Windows Media Center Edition , Service Pack 3. I have an Acer computer and a 3200+ Amd Sempron Processor. 1.81 GHz 1.25 GB of RAM for my system.  My computer was purchased (new) 16 months ago.

Four days ago I started having issues with my System and attempted to do a system restore, but it didn't resolve the issues I was having so I put in my back up discs to restore the system. I don't have an actual windows media CD, it didn't come with the computer, instead I was told I was to create a back up disc from the start, which I did do. I put in the discs and reinstalled windows that way. All loaded perfectly fine and I thought my problems were over.

Except, that's when it started getting weird. while everything loaded and worked just fine, my dvd player (which I used to install the windows) stopped working. It started saying that it couldn't play such and such disc etc.

It shows the files or folders on the discs that I insert. I've tried every kind of disc I can think of, data, picture, cd's (both bought and burned ones), dvd's (originals and burned) etc. I can get the files to show, but I can't play anything. I get "disc may be damaged or driver may be corrupt" message.

A friend and I went and did all the troubleshooting. Device manager shows my Drive as working fine. I uninstalled and reinstalled as Acer suggested. I got rid of the Upper and lower values like suggested. I've updated every driver and every program on my computer.

At first I thought maybe my DVD player was dying, but then my friend suggested I try reinstalling windows with my Back up DVD's again, and then  try to play a disc before doing any updates or installing any programs.

I did this and the DVD player worked perfectly fine for booting from disc and reinstalling. The minute i loaded windows tho for the first time and popped in a disc to try it out.. It wouldn't work. Same message as before.

Still it shows everything as working fine. I've done updates. I've tried everything I can think of and friends can think of. A friend of mine who is a computer tech says it seems to him like a program is running in the background that's keeping my DVD Player from working properly, but I can't figure out what process it may be. I'm really baffled thru this and I've tried everything I can think of.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm really confused by this and frustrated. It's been three days of constant trying one solution after another and I would really like to get it working again.

Thank you ahead of time for any replies and I'm sorry if I post this in the wrong area!

[Broni]

Go to Device Manager, click a "+" sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.
You'll see two items:
- ATA Channel0 (or Primary Channel)
- ATA Channel1 (or Secondary Channel)
Right click on each of them, and click Uninstal. Confirm.
Restart Windows. They'll be automatically reinstalled.

[angellamongus]

I have two primary and two secondary. Should I delete both of each?

[Broni]

Can you post the names of all 4 entries?

[angellamongus]

It shows up as follows...

Primary IDE Channel.
Primary IDE Channel.
Secondary IDE Channel.
Secondary IDE Channel.
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller

I have duals of each thing listed under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.

I am not sure if this is relevant or not, but I have one hard drive (partitioned) a dvd rom installed, a cd rom installed and a 3 1/2 inch floppy installed.

the properties inside the Primary and Secondary IDE channels are... (In advanced)

The first Primary one listed ...

Device 0
Device type -Auto detection (grayed out)
Transfer Mode- DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode- Ultra DMA Mode 4

Device 1
Device type-Auto detection (grayed out)
Transfer Mode DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode Ultra DMA Mode 2

The second Primary IDE listed...

Device 0
Device type- Auto detection (grayed out)
Transfer mode Dma if available
Current transfer Mode Ultra DMA Mode 6

Device 1
Device type-Auto detection (this one is not grayed out)
Transfer Mode - Dma If available
Current Transfer mode- Not applicable.

The first Secondary IDE channel listed...

Device 0
Device type- Auto detection (not grayed out)
Transfer Mode- Dma If available
Current transfer mode- not applicable

Device 1
Device type -Auto detection (not grayed out)
Transfer mode- dma if available
Current transfer mode- Not applicable


The second secondary IDE channel

Device 0
Device type - Auto detection (not gray)
Transfer Mode -DMA if available
Current transfer mode- not applicable

Device 1
Device type- Auto detection (not gray)
Transfer Mode- dma if available
Current transfer mode- not applicable


I hope this helps and wasn't too detailed:)

thanks!

[Broni]

This MAY be the issue. Uninstall first four (primary, secondary).

[angellamongus]

Sorry, it didn't work:(

I uninstalled all four of them, then rebooted. When I rebooted, it reinstalled each automatically. It then said I needed to reboot for the hardware to work correctly so I rebooted again.

When I rebooted I stuck in a disc to see if it worked. The disc still is showing the files, but won't play anything. This time instead of getting a message stating the disc may be dirty (it's a brand new one so It's not that, plus it works in other players) or the drive may be corrupt I get a message stating that the disc may be dirty or the drive may be malfunctioning, which is a slightly different message from before (good sign maybe?, I don't know).

I checked in my device manager, and all Four IDE channels are back and show the same properties as before I uninstalled and reinstalled them.

Also I checked my DVD player properties and it says that it's functioning properly.

Sorry for being such a pain:( It's really confusing me.

[Broni]

I see no other option, but try the drive on another computer.

[angellamongus]

Thanks:) I'll try that and let you know how it goes. A friend of mine just suggested disconnecting my CD drive since it didn't come with the computer and seeing if maybe it's a conflict or something and to set my DVD as "master" if that fails, I'll try switching it over to the other system and see if it works there. At least that way I'll know if it's a problem with my system or the drive itself:)

Thank you so much for your suggestions!

[Broni]

You're welcome I wish, I was of more help.