No more support for DVD DL read/writes

[wguttmn]

I have been a lucky owner of a T400s so far, but as today, I have noticed that I cannot read DL DVDs anymore (nor can I write those). To be honest, it's been ages since I have had a reason to be able to do so, but I definitely know that I have been able to read/write DL DVDs on my T400s before upgrading to Windows 7.

Any idea how to go about this ? I have been browsing through forums and knowledge bases, but wasn't able to find any meaningful procedures.

What kind of information do I need to provide so that somebody might have an ecucated opinion ?

Kind Regards

Werner Guttmann

[Serge1410]

hey wguttmn,

just to be sure; you are referring to Dual-Layer DVDs right ?

Anyway, I believe that this might help : http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS001598

If it does not help, could you explain more? Did this occur after upgrading to Win7 ? What was the OS before this ?

[wguttmn]

Hi,

just to be sure; you are referring to Dual-Layer DVDs right ?

Yes.

Anyway, I believe that this might help : http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS001598

Whilst it is nice to have a version of WinDvd that is newer, this does not resolve the problem.

If it does not help, could you explain more? Did this occur after upgrading to Win7 ? What was the OS before this ?

Actually, here a few symptoms I am observing:

1. If I look at a DL DVD through explorer, I can only see the AUDIO_TS folder. The system doesn't show me the VIDEO_TS folder.
2. If I try to view a DL DVD through WinDVD, the program simply hangs; it never starts playing the DVD.
3. If I attach an external Samsung DVD player (which I know is working, as I can use it on e.g. a HP Pavillon incl DL DVDs) via USB, I get a new drive, but the symptoms are still the same.

Does this make it clearer ?

And wrt your last question, I do believe that before my upgrade from Windows Vista (as it came installed) to Windows 7, this worked just fine (but then again, I am not trying to view DL DVDs that frequently).

And one last thing: Nero's Information Tool seems to indicate that the drive has support for DL-R and DL+R (writing and reading).

Regards

Werner

[jmstuckman]

Hello wguttmn,

I don't have any Lenovo-specific advice for you, but I've seen weird CD-drive behavior caused by buggy third-party software installed on the machine. Because third-party software can install storage filter drivers, the software can disrupt the normal operation of the CD drive even while it's not running.

Once, I had a similar problem with my CD drive (unable to read CD-R media). The problem was caused by iTunes -- when I uninstalled iTunes, the problem went away. Try uninstalling any cd-burning and dvd-burning software, because this software is likely to install filter drivers.

There is a troubleshooting tool from Microsoft for CD drive problems; maybe this troubleshooting tool will disable bad filter drivers automatically. It's worth a try: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems/en-us