DVD Drive (MATSHITA UJ812) stopped working

[mydogatebob]

I have a Vaio VGN-S1XP and my Matshita dvd drive has just stopped working, it doesn't even try to read a cd or dvd. The device manager says that it's working fine and unistalling the drive and restarting the laptop haven't working. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance!

[Blencogo]

Hi mydogatebob and welcome to Club Vaio.

It doesn't sound good and probably means that your DVD Drive needs replacing. You say it has just stopped working - what changes have you made recently?

Just three things to check: -

What version of firmware does the drive have installed? There is an old upgrade to firmware version K103-40601 that you can find HERE but it is over two years old.

Check that there are no errors against your Primary IDE Channel in Device Manager - you will fing this inside 'IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers'

Check that the reading head inside your drive slides smoothly right to the middle and right to the outside of its travel range - these do sometimes stick.

Apart from these you could have a look for inspiration in this rather long sticky thread about CD/DVD Drive problems: -

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/GB/en/forum/viewthread?thread=36996

[mydogatebob]

Yes, that's what I'm worried about! Though that's ridiculously expensive, given that the drive is non-removable.

I have the latest firmware that I can find, and cannot find any drivers at all.

I haven't changed anything - I actually think it's because the drive has always popped out easily (even just putting it down gently) and it might have broken, or gotten worn or something. I don't know. 😕

I checked the Primary IDE Channel, and it says that it is working properly.

The drive is moving as it always has, and doesn't appear to be sticking at all.

I will go through that thread, thanks for the link, and all the help.

[Blencogo]

Hi my mydogatebob,

As I said - doesn't sound good.

Have a look through that thread but I'm not optimistic.

Sometimes a full recovery can start drives up again but this is a long job with no guarantee of success.