Media Center and DVD+RW drive has stopped working

[braves45]

Several months ago (about June) my DVD+RW drive stopped working and I did everything I could think of to fix it (restoring the drives original files and uninstalling/reinstalling are about the only things I can remember doing, because I did numerous other things, but nothing changed). Then all of a sudden Microsoft Word quit working for several weeks before I was able to fix that, but the current problem that I'm having is that when I go to watch or record TV through Media Center, I click TV from the main menu and a screen pops up saying something similar to this "some of the files needed to play radio or video are either missing or corrupt. Go to Help for more information." And on a side note the fans have sounding strange (I took to Best Buy for repair last year supposedly they were replaced but they sound the same), but now after I turn the computer on or restart it right after the system setup/system recovery screen the next screen says "The CPU Fan has failed press F2 to avoid system failure"(that screen started to show up around the time Media Center started to act up, but when I took it in last month for a diagnosis we were told the motherboard was shot and not putting enough power out to spin any disk in DVD+RW drive, but nothing about Media Center and we keep it on doorless cabinet right above the floor.

My computer specs are:

Computer type: HP Media Center PC m377n (XP) It says it's XP Proffesional, but it also says it's Media Center Edition 2002, another location says it's a Media Center Edition 2004(it says it in Media Center so I don't know if that is accurate or the same)

Processor: Intel Pentium 4, 2600MHz (26x100)

Motherboard:Asus P4SD-LA(HP's version:Yale ULE6)

Display:RADEON 9200

Disk Drive: SAMSUNG SV1203N(120GB,5400RPM,Ultra-ATA/133

Optical Drive: RICOH DVD+RW MP5240A (DVD:4x/4x/8x,CD:24x/10x/40x DVD+RW)

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-148C (48x CD-ROM)

Sorry if this confuses anyone it's just we don't have the money for a new computer and if I can get any suggestions on what to do because I have run out of ideas, and any help will be greatly appreciated.

[MarkB]

First thing I would do to test if it's a software or hardware issue - get your XP CD, put it in your optical drive that isn't working (the Ricoh one, from the specs you provided), then restart your system and try to boot to the CD. It should have some options at the boot point to get to a boot menu or a boot device menu. From there, press the appropriate key to enter this, then choose your Ricoh drive as the boot point. If this works, the drive itself is working, and you have a software issue. If this doesn't work, it's hardware.

Also, try reinstalling Media Centre.

What actually happens when you put a CD in the drive? Does it make any noise? Does the read LED light at any point? Any prompts on screen? Also, does the CD-ROM drive work OK?

[braves45]

Actually my computer came with XP preinstalled, so I don't have the XP disk. As for the DVD+RW drive it spins the disk, but in my computer it is the E: drive the icon for what you put shows up, but disappears just as fast(for example: the NHL 08 icon will show up for about a split-second and disappear), and if I click on the E: drive it will open up us a empty folder, but at one point it said there was an I/O device error, it also at times changes its drive letter from E: to K: and after a restart back to E:. The CD-ROM drive works great, but could you please explain what you mean by "make any noise" and "does the LED light at any point", thank you.

[MarkB]

For the CD issue, I'd call H.P. and ask them if you can get a copy of the disk. They might ***** and moan about it, but if you pressure them enough, they'll probably send you one. In Dell, we don't even question it any more, unless it's a business customer's who's taking the...well, has had more than two sets of CDs sent out already.

So just to confirm - before you put a CD in the drive, it's shown in My Computer, you put a disc in, the drive spins the disc up, the icon in My Computer updates to the autorun icon for the disc, then the drive icon just goes back to the generic image of the optical drive?

By noise, I meant any noise that comes from the drive when you put a disc in. Does it sound normal, or have you noticed any changes to how it sounds now that it's not working as well as previously? Any clicking or other abnormal noises from the drive?

For the LED, most optical drives have a little LED on the front that will turn a certain colour, usually green, when the disc is being accessed. Some go solid green, some flash according to the data burst rate. The LED not lighting at all would indicate that the drive just isn't reading the disc at all, but it sounds like it is based on the fact that the icon updates, however briefly.

The drive letter thing is intriguing. Try changing the drive letter to something else that wouldn't normally be in use - R:, for example. To do this, go to Start-Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Computer Management, then click on Storage, then Disk Management. Find the Ricoh drive, right-click on it, choose Change Drive Letter and Paths (may be different in XP, but should be similar - I'm on my Vista laptop right now), and select R: from the list, then save your changes and restart.

[braves45]

1. Yes that is correct

2. Everything sounds normal(because I've gotten used to the fan that was supposedly replaced)

3. I don't see a LED light on the front of the DVD+RW drive, but when I open the tray there is a dim orange light.

4. I have actually tried that and it either changes back to E:, or K:, or keeps the new drive letter, but with K: or the new drive letter the tray usually won't. (The way to change the drive letter and path is the same way in XP.) Thank you for the help.

[MarkB]

No problem.

Sorry to sound pedantic, but in 4, you said that with the new drive letter or K:, the tray usually won't - won't what? Open? If it's not opening, you probably have a hardware issue.

Do you have any CDs or DVDs available that are bootable at all, or would any of your friends or colleagues have any?

If you go to Device Manager (Start-Control Panel-System-Hardware tab-Device Manager), is the optical drive detected and working normally in there? If you right-click the drive, then go to Properties, a Status should be shown.

Another thing you could try is uninstall and reinstall the driver for the drive. Go to the driver tab in the optical drive properties, choose uninstall, then restart, and the drive should automatically be re-detected and Windows should reinstall the drivers.

Also, is the system still in warranty from H.P. or Best Buy?

Do you have any other computers available in your home?

Thanks.

[braves45]

1.Sorry about that, but yes he tray won't open if it is changed to anything other than E:.

2. Would you be refering to a revcovery cd, because if that is not what you're refering to than I don't have one and I don't know anyone that would.

3. I have checked numerous times over the past months and it is recognized and says it is working fine.

4. I have also tried that, but with no success.

5. No it isn't because we didn't have the money to extend it.

6. No, this is our only one, we've had it for six years and it is still keeing up with other computers(well it would be if not for those two things).

Thanks again for all the help.

[MarkB]

1 - No problem...interesting though. That alone makes me think the drive is faulty, regardless of anything else. The drive eject mechanism has nothing at all to do with the system, so when you press the eject button on the drive, it should go through a process of spinning down the disc, if necessary, tell the system it's ejecting the drive, then engage the gears in the drive to eject the tray. If it's not doing this, either something is very wrong with the drive, or you have a one-of-a-kind optical drive.

2 - Some recovery CDs are bootable, yeah - I know Dell's ones are, as we have diagnostics on them, but I don't know how H.P. have theirs set up - it might contain both the OS and drivers and applications, in which case it is bootable, or it might just have drivers and/or applications on it. Best way to find out is to try it.

3 & 4 - Cool. Just something worth trying.

5 - I know what you mean. I have no use for warranties, and always recommend that people don't renew them - unless it just happens to be someone I wouldn't mind being screwed out of some cash, anyway.

6 - That's good. Some systems last for years, some are bad from the start. My desktop has been going for almost 7 years to the day soon, with my own customisations, but the motherboard has remained the same since purchase.

At this point, if I had an infinite budget (as I do in work), I'd just replace the drive, but I wouldn't want to recommend you replace the drive and that's not what's causing the problem.

Last ditch effort from what I can think of without actually opening the system and reseating the cables to the drive would be try deleting the upper and lower filters on the drive, but this requires registry editing, and if you've not done it before and make a mistake, it can make your system even worse, or cause it not to boot at all, so I'd hold off on that for now - I think I've got a program in work that does it automatically, so I'll check tomorrow and let you know.

If you're comfortable opening the system and reseating the cables that go to your optical drive, I'd give that a shot. It's just really a case of turning the system off, removing the power cable, then disconnecting both the cables from your drive, putting them back in, then doing the same for the other end of the thin, ribbon-like cable that goes to the motherboard. Close the case, re-insert the power cable, then start the system and see if it's resolved.

I've got one other idea as well, but I'll cross that bridge if necessary.

[braves45]

I have actually deleted the upper and lower filters per HP's instructions on the help and support guide, but nothing changed. As for resetting the cables I might do it the next time I open it up to clean it out(if it had one flaw from the beginning is that it collects hugh amounts of dust no matter were you have the pc). Also, all my recovery disk is a 4.7 GB DVD+RW or DVD+R I can't remember which but I think it is the RW, so that's of no use to me seeing as that is the drive that acting up. On a side note I just put a disk in the DVD+RW drive and it's not even spinning up anymore, but more of sound you would hear after putting a floppy in the floppy drive(while it's being read) but not as loud if that makes sense.

[braves45]

I don't know if this makes a difference about Media Center saying some of the files needed to play radio or video are missing or corrupted, but I discovered through a program I use for details about my entire computer is saying the my Integrated Graphics Controller(or something similar) is disabled, it is Intel Extreme Graphics 2 and I can't figure out how to turn it back on.

[MarkB]

It's doubtful, but it should be enabled. I'd check Device Manager.

[braves45]

I checked Device Manager, but it's not listed and I found a file that says it is enabled, but the file may be missing and it is mvicod32.dll, I don't know if this is important but I think my decoder license has expired.

[braves45]

Just an update, but we called HP this morning and found out that we could not get a setup disk because they stop providing them once any computer model gets to be three years old, if I heard correctly, and now my floppy drive tries to read non-existent disks at random times or when certain programs start-up, and I'm pretty sure I found a way to repair Media Center through Add/Remove Programs as I found it on there(it has never been listed before) but, once it got to a certain point during the repair process it said it could not find a file something like this Microsoft_Windows_Media_Center[1].msi, which if I remember correctly HP's setup for it removed it after it was installed, after I ran several searches I looked most of the files on my computer and did not find it(I did that because the new Windows Search misses a lot of things), so one person at HP recommended a bottom-of-the-line computer saying it still had a TV-tuner(which we would need because we have a TV going bad), but when the person sent us to someone else over the phone we were told it didn't, but the closest thing to my computer in which in which the one they pointed out for the closest configuration would be and upgrade, but I found some areas were my computer is stronger(sorry, I just had to vent). But like I said in earlier posts we just don't have the money, so even any ideas anyone has even you think they wouldn't help would be greatly appreciated, because this computer has been great for six years and if these two problems are fixed (excluding the fan) I don't have any doubts it would for six or more year, and something else has made it hard to afford a new computer or replace the bad TV a family member is recovering from extensive surgery. So as I said any ideas, no matter how ridiculous they sound might be more helpful than you think sometimes, thank you.

[MarkB]

No problem man, I know what you mean. Without being biased, I have to say my experience with HP's phone support has been terrible, and their sales is pitiful. They'll downright lie to you just to get you interested, then again another 10 times to make the sale. Corner them with a fact, which they seem allergic to, and they'll hang up on you.

Unfortunately, Dell is the same - we stop making OEM CDs 3 years after they go EOL (end-of-life, meaning they're not sold any more), which, personally, I think is ******* stupid, as a lot of customers, both home and business, extend their warranties beyond the 3 year point and some didn't receive CDs with their systems, so they can potentially have a system for 4 years, then are SOL when they try to get an OS or drivers CD.

As for the problem, I'm pretty much out of ideas. Right now, I'd say you either have a software issue or a faulty optical drive, possibly both. Don't worry about the floppy drive being accessed, that's a well-known software issue in Windows where certain programs that request certain data from the system automatically cause Windows to check for a disk in the floppy drive. Can be annoying, but mostly harmless.

Try putting that recovery DVD you have into the optical drive and booting to it, just in case it works.

Have you tried reseating those cables I mentioned earlier? Did that have any effect?

If it didn't have any effect, try swapping the IDE cables (the thin, usually grey, ribbon-like cables) from your optical drive to your hard drive, and from your hard drive to your optical drive. That will ensure the controller on the motherboard and the cables themselves are working OK. If the system then has a problem booting, that would indicate a cable or controller problem.

Finally, try running CCleaner on the drive to clear up any registry issues and get rid of redundant files. It's a long shot, but you never know.

Sorry I couldn't give you a guaranteed fix, but a busted DVD drive with your OS media on a DVD and no swap drives available isn't really a resolvable situation without replacing hardware. I'll have a think and see if there's anything else I can come up with.

Best of luck to the family man, sorry to hear about the surgery. Hope it went well.

[braves45]

I did what you suggesed about putting the recovery DVD in and booting to it and it said "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."(I did it through Command Prompt, hopefulley that is what you ment because that is the only way I know how to do it), and I have not tried what you mentioned about the cables, and is there a way you could give me step-by-step directions for that as it would make it much easier(I'm better at taking things apart than putting them back together most of the time), and the CCleaner program you recommended fixed Media Center, so thank you for all the help again.

[MarkB]

Nope, booting to the DVD means using the DVD as the boot point rather than your hard drive. In order to boot to the DVD, you need to have the DVD in the drive when you start the system. According to the HP User's Guide (which you can find here, as well as a few other documents - you might want to download and store these, they are useful), the system should boot to the DVD drive automatically first of all if it can before it goes to the hard drive. If it doesn't, however, try hitting F12 at the BIOS screen and see what options are shown there. If this doesn't work, try the F10 key, but this also has an option for system recovery, so I'd avoid that for now. You may be able to use it in future to reinstall your operating system, but don't go near it unless you've backed all of your data up.

Also, that user's guide has some information and graphics, starting on page 187, that shows how to replace hardware on the system, including removing and replacing drives.

In short, it's a case of opening the side cover, disconnecting the cables from the drive at both ends, then reconnecting them, closing the case, and restarting the system. You'll see the 2 cables coming from the drive immediately. The graphics will show more. You'll also find that the Part Replacement Instructions guide available on the page I linked to above has other graphics and information on how to remove and replace the drive.

Hey, at least CCleaner worked. :)

[braves45]

I still wasn't able to get it fixed, but I managed to get a new computer and after basically fighting Circuit City to get the transfer and setup done right, they finally gave back some of the money for mainly setup and data transfer, they ended up doing it in-home, but long story short I really appreciate all of your help, thank you.

[MarkB]

Great to know you got it sorted. The fact that you had to hassle them to get it exchanged is why I never recommend buying PCs from retail outlets.

You're more than welcome, any more problems, let me know. :)

[BigRog]

Sorry to go off topic, but do you work at Dell Mark?

[MarkB]

Yep - for my sins. :)

[braves45]

Sorry to revive such an old thread but now I'm having problems with media center on my new computer, and to go along with that someone has possibly been able get into my system getting through Norton and I discovered it by accident, well with Media Center anywhere from 16-20 seconds in something will popup and it says that Media Center has stopped working, etc. one time I managed to bypass that but I don't know how I did it so I haven't been able to do it since. But the shows I have it record still record and I can watch them through Media Player, but the fact that the computer is only a few months old and this is happening and it also had a bluescreen yesterday, but I downloaded some updates from HP that should fix that, and I did try CCleaner, but it did not work this time.

Here are my system specs:

Computer Type: HP Pavilion Elite m9340f

OS: Vista Home Premium x64

Processor: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz, 2667 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

Motherboard: Asus IPIBL-LB (Benicia) (1 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)

Display: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS (512 MB)

Disk Drive: Drive #1 - ST3750630AS (698 GB)

Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH10L

Any help is greatly appreciated.