Dvd drive not recognizing discs

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bigjake9160
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Joined: Fri 09 Nov 2012, 04:13

Dvd drive not recognizing discs

#1 Post by bigjake9160 »

Hi everyone.
I just bought a laptop from a university auction and it has puppy linux installed on it. I am very much a noob to linux, but I figured out how to install updates for flash and Java.
However, I am wanting to install Ubuntu and have downloaded it to my laptop, but when I try to burn it to a blank DVD using Pburn, it shows that no disc is inserted into the drive when there is.
I have been searching for several hours on how to rectify this but have been unable to.
When I enter /dev/dvd or /dev/sr0 in command i get the response "no medium found" Does anyone have a process to get my drive to recognize a blank disc and how to get the drive either mounted or installed, which i think it might already be, but like I stated above, I am brand new to linux. Thank you ahead of time for any help you guys may provide.

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8-bit
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#2 Post by 8-bit »

You state you have tried PBurn with no disk found.
Have you tried Burn ISO to CD from menu-Multimedia?

There is a chance that the CD/DVD drive has gone bad.
But I would suggest doing a web search for that problem as there are steps one can take to make the optical drive again work and I had to use the steps once on another person's laptop that did not show the optical drive as even being present.

I know it involved removing the battery, pressing and holding the power button for a little bit and then putting the battery back in and powering up the laptop.
Those steps again made the optical drive visible to the OS and usable.

Also, depending on the processor type and amount of installed memory, you may find that Ubuntu will not run with anything resembling speed.

Sylvander
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Re: Dvd drive not recognizing discs

#3 Post by Sylvander »

1.
bigjake9160 wrote:when I try to burn it to a blank DVD using Pburn, it shows that no disc is inserted into the drive when there is.
(a) If you want to burn an Iso image to a DVD, you should use "Burniso2cd" rather than "Pburn".
However...

(b) In either of the above programs...
You MUST choose the correct optical drive device at...
"Menu->Multimedia->Pburn[or Burniso2cd]->Burn ISO-image->[navigate to ISO file and choose it]->...
"Burner Device" tab->[choose the CORRECT burner device holding the disk]->etc...
[Necessary if your hardware includes more than 1 burner device]

(c) Otherwise...
Your burner program [Burniso2cd or Pburn] will be looking at the burner drive that is EMPTY, rather than the drive holding the optical disk....
So quite naturally it will tell you there is "no medium found".

2. e.g.
Here's mine...
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Sylvander
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Joined: Mon 15 Dec 2008, 11:06
Location: West Lothian, Scotland, UK

#4 Post by Sylvander »

1. I guess your laptop only has a single optical drive fitted.
In which case...
Is the correct drive auto-chosen/specified by the program?

2. Do you see the attempt [by the program] to detect the disk when you close the drawer with the disk in place?
Screenshots shown below of what I see on my PC.
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Jasper

#5 Post by Jasper »

Hi,

Perhaps try a different brand or type e.g. DVD+RW instead of DVD-R.

I had a similar problem and that worked for me.

My regards

bigjake9160
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri 09 Nov 2012, 04:13

#6 Post by bigjake9160 »

Sylander,
I do have a single optical disc drive and in Pburn does show that it is scanning for a disc in the drive as shown the the second capture in your post above, but then it goes back to showing that there is no disc inserted.
As far as BurnISO, I attempted that as well, and it showed the correct drive but it did not work. I suppose maybe the drive was bad when I bought it, but hey $60 for a laptop where everything else runs great is a good deal. Unless I might need to re-mount the drive, spending a little extra for a new CD/DVD drive still puts me way ahead compared to buying a brand new laptop.
Thanks again for all the quick replies

Peterm321
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Joined: Thu 29 Jan 2009, 14:09
Location: UK

#7 Post by Peterm321 »

I would see if some command line utilities can detect and operate the CD/DVD then take a further look at the GUI utilities

At the command prompt typing:

cdrecord -scanbus

Will give an indication of detected drives,

eject -n

Displays the default device.

/dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd on my system are symlinks to the hardware device /dev/sr0 thought there is also exists /dev/scd0 which is the same device.


If these devices exist and a CD is placed in the drive bay then

hexdump /dev/sr0 (or hexdump /dev/scd0) will display a raw dump of data doesnt mean much but at least indcates the drive is operational and that the problem is more likely to be a software configuration issue rather than a hardware failure.

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8-bit
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#8 Post by 8-bit »

Another thing you can try is to power on the laptop.
Press the key that takes you to the BIOS.
See if a CD/DVD is shown for boot order.
If none shows, try the power cycle option from my first post and then check the BIOS again to see if it shows up.
Barring that, you may have a bad drive or controller.

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8-bit
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#9 Post by 8-bit »

Before you buy that replacement drive, check out a post I found on another site on trying a software fix for that drive that seems to have worked for a number of people.
the link is here.

I hope it works for you as it has for others!

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Flash
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#10 Post by Flash »

Are you sure the drive is a DVD burner? What does Menu -> System -> Hardinfo -> Storage tell you?

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