Blu-Ray Internal and External Drives No Longer Play DVDs

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

A Guy said:
Have you tried running the Windows Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter?

Open CMD prompt as Administrator> Paste:

msdt.exe -id Device Diagnostic

Enter

Run the troubleshooter and restart

A Guy

I hadn't but I just tried it and it would not run. Please see attachment. I have no idea why it would not run.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

I started to run the K-Lite Codec Pack Mega and even choose the Advanced option. It did not give me the option to update or use the programs I wanted to use. There is a particular program I use often and there was no option to use this program on it. I'm afraid this K-Lite package will not work for what I need. it doesn't even find those programs I use, so I have to assume it would not load anything to make them work.

spapakons · Dec 11, 2022

Just open This PC and then try to open the DVD drive. If it doesn't open with double-click try right-click and select Open. If you get an error you might have to remove some filters as I suggested in my previous reply.

spapakons · Dec 11, 2022

HDL said:
I started to run the K-Lite Codec Pack Mega and even choose the Advanced option. It did not give me the option to update or use the programs I wanted to use. There is a particular program I use often and there was no option to use this program on it. I'm afraid this K-Lite package will not work for what I need. it doesn't even find those programs I use, so I have to assume it would not load anything to make them work.

K-Lite codecs pack includes Media Player Classic. Click on the start button and then select to see all applications. Find K-Lite folder and open it to see Media Player Classic.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

A Guy said:
Have you tried running the Windows Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter?

Open CMD prompt as Administrator> Paste:

msdt.exe -id Device Diagnostic

Enter

Run the troubleshooter and restart

A Guy

As mentioned above I tried to run this and it failed. I then searched and found that maybe I should run DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and then sfc /scannow. It seemed to find something wrong and corrected it. Please see attachment. So I tried to run msdt.exe -id Device Diagnostic again and again it failed so I hvae no idea what to do to fix that.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

spapakons said:
K-Lite codecs pack includes Media Player Classic. Click on the start button and then select to see all applications. Find K-Lite folder and open it to see Media Player Classic.

I don't use media player classic. The other program I really need is not a player but it stopped working at the same time my DVD players stopped. I didn't install the K-Lite codes pack so what start button are you referring to? If you mean the Windows Start button, K-Lite won't be there. Do you know if I installed the codec pack if there is any option then to associate it to programs other than Windows OS programs like media player classic? Before stopping the installation, I choose Other instead of what it offered but saw no programs I was interested in.

clam1952 · Dec 11, 2022

Just a thought, but when I was having intermittent issues with a DVD drive, it turned out to be the Sata cable, one of the non latching ones wasn't fully plugged in probably vibrated loose, replaced it with a latching cable and it's been fine since.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

clam1952 said:
Just a thought, but when I was having intermittent issues with a DVD drive, it turned out to be the Sata cable, one of the non latching ones wasn't fully plugged in probably vibrated loose, replaced it with a latching cable and it's been fine since.

The trouble shooter error, running SFC /scannow should hopefully fix that? possibly might even sort out the DVD issue as well.

Thanks but it too did nothing to help. As far as the cable is concerned, I would tear into the computer but I am very sure that is not the problem. Here is why I say that. I have hooked up 2 external drives and tried to play the DVDs and they acted exactly the same as the internal ones do. Thanks for the suggestion though.

spapakons · Dec 11, 2022

It looks like your playback application doesn't work. Try reinstalling it. Or you can install an alternative application such as Media Player Classic or VLC. Restart your computer and press DEL to access the BIOS. Can you see your internal DVD drives listed there? If you can see them properly at BIOS it is more likely a software issue, not hardware. If using an alternative application to play DVD discs also fails, you may try to do an in-place upgrade repair installation. This is to run Windows 11 Setup inside Windows and proceed to "upgrade". It works with the same (for example 21H2 or 22H2) version or newer version. If your computer is unsupported refer to the relevant thread of how to bypass compatibility check. Also don't forget to disconnect from the internet and stay offline until it is over or it will fail at some point. If you have a third party antivirus or antispyware I recommend to disable them during the upgrade.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

spapakons said:
It looks like your playback application doesn't work. Try reinstalling it. Or you can install an alternative application such as Media Player Classic or VLC. Restart your computer and press DEL to access the BIOS. Can you see your internal DVD drives listed there? If you can see them properly at BIOS it is more likely a software issue, not hardware. If using an alternative application to play DVD discs also fails, you may try to do an in-place upgrade repair installation. This is to run Windows 11 Setup inside Windows and proceed to "upgrade". It works with the same (for example 21H2 or 22H2) version or newer version. If your computer is unsupported refer to the relevant thread of how to bypass compatibility check. Also don't forget to disconnect from the internet and stay offline until it is over or it will fail at some point. If you have a third party antivirus or antispyware I recommend to disable them during the upgrade.

Thank you very much but all this has already been done. A Microsoft technician upgraded the BIOS/UEFI and reinstalled Windows keeping my apps and files. He tried Media Player Classic and it didn't work and neither does VLC. Everything else seems to work great so I hate to have the drive reformatted and start all over but eventually it may come down to that.

bobkn · Dec 11, 2022

You have been more persistent than I could have been.

A clean install may be your only solution. It takes a while, but less time than you have already invested, I'd bet.

spapakons · Dec 11, 2022

If you have a spare disk you can start a clean installation on the new disk and dual boot in the meantime so there is no rush. You have all the time needed to carefully install all your drivers and software. Once the new installation is complete you may remove the old drive and activate Windows. If the new drive doesn't boot alone because the boot files are on the old drive, boot with Windows 11 USB and select Repair your computer to copy the necessary boot files.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

spapakons said:
If you have a spare disk you can start a clean installation on the new disk and dual boot in the meantime so there is no rush. You have all the time needed to carefully install all your drivers and software. Once the new installation is complete you may remove the old drive and activate Windows. If the new drive doesn't boot alone because the boot files are on the old drive, boot with Windows 11 USB and select Repair your computer to copy the necessary boot files.

No I don't have anything like that to try. If I start over, the fellow who builds my computers will either come to my home or I will take the computer to his shop. I just wish I knew what happened because I'd hate to go through installing all my apps just to have the same thing happen again.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

Not that it would fix anything for me, but I am curious about running the msdt.exe -id Device Diagnostic command. From what I can find it seems to mean Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool. But I can't find if it is supposed to be enabled on my machine or if it is for servers only. I did try to see if I could find it in the Group Policy Editor, as one article I found suggested, but came up empty. Any ideas why I can't run it without getting the error I posted above?

clam1952 · Dec 11, 2022

Looking at your screen shot in post21 the msdt.exe syntax is incorrect.

Should be

Code:

msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic

No gap between Device and Diagnostic, should work then.

bobkn · Dec 11, 2022

HDL said:
LOL, I'm not sure about that. It usually takes me about a week to get a new computer setup and running as I want it to. See that attachment and it may give you an idea why this is so. (snip)

Yikes.

Whenever I see something like that, I have to restrain myself from doing a "sort by name" on the desktop.

(No, I've never done that.)

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

bobkn said:
Yikes.

Whenever I see something like that, I have to restrain myself from doing a "sort by name" on the desktop.

(No, I've never done that.)

I had to delete and now I will re-

post the screenshot. There was an over-sight on the first attachment.

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

clam1952 said:
Looking at your screen shot in post21 the msdt.exe syntax is incorrect.

Should be

Code:

msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic

No gap between Device and Diagnostic, should work then.

Thank you. That made it run but it didn't find anything to fix.

wordsworth · Dec 11, 2022

HDL said:
Thank you very much but all this has already been done. A Microsoft technician upgraded the BIOS/UEFI and reinstalled Windows keeping my apps and files. He tried Media Player Classic and it didn't work and neither does VLC. Everything else seems to work great so I hate to have the drive reformatted and start all over but eventually it may come down to that.

The problem with reformatting the drive and starting over is once everything is re-installed the problem may still be there or come back because you've reinstalled the same apps, etc. and Windows Update will do its thing again as well.

I would first try this: If you don't have a good uninstaller program (I recommend Revo Uninstaller Pro) I'd get one. Then uninstall every program you have installed for DVD playback, VLC, etc. It is important that the uninstall program also cleans up the registry entries for each of these installed programs. When you are done install only one program, preferably only the one that did work prior, and see if DVDs play again.

The reason I suggest this is because of an old thread here. Scroll down near the bottom of the thread and you'll find the OP solved his problem (concerned with a decoder blocking play of DVDs because of copy protection) by simply deleting some registry keys for a couple of decoder entries.

I believe Windows Update did mess with something in the Registry and it will simply do it again and unless you find the culprit it is a problem looking to come back and haunt you again even if you reformat and start from scratch. There is a reason this machine is doing this despite you having two other machines with the same drives and drivers working and that reason is the synergy of Windows Updates, software, and Registry keys installed on this machine. Reinstall everything exactly as you have it and you may simply be back to that same synergy. I know because although a different problem, I had this happen to me once a long time ago when computers were much slower.

If you decide to mess in the Registry yourself, be sure to back up the Registry first (procedure here).

HDL · Dec 11, 2022

wordsworth said:
The problem with reformatting the drive and starting over is once everything is re-installed the problem may still be there or come back because you've reinstalled the same apps, etc. and Windows Update will do its thing again as well.

I would first try this: If you don't have a good uninstaller program (I recommend Revo Uninstaller Pro) I'd get one. Then uninstall every program you have installed for DVD playback, VLC, etc. It is important that the uninstall program also cleans up the registry entries for each of these installed programs. When you are done install only one program, preferably only the one that did work prior, and see if DVDs play again.

The reason I suggest this is because of an old thread here. Scroll down near the bottom of the thread and you'll find the OP solved his problem (concerned with a decoder blocking play of DVDs because of copy protection) by simply deleting some registry keys for a couple of decoder entries.

I believe Windows Update did mess with something in the Registry and it will simply do it again and unless you find the culprit it is a problem looking to come back and haunt you again even if you reformat and start from scratch. There is a reason this machine is doing this despite you having two other machines with the same drives and drivers working and that reason is the synergy of Windows Updates, software, and Registry keys installed on this machine. Reinstall everything exactly as you have it and you may simply be back to that same synergy. I know because although a different problem, I had this happen to me once a long time ago when computers were much slower.

If you decide to mess in the Registry yourself, be sure to back up the Registry first (procedure here).

Thank you very much for this suggestion. I agree the problem may happen again if I started from scratch. I do own Revo Uninstaller Pro and have uninstalled the 2 programs I was trying to get to work. I selected everything that Revo found in the Registry after doing its scan and had Revo delete them all. I may have to go further and uninstall every media player that is installed on my machine and see if that helps.

I checked out your link, and though I don't understand the charts that it showed, the person apparently got what he needed fixed. My problem is I don't use Windows Media Player or the Media Player Classic nor can I or anyone else seem to change the drives' drivers. Asus couldn't even do it and there, apparently, is no new firmware available for these drives either. If I uninstall the programs I have and can get the two I want to function, I would stop there and not worry about re-installing the others. But, as I mentioned, the two I am concerned about, I essentially did that already before posting here. So, I don't hold out much hope that it would do any good to go through this again. However, I may try it and uninstall all the programs I have installed now that could, if they worked, play DVDs.

My very last choice would be to start over because to accomplish what I need to do I can use one of my other computers. It just bugs me to no end that these programs quit working on this machine.