Topic: A DVD Burner that won't read CDs

[alphazeta]

After trying to recover/extract data in some badly encoded DVDs using ISOBuster, I started to noticing that the DVD burner in my one week old Acer laptop suddenly stopped reading/recognizing all forms of CD media.

To be specific, the damned drive just doesn't recognize any CDs whatsoever. DVD write/read capabilities are still there however, but a non-CD compatible laptop would just look dumb.

I must say that I've had some decent experience in the data recovery field already but this is actually the first time that I actually ran into this kind of mess.

The culprit DVD media was not even that crappy. Some DVD players just wouldn't recognize the disc so I did a software-based recovery initiative which proved to be successful - at the price of my burner's CD compatibility.

Has anyone here experienced this issue already? Can I still do something to save my drive? Or should I really just forget about trying to recover bad DVD discs?

[Jett]

Had a similar problem with a LiteOn drive on my desktop. At first, I had problems burning to some CD-RWs. At some point, it stopped reading CDs and CD-RWs. It still works fine with DVDs though.

Did some research and this appears to be a widespread problem with LiteOn drives.

[HouseBum]

My LiteOn SHW160PS won't read most CD R media, but reads original audio discs.

You might want to check the connection cable of the drive to the motherboard. If it isn't loose/damaged, the lens might have to be adjusted (the gears inside to adjust the height). Since your laptop is still new I'd bring it in for warranty and ask if you can have a replacement since its a week old.