All of a sudden, I am experiencing the same problem with DVD/RW drives from 2 manufacturers on 2 different machines. The system recognizes the drive but not the CD in it (i.e. can't read the data from the disk). The CD is readable on other drives.

I've tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling both the hardware and software and drivers, but I get the same result. The HP CD Writer is on a Win 98 machine, and the Sony DRU-710A is on a Win XP Pro machine.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Are these CD's or DVD's that cannot be read? And are they professionallly made disks or are these disks you have burned yourself?

Are these CD's or DVD's that cannot be read? And are they professionallly made disks or are these disks you have burned yourself?

NOTHING can be read. It won't recognize that there is a CD in the drive.

I also went to the Sony support site and downloaded the latest firmware update and a DriveCheck utility they offer. The DriveCheck tests failed because it kept asking me to insert a blank DVD in the drive even though there was one there. I'm at my wit's end.

First of all, go into the Device Manager and Uninstall the drive by Right Clicking and choosing Uninstall. Reboot the computer and allow the computer to find the drive and install it. See if that makes a difference.

As I mentioned above, I've tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling both the hardware and software and drivers, but I get the same result.

:o
Sorry...
Since this is happening on two different machines, with two different os's, and two different brands of drives...I can't help but feel...no accusation intended here, believe me...there has to be a "user" problem involved. Did both of these drives come all ready installed on the computers or were they added later or are they replacements or did they actually come all ready installed on the computers?

:o
...no accusation intended here, believe me...

No accusation taken. I'm appreciative that you're trying to help.

Yes, both drives were added later, but not at all recently. A few years ago in fact. So they had been working up until perhaps a month ago. I was having some problems using the drives, but since both machines also have another CD-ROM drive, I was able to get my work done. So I never looked into what the problem was at the time.

Now, I have a Vista installation disk that is DVD media, and it absolutely requires the DVD drive to use it.

I thought that maybe it was a virus or spyware something, but scans are coming up clean.

I've sent a support request to Sony, so I'll let you know what they say. And if course, if they are able to resolve the issue, I'll post the solution here.

Thanks. We all will keep looking too of course. Problems like this drive all of us nuts here. If you get the answer first please post it.
When you say you were previously having problems using the drives...what were those problems? I would think they possibly are related. Were these drives installed by you personally?

Have you tried the HP Live Chat line? I have used this multiple times for various problems and it really helped each time. Even for things which were out of warranty. Don't know if Sony has the same thing or not but you might look into it.

I heard back from Sony, and they feel the drive is toast if it will not read any cds and the drive check test will not run at all.

I've been doing a little research to see if anyone else is experiencing a similiar problem, and it appears that the Sony DRU710A is just a bad product that has had a number of problems. Here's two threads on other boards that talk specifically about this DVD drive:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f44/sony-dru710a-problems-132196/

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-17458-Cant-readwrite-CDRs-with-Sony-DVD-DRU710A.html

I even changed the ribbon cable hoping that connectivity was the issue.

I'm throwing in the towel on this one. I'm still working on the HP CD-Writer issue.

Can anyone recommend a good quality reasonably priced DVD/RW drive?

I've Nevery had any issues with Toshiba, Samsung, or Lite-on.

Did someone say Win98?

Seems kind of coincidental that both drives would fail about the same time, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. I think I've had more cdrw/dvdrw drives fail on me than any other single component in the computer. (case fans included). With that, you might want to try giving them both a good dusting. Maybe even a Q-Tip with alcohol on it to clean the laser lense. This isn't a recommended procedure, but since the drives are inoperable, it can't hurt and might fix the problem.

Smoker in the house by any chance? Lots of smog? Dirt? etc........ This could possibly help explain the simultaneous failure of both drives.

Along with Cauzomb's recommendations, I've had good luck with recent LG drives as well.