Thinkpads Forum

I periodically had problems with the DVD drive working when it got too hot but now it doesn't seem to recognize newer movies. I'm wondering if it has something to do with any new copy protection but it's kind of a drag not to even be able to play it. I've just tried Batman Dark Night, Doubt, and Journey to the Center of the Earth and none of them are recognized. The control panel ids the drive as: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4083N ATA Device. I tried to find a newer driver but there doesn't seem to be one.

Could the drive itself be on its way out? I'm still under warranty (good thing with two hard drive and one keyboard replacement in 2 years) if that seems the likely issue.

Thanks for your help.

If the movies play on other laptops, I would call Lenovo and ask for a warranty replacement drive. What software decoder ("player") are you using?

You don't say if you get an error or anything...

I don't know why I didn't think to try on another laptop. I just tried one of them on a Dell Vostro and it played fine.

I'm just using Windows Media Player.

There's no error message. If I click on the D drive in Windows Explorer it pops open the drive and tell me to put one in.

It sounds like I probably need a replacement. It has been a pain for a while since it would overheat and quit working. Maybe it's been going for a while and it's just reached the end of it's useful life.

Quite possibly you need a replacement. I replaced every one of the DVD burners I had on one T42 and two T60s somewhere within the 3-year warranty period. The symptoms were different. One of them was producing coasters at an increasing rate, and failing to read DVD-RAM. The other was just not burning anything. The third one refused to read DVD+R DL disks, and some others.

The drive was the problem. Their warranty service process has become a bit cryptic but they got me a new drive in just a couple of days and it works fine. Thanks for your help.

Hmmm . . . had the same problem myself last night. Stuck the DVD in, got the FBI "Warning" about copyright protection, and then the media player (Windows and WinDVD) threw an error. Really weird that it would read some information from the disc but not continue. The DVD played fine on my T42.