Thinkpads Forum

I have a DVD drive that is only recognized as a CD-ROM after installing XP. It will not play a DVD even when a DVD player has been installed. Anyone have any idea what is missing?

What do you mean that it won't play DVDs, does it give you an error?

What DVD player software did you install?

After loading XP it no longer is recognized as anything other than a plain CD-ROM in device manager. The software I have tried include WinDVD 7, PowerDVD and Media Player Classic. When I put a DVD in the tray and try to open it manually with any of the software I get a message that says that the file type is not rocognized. I have two of these drives and have tried them both with the same result.

Had this drive been recognized in the machine as a DVD before you installed XP or was it added later? IBM/Lenovo has firmware updates on several drives, have you checked that?

Try using K-Lite and see if it works. It sounds like a codec problem.

If it is not a codec problem, then maybe you need an additional driver? You've got some kind of 770 machine, right? There is an MPEG driver that is required for those machines in certain configurations. I can't say for sure if this might have an effect on how your CD/DVD drive is identified, but it is worth a try if nothing else is working. No XP driver was ever released, but I think you can use the Windows 2000 driver:
MPEG driver IV for Windows 98/2000 - ThinkPad 770

Phil.

Based on previous posts, I believe that the OP has a 600X.

I have 2 600X machines and both have M a t s u s h i t a SR 8171 -C and -H Drives. One had 98SE on it before I got it and the other Win2K. Niether had an O/S on them when I got them. I have the same problems with both after installing XP. I have searched all of the IBM Driver Matrix and found nothing there.

Do you have the latest version of Direct X and Media Player?

You can also install this:
http://www.cccp-project.net/
It'll ensure you have every third party codec imaginable, almost.

I have all of these items on my ThinkPad 600E and it runs fast and DVDs play back pretty well. As for the playback itself, I use Media Player Classic with the video settings set for VMR9 Renderless mode.

Thanks AlphaKilo I tried the codecs and the latest DirectX and they still only recognize the drive as a CD-ROM. I am baffled!

I'm baffled too. I notice that the SR-8171 does not seem to appear in the following Windows XP hardware compatibility list (I do not know if this list is at all definitive). Is it possible that it is not compatible with XP??!? AlphaKilo, you say you've got this hardware -- do you mean the exact same M a t s u s h i t a/Panasonic drive on an XP system?

Also, some of the old DVD drives had problems reading certain kinds of DVDs. Have you tried inserting a different kind of DVD? -- like a single-layer, old school, store-bought DVD from 5 years ago or so. Maybe it will change from a CD drive to a DVD drive only after you insert and/or play a DVD successfully??

Really though, I have no idea. Seems strange to me too.

Phil.

Bingo! Thanks pkiff. I inserted a store bought DVD movie and it reconized and played it immediately. I had been trying DVD-R and these 2 drives don't seem to like DVD-R. I noticed that they seem a been stubborn too when trying to read data or bootable CD-R. When I installed XP using the DVD it stalled a number of times trying to copy files from the setup disk. I finally inserted a plain vanilla CD-ROM drive and it copied the files just fine from it.

Does anybody know of a different model DVD drive that might be less finicky?

turbines wrote:Does anybody know of a different model DVD drive that might be less finicky?

The 8178 will read burned DVDs (+/-R/W) as well as DVD-RAM. There's usually a couple cheap on Fleabay (none right now, though)

Hi folks,
I got a M a t s u s h i t a 8171 DVD from eBay (pn 05K9068) and was wondering what are the specs for this thing... Format compatibility, for example: DVD+R/ DVD-R/DVD-RAM or what?

I'm guessing from what turbine says that it's not DVD-R compatible, but does anyone know where to find a data sheet on this with some official info?

thanks!

My experience with this drive is that it would not play anything except commercial DVDs when I installed it and that it was slow and would not read all DVDs once flashed. Still an OK drive, though...

1) Had to flash to 079g before it would read anything except commercial DVDs. Found files and instructions at http://www.mazochungo.net/SR-8171.htm -- his commandline did not work for me. Instead, I simply entered t at the DOS prompt to run the included bat file.
2) Would not read +r data dvd (burned by me)

Good luck!

V is for victory!

I followed this thread in hope of flashing my dvd drive to a dvd-r capable mode.

Finally did it and without an external floppy drive.

Thanks to warwound's post on cd boot, floppy emulation
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 601#228601

This is the iso image for the cd boot and firmware install files
http://www.dvddoc.com.br/SR8171.iso

This is the original text with instrucions on the firmware flash
http://www.mazochungo.net/SR-8171.htm