IBM 600e dvd playback problems - 570 ultrabase question

[blink]

Hi All
I recently purchased a few old 600es & 570s spares/repairs as a project to tinker with & hopefully get a pair of decent working machines.
I had only 1 dvd drive for the 600e but noticed on playback that audio was noisy on certain tracks making CD audio not good & DVD playback constantly breaking up, making watching dvd not possible.
I thought it may have been a sound/videocard problem but after testing music & vob video from the hard drive they played fine so assumed DVD drive maybe was on its way out & picked up another 2nd hand on ebay. The audio seems fine on this 2nd drive but video dvds still have the same problems. I have searched the forum for ideas, tried a bit of tinkering with hardware acceleration but no joy so any ideas would be helpful?

Also i was going to put the original DVD in a 570 ultrabase & try to load an operating system onto that machine but the DVD wont fit & i think a front? part of the case may need to be removed to enable it to fit? I see a screw on the bottom of the dvd that may need to be removed but it is jammed in with no thread left & so i think i may need to break the section off? Any tips/advice on this would also be very helpful.

[Medessec]

Hello blink!

If you're having the same problems with DVD playback, have you tried using different DVD playing software to play the DVD? WMP uses a decoder to play the file, which can get a bit messed up(like on my old laptop). Perhaps you could try playing the DVD through VLC Media Player, which doesn't utilize a decoder.

And for putting the DVD in the 570 ultrabase, I wouldn't try disassembling the DVD drive for the components are usually quite fragile. I wouldn't attempt putting it in the laptop in an awkward position either to try installing an OS. I would just use a CD-ROM built to fit the ultrabase to install an OS, for many useful OSs can be installed via CD, such as XP and Xubuntu.

[pkiff]

Also i was going to put the original DVD in a 570 ultrabase & try to load an operating system onto that machine but the DVD wont fit & i think a front? part of the case may need to be removed to enable it to fit? I see a screw on the bottom of the dvd that may need to be removed but it is jammed in with no thread left & so i think i may need to break the section off? Any tips/advice on this would also be very helpful.

My understanding is that you are correct. The 600 series machines have a slightly taller gap in the base where the CD/DVD drive fits as compared to the 570 ultrabase. There is often a thin panel on the bottom of 600 series drives that is held in by one or two screws which can be removed in order to fit the drive into a 570 ultrabase. I do not have any advice on what to do if the screw(s) appear to be stripped.

Phil.

[blink]

Hi Medessec & pkiff, Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply guys.
re: software I was using power DVD xp which i have on disc but i also thought it may be a bit heavy on resources so tried both VLC & 321 player but still no joy im afraid. Like i say it will play VOB (dvd files) from the hard drive fine but not from the DVD drives so i guess that rules out a graphics problem. Wondering if it may be a drive firmware issue or perhaps the bios needs updating but not really skilled in these matters. If any one else can shed some light on this it would cool, however the machine is mains only & i dont have a working battery if needed?
Thanks for confirming that i have the right drive for the ultrabase but a panel may need to be removed, it appears to be only 1 screw, i took it to my local hardware shop earlier to see if he could remove it but no luck so still looking for ideas on both matters if anyone can help.

[Medessec]

No prob; seems you've got quite an issue with your DVD drive... I'm afraid in that area the only thing I can think of is to try playing a DVD from another OS, and seeing if that works. But that would require partitioning and modding of the boot sector, something i'm not sure you're ready to do. You also could try a Live CD OS, provided it boots from the CD and copies the OS into the RAM to run from there, so you can take the LiveCD out and put in a movie and try playing it. If it does play, it's a Windows issue and not a hardware issue. If it doesn't play, it's the DVD drive and you have to get another one

Of course, this will require a bit of nerdiness, so I dunno if you're up for it... it's the only thing I can think of.

Hope you can get it worked out...

[blink]

Hi Medessec, Sorry for the late reply but i was busy & then had a spate of illness so wasnt able to do much tinkering. Tried puppy linux but struggled to install, anyway after after re installing xp o/s using a different cd drive I have now been able to get dvd playback running using orig dvd rom - so it may have been a bad initial install that was causing problems?
Anyway all sorted now, oh & i also managed to get a drive installed into the ultrabase, purchased another 600e on ebay & used that, it was easy to remove the screw that was stopping installation on this one so jobs a gud un as we say in North blighty