T61p DVD drive (UJDA775) doesn't work properly

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Estrogen Kid · #1 Post by **Estrogen Kid** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:21 am

I have a 6459CTO T61p which doesn't read my burned DVDs. Commercial DVDs work fine and burned CDs work. The drive ID is UJDA775 and it is a CD-RW/DVD combo drive.

When I put in a burned DVD, it spins for 3 minutes and then stops. I know these DVDs work because they work on my desktop and other laptop. Is the drive made to be picky about what media the DVD is from or is something wrong with my drive? I'm thinking of getting a replacement unit but I don't know where to start for support.

alacrityathome · #2 Post by **alacrityathome** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 3:24 am

Do a google on your drive.

I found this... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=198120

which sounds very similar to your problem.

One test from the thread is to try a commercial DVD. Your DVD Drive may be sensitive to burned versus commercial DVDs.

Good luck.

SafeHarbor · #3 Post by **SafeHarbor** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:33 pm

I've seen the same thing on my 6459CTO. I burned a DVD-RW on my HP Media Center PC with three 150-MB media files. The HP would read it, but the laptop wouldn't. I then tried burning the same to a DVD-R, and the laptop wouldn't read it.

I finally get it working today. I bought a spindle of the pricey gold-colored Maxell 16x DVD-R, and the Thinkpad reads the DVD!

Interestingly, my R52 reads all the DVDs. I think the drive in the T61p is either defective or very picky.

Update - I tried an external Sony USB DVD burner, and it can also read all three types of DVD.

I don't think this bugs me enough to do anything about it, though, and I probably will upgrade to Blu-ray or a DVD burner later.

Estrogen Kid · #4 Post by **Estrogen Kid** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:04 am

I think the DVD combo drive is very very picky. I got a generic DVD-R to work by bitsetting the burned disc to DVD-ROM. All DVD-ROM discs seem to work perfectly.

icantux · #5 Post by **icantux** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:20 am

Can you do bitsetting with the internal DVD on a T61?

wswartzendruber · #6 Post by **wswartzendruber** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:48 pm

I would try cleaning the mirror underneath the lense. You can do this with a can of compressed air. Just stick the straw up against the bottom of the lense carrier assembly (the thing that moves back and forth).

Estrogen Kid · #7 Post by **Estrogen Kid** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:47 pm

I have a DVD read-only drive, so I burned the bitset disc from another computer. I don't think it has anything to do with the lens, I think the firmware is rigged to not read most burned DVDs.

I have a DVD read drive on my A31 and it read the same disc perfectly where it did not work on my T61p. I think Lenovo has taken a step backward with its new DVD combo drive.

icantux · #8 Post by **icantux** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:43 am

Hmm..

Is there a list of good/bad DVDs that will (not) work in that drive? Tayo Yuden DVDs come to mind. I only burn on those for my clients as they seem to be the most reliable disks on the market - perhaps the Verbatim AZO as well.

elac · #9 Post by **elac** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:37 pm

Hi,

I have the same problems on my T60 combo drive (it is a Matshita UJDA775). While it plays all commercial DVDs, it seems almost random what burned DVDs it plays. When it doesn't play, the drive spins for a few seconds, then stops. The play button stays greyed out. After waiting a while, all I can do is hit stop and eject the disk. Questions I have:

1) Can this drive play DVD+R? I have not been able to get one to play, even one with almost zero errors on it (verified by Nero CD/DVD Speed). If it does play +R, which brands are people using?

2) Does it do better with DVD-R? The only burned DVDs I have managed to play are -R. Again, are there any brands that I should use/not use?

Thanks!

elac · #10 Post by **elac** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:18 pm

Anyone else have trouble playing burned DVDs? Surely I can't be the only one.

Anyone?

Estrogen Kid · #11 Post by **Estrogen Kid** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:53 pm

read above, I can't figure out which burned DVDs work or do not work. Taiyo Yuden brand DVDs might work, as I hear they are the highest quality recordable media.

Your best chance though is to burn bitset DVD-ROMs.

elac · #12 Post by **elac** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:20 pm

EK, I was hoping someone elsemight have more specifics that would help us both.

Unfortunately, my desktop's DVD burner doesn't seem to allow bitsetting (at least with Nero CD/DVD speed). So right now, I'm stuck trying different disks until I find one that works.

But here's a newsflash . . . I got a Maxell +RW disk to play! That was the last disk type that I expected to work. But it won't play in any other player I tried. So I'm still stuck with trying to find a disk that works in ALL players.

#13 Post by **ryengineer** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:53 pm

Make sure DMA mode is enabled for your burner:

How do I enable DMA mode on CD and DVD burner drives?.

I had similar (severe) problem a while ago, IBM sent a replacement drive under warranty in 9 hours!

elac · #14 Post by **elac** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:52 pm

ryengineer wrote:Make sure DMA mode is enabled for your burner:

Actually I should have mentioned that the burned DVDs are from my DVD recorder, not my PC's DVD burner. I use both and the disks from my PC work fine in the T60, but not the ones from the DVR!

charlienyc · #15 Post by **charlienyc** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:35 pm

hi. my dvd multiburner, Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-860, on my brand new R61 fails to recognize ANY disc. i've tried DVD-RAM, DVDRW, DVD+R, DVD-R, CD-R and a few prerecorded, major-label-released audio CDs.

i press the button on the drive, the drive ejects, i place the disc in (just the same as i've been doing for years on my old machine), and the indicator LED flashes. so far so good, right? well that's it - the LED turns off and the OS doesn't recognize anything in the drive. i've physically removed and reinstalled the drive in the bay, uninstalled / reinstalled the driver, checked that DMA is enabled in BIOS, looked for BIOS & firmware upgrades (all totally current) and ran PC Doctor. PC Doctor didn't "realize" there was a problem asking me to load media to test the drive. disk manager recognizes the drive but not the media. nothing recognizes the media in the drive!

i don't know if this will fix itself when i upgrade to XP Pro soon. however, i would like to use the R&R backup to DVD before i go through all that. see the snafu? any help would be muy appreciated!

Estrogen Kid · #16 Post by **Estrogen Kid** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:15 pm

charlienyc wrote:hi. my dvd multiburner, Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-860, on my brand new R61 fails to recognize ANY disc. i've tried DVD-RAM, DVDRW, DVD+R, DVD-R, CD-R and a few prerecorded, major-label-released audio CDs.

i press the button on the drive, the drive ejects, i place the disc in (just the same as i've been doing for years on my old machine), and the indicator LED flashes. so far so good, right? well that's it - the LED turns off and the OS doesn't recognize anything in the drive. i've physically removed and reinstalled the drive in the bay, uninstalled / reinstalled the driver, checked that DMA is enabled in BIOS, looked for BIOS & firmware upgrades (all totally current) and ran PC Doctor. PC Doctor didn't "realize" there was a problem asking me to load media to test the drive. disk manager recognizes the drive but not the media. nothing recognizes the media in the drive!

i don't know if this will fix itself when i upgrade to XP Pro soon. however, i would like to use the R&R backup to DVD before i go through all that. see the snafu? any help would be muy appreciated!

we already concluded that this is a problem with the device's firmware. no software driver will remedy this. Unless you have some hacked firmware it will not read certain burned media. the firmware is intentionally crippled. even my A31's dvd drive could read burned media.

sjthinkpader · #17 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:28 pm

Did you try the CD, DVD, Combo firmware update?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62296

There is a diskette version and this ISO works on a bootable USB flash stick too.

charlienyc · #18 Post by **charlienyc** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:18 pm

Estrogen Kid wrote:
charlienyc wrote:hi. my dvd multiburner, Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-860, on my brand new R61 fails to recognize ANY disc. i've tried DVD-RAM, DVDRW, DVD+R, DVD-R, CD-R and a few prerecorded, major-label-released audio CDs.
we already concluded that this is a problem with the device's firmware. no software driver will remedy this. Unless you have some hacked firmware it will not read certain burned media. the firmware is intentionally crippled. even my A31's dvd drive could read burned media.

it's not "certain burned media" i'm having problems with. it's ANY and ALL media. that includes burned media, blank media and store-bought-professionally duplicated media!

charlienyc · #19 Post by **charlienyc** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:21 pm

sjthinkpader wrote:Did you try the CD, DVD, Combo firmware update?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62296

i hoped any firmware updates would've been installed when i ran the ThinkPad utilities (software installer and updates), but i suppose not. anyway i will try it when i return home from my trip and report back. thanks for this

cheers,
-c

sjthinkpader · #20 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 2:05 am

No, the System Updater doesn't update the CD/DVD firmware. They had to be done in DOS. These firmware updates (DVD Multi also) corrected a few drives I thought were goners.

Those $8.99 Levono.com outlet store bootable USB stick specials came in handy since my drives didn't want to read before the firmware update.

charlienyc · #21 Post by **charlienyc** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:44 pm

my machine isn't listed among the listed of supported systems. any chances of damage running it on my R61? (or T61, which also isn't listed but is the target forum?)

charlienyc · #22 Post by **charlienyc** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:49 am

hi. since this seemed like a straight-up mechanical failure, i wised up and called Lenovo tech support. they overnighted me an identical drive which works perfectly.

i also lucked out on media - the Memorex DVD-Rs i had on hand worked well.

Estrogen Kid · #23 Post by **Estrogen Kid** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:56 pm

lucky, my TDK DVD-Rs don't work. my drive reads DVD-ROMs just fine though so in my case it's not a mechanical problem.

the link posted above for the firmware update does not include T61 or the UJDA775, and I doubt lenovo will fix this anytime soon.

4EST · #24 Post by **4EST** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:11 am

I have exactly the same problem

codek · #25 Post by **codek** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:51 am

mine worked 5 minutes ago with burned discs and after an automatic update for xp, now it doesn't work..pos. it used to work perfect with the same discs

bgalakazam · #26 Post by **bgalakazam** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:27 pm

Hello, I have a similar problem. Here is my setup:

T60p with MATSHITA UJDA775 CD-RW/DVD

It cannot read: original CD, burned CD, burned DVD
It can read: some original DVD.

Tried all speeds from BIOS (High, Normal, Slow), no change.

EDIT: No firmware for this model, don't bother with the one from Lenovo's site.

T61p DVD drive (UJDA775) doesn't work properly

T61p DVD drive (UJDA775) doesn't work properly

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