Travel Technology - Can't access DVD on laptop, strange symptoms

I've having a strange problem on my Dell Latitude D820, purchased Sept 2006, that I hope someone can help me with.

I recently burned some data onto DVDs using the bundled Roxio Creator Plus software. When I went to check that the data was readable, I found I can't access the drive from any GUI application.

Strangely I can still burn new DVDs and access the drive from a command prompt. But any time I try to access the drive in Windows Explorer the drive won't stay highlighted. If I try to browse to a file on an optical disc from the FileOpen dialog in an application, no joy.

I've rebooted, checked the event logs, device manager, no joy. Can't change the drive letter.

No idea when the problem surfaced, I don't use the DVD drive often.

I'm running XP Pro SP2, and run SQL Server 2000, IIS, PHP, and MySQL for development purposes, but that hasn't been a problem in the past.

Can anyone suggest a cause for this?

I've having a strange problem on my Dell Latitude D820, purchased Sept 2006, that I hope someone can help me with.

I recently burned some data onto DVDs using the bundled Roxio Creator Plus software. When I went to check that the data was readable, I found I can't access the drive from any GUI application.

Strangely I can still burn new DVDs and access the drive from a command prompt. But any time I try to access the drive in Windows Explorer the drive won't stay highlighted. If I try to browse to a file on an optical disc from the FileOpen dialog in an application, no joy.

I've rebooted, checked the event logs, device manager, no joy. Can't change the drive letter.

No idea when the problem surfaced, I don't use the DVD drive often.

I'm running XP Pro SP2, and run SQL Server 2000, IIS, PHP, and MySQL for development purposes, but that hasn't been a problem in the past.

Can anyone suggest a cause for this?

This is a bit of a longshot but it worked for me before, both on Win XP and Vista:
- first uninstall the Roxio.
- next go into your control panel and set the default actions for discs insterted to the native windows apps. In other words if a CD is inserted, set it to play on Windows Media Player and if a black disc is inserted, set it to fire up the windows native burning application, not an external one.

That did it for me. Seemed that upon installing the external burning software, those apps commanded attention when a disc was inserted in the machine, but in a way that the OS did not like.

Other than that, you would be looking at sending the unit back to the manufacturer to re-set it.

BTW, your machine wouldnt happend to have a Matsushita/Matshita drive, would it?

You can do the same thing by turning autoplay off on the drive.

I bet Roxio is the problem. Remove it completely, including any programs that start automatically. Use Nero instead. Nero actually works.

If you don't want to remove roxio, figure out how to disable any applets and services that it starts at boot time or at login time (perhaps by using msconfig), disable them and make sure they aren't running. I do that for both roxio and nero. Reboot if necessary, to make sure none of the crud is running and then see if you can access the drive normally.

I don't know if DVDs have the same concept of finalizing data drives as CDs do, but if they do, you may also need to finalize it for it to be visible.

-David

Well, I tried again to change the drive letter, and succeeded this time.

Changed it from W: to R:, it worked. Back to W:, problem returns. So it's on R: for the foreseeable future, hope it doesn't cause problems with previously installed applications.

Strange that I could burn, copy, create ISOs, read & copy from the command line, everything but access to browse via a GUI.

Thanks for your input.

Rob