Strange optical drive issue.

pgi947 · 12 Aug 2011 at 21:38

Firstly sorry for posting this in here, I know there is a dedicated forum for optical drives, but I see allot of posts go un-replied in there, hence trying my luck here.

So I thought I'd try install some old games from disc, setup launches fine, but as soon as it comes to install, the optical drive clicks like crazy and doesn't actually do anything. I thought the drive was faulty, but just to make sure I attempted to dump a disc image from the drive, and it works flawlessly, reads perfectly.

So on one hand it fails to do anything, the other it works flawlessly, anyone any ideas what might be going on here?

Reaper 392 · 12 Aug 2011 at 22:32

have you tried turning autorun off and launching it manually?

other than that pretty weak idea, im stumped

Thekwango · 13 Aug 2011 at 01:01

could it be that games you are trying to install are not compatible with a 64bit OS(which i assume you have), and the installation is actually freezing which is locking up the drive.

i tried installing the old blade runner game on my pc, win7 64bit, and this is what would happen with it, tho it would install a certain distance but then it just froze and the drive sat humming and clicking away-sort of waiting to be told do something kind of thing.

pctestcard.com · 13 Aug 2011 at 06:21

try check the Disc with old games and make sure the Disc is ok and no scratch.

Also use a bootable disc to test.

Hope this helps!
Bill
Tech Manager
Wptinc

freddie64 · 13 Aug 2011 at 07:09

You could try making a .iso image of the disc and install from that.

Use ImgBurn to rip the disc and Virtual Clone Drive to mount the image.

pgi947 · 13 Aug 2011 at 07:31

I did that last night, dumped with imgburn then launched the installer and it installed fine, just wierd it won't install directly from disc. Could it be some BIOS setting I've overlooked?

The two games are fairly new, bioshock2 and battlestations pacific

@Thekwango that's exactly the noise I'm getting, rapid clicking and no progress

freddie64 · 13 Aug 2011 at 08:33

Just re-read your OP, totally missed the the image dump bit, lol.

pgi947 · 13 Aug 2011 at 16:15

It now 'seems' to be installing Gears Of War from disc, I'll see if the install completes and then try bioshock 2.

It is still making the nasty clicking noise but its now actually making progress...

pgi947 · 13 Aug 2011 at 17:57

100% random but 100% sorted (for now).

Re flashed the drive (from 1.00 to 1.00, go figure?) and now its installing things from disc again, I must have some how magically borked the drives firmware without knowing.

I never suspected FW to begin with, I usually associate FW updates with recordable media compatibly...