Hi helpful people. I'm really baffled by my moody computer, and i can't figure out what is wrong.

I have a little Clevo laptop, a M121W. It used to work very well. Recently I formatted it because it was full of stuff for uni that i don't need any more and i thought it would be easier to start afresh than uninstall and reorganise everything.

Bizarrely, since the format, sometimes it will recognise dvd movies and sometimes it won't. Mostly it won't, and its unpredictable as to why.
-Nine times out of ten it pretends there isn't a disc in the drive. I can try end number of discs and it still says the is no disc in drive. They're discs in good condition, they're the proper region (i'm region 4 and so is the drive at the moment, it has 4 changes left too), i've even tried a brand new dvd out of the box. If i try a burnt DVDRW that just has word documents on it though, it will recognise that just.
-Yet ever now and again i''ll turn on my lappy, and maybe 1 out of 10 times, it will recognise the movie it is in the drive, and it will play just fine.

So its not fully broken (i think) but i don't know what is wrong with it.

Nothing happened to it after I formatted it. I keep it on a flat surface, the room is pretty cool so its not like it baked in the sun or anything (winter here) I put it in its case when i dont use it so dust won't like float into it.

The one thing that is different, is that I had lost the drivers cd that came with the laptop when I bought it about a year ago. I downloaded the drivers off the website for the computer (www.clevo.com.tw) but for some things (like VGA) there were several choices, so I chose the most recent driver. My laptop pre-format may have used an older driver - would that be the problem ? Though the dvd drive you don't download a driver, windows just recognises it itself, so that made me think it might not matter. Plus i thought, the more recent, the better.

The drive in question is a QSI DVDRW SDW-042. In My Computer, it shows up as DVDRW D:, although if i click on it, the properties thing at the side says Cd Drive (i was reading old threads looking it someone had had my problem, and someone said someting about their dvd drive showing up as a CD drive - i forget what it said pre-format, you never pay attention to the things that work properly!)

Sorry for the long post. I was trying to explain it properly. Any suggestions for me ?

toni

Hello and Welcome to the forum :thumbs:

I found this on the Manf site:

2. Can not read disc:

* Can not read all the discs type. It may be drive problem. Suggest return to the supplier you purchased from.
* Can not play DVD disc. Make sure your drive has DVD-ROM function (SDR081/SDR083/SBW081/SBW161/SBW241).
* Can not playback the DVD video title. Make sure you have installed the DVD-Video playback software (PowerDVD, WinDVD .....).

Also found this:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=142578
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=138404

Let us know if that does/doesn't solve your problem!

Hello toniyellow
The first thing i would do is let windows install a fresh set of drivers. To do this go to: start>Right click on my computer>Properties>Hardware>Device Manager. Double click on your CD/DVD drive and uninstall the driver for it. Re-boot your computer and XP will search for the best driver for the device and reinstall it.
It is also worth while buying a CD lens cleaner and giving the lens a good clean too.
Let us know how you get on

Sadly none of the above worked

The drive definitely has DVD ROM function, as I mentioned before it used to work fine, its just been in a mood ever since i formatted. I do have a dvd decoder, it came with WinDVD4.

It doesn't have a problem burning data dvds, and i've never had a problem with various types of recordable discs, it works on all i've tried. The problem is specifically dvd movies, it just pretend those discs aren't there.

I've tried uninstalling it, it just reinstalls the same driver. I looked on the manufacturers website but they don't offer drivers for download.

I did buy a CD cleaner disc, and i also tried using a compressed air laptop cleaner thingo that a guy in the computer store recommended, but no dice. Its so baffling!

I can't take it back, its out of warranty too. ****.

You probably have an out-of-date version of the MFC42.DLL file installed somewhere. Or, it is missing or corrupt.
Click Start, Find, Files Folders, enter MFC42.DLL, and search the C: drive. You should find one copy in C:\windows\system\. Right click the file and select Properties, Version. It should be 6.00.8447.0 or higher. If older versions exist elsewhere, copy the one in the system directory to those locations. If an older version exists in the system directory and you have Windows 98 or newer, click Start Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, Tools System File Checker, Scan for Altered Files,or go to start->run->sfc /scannow have your xp disk ready to replace damaged or missing system files