Problem with Blu-ray/ROM drive

[MalBond]

HP Pavilion DV8-1250ea; Windows 7. I may have a h/w problem with the Blu-ray/ROM drive. It won't read disks properly. It failed to install Acrobat from the Adobe disk, and it cannot read CDs via iTunes (although it will play them via Windows Media Player). I have re-installed the driver s/w, and I've also checked the drive via iTunes (says its OK). I have no further ideas to fix this. Any suggestions ?.

[DavidPK]

Hi,

The following procedure will test if your notebook can start from a bootable disc in the CD/DVD drive - the advantage of trying this is that it will rule out any possible Windows driver error as the CD/DVD drive is under the control of the Bios when starting the notebook.  So if you find that the notebook will not boot from the CD or DVD, then it's almost certainly a Hardware fault in the optical drive itself will need to be replaced.

Using another PC to create a Windows 7 Rescue CD and DVD.  Download the relevant ISO from the link below.

Windows 7 32bit

Windows 7 64bit

You need use an application such as ImgBurn to correctly burn the ISO to a CD and then also burn it to a DVD - a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here.  Once created, insert the CD and then restart the notebook and see if it boots from this disc - if it does, let the first screen come up ( this will show repair options ect ) then just remove the CD, insert the DVD and restart the notebook again to see if it will also boot from this disc.  If the notebook will not boot from the CD, it may just load straight into Windows, in which case, just remove the CD, insert the DVD and restart to see if it will boot from this disc.

Let me know.

Regards,

DP-K

[MalBond]

Hello, David,

With apologies for the much-delayed response. A combination of injury, vacation, and working away from home have conspired to prevent me looking at this issue again until mid-September.

I'd followed your instructions below, and there was no problem apparent with the Blu-ray/ROM drive. As it so happened, Apple sent out an auto-update for iTunes a few days later, and lo and behold, the notebook PC could read the CDs again. I can only assume it was a s/ware glitch or conflict of some kind in the previous version of iTunes (and Apple themselves cou;dn't resolve it for me).

All fixed now, and thank you for your help.

Kind rgds.

Malcolm Bond

[MalBond]

P.S. The Adobe Acrobat issue has also resolved itself, I guess, again due to a s/ware update.