Strange Optical drive problem

[Nigel Henry]

On Friday 07 November 2008 12:20, squareyes wrote:
> Nigel Henry wrote:
> > On Thursday 06 November 2008 07:54, squareyes wrote:
> >> Nigel Henry wrote:
> >
> > Hi Winton.
> >
> > Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. I've been reading through posts on the Lenovo
> > forum for the 3000 this afternoon, and there are a bunch of folks unhappy
> > with the optical drives that come on the 3000. Matsushita is one make
> > that stands out

<Suggestions, observations from Googling skipped>

> > All the best mate.
> >
> > Nigel.
>
> Hi Nigel,
> thanks, drive didn't work win XP, have already tried those above, no
> success, so have just had a chat
> with LENOVO tech support(3rd time), without any joy. Seems according to
> them a software problem and needs Vista for the drivers,
> needs the image the machine had on it at point of sale. Sounds a bit
> like anyone with this machine is being almost forced to use Vista(Drive
> doesn't even work with Win XP ), I thought that was illegal. Sounds a
> bit like a consumer affairs problem.
> They(Lenovo) don't have any drivers that will correct the problem even
> with XP, so I guess it's a case of "buyer beware" won't get another
> Lenovo, unless it is proven to work with software I wish to install,
> be it Win XP or Linux. Seems that it's a pretty basic expectation that
> CD drives just work these days.

> Many thanks for your help, much appreciated.
> Take Care.
> Winton

Hi Winton.

Not being one to give up without a fight, and seeing NoOp's post, and your 
reply, I spent some time on the Lenovo site this afternoon, downloading 
manuals for the 3000 n200 0687, but there's not much info in them to help 
with your problem, apart from saying that Vista is the OS pre-installed.

A few questions.

Did you buy the Lenovo 3000 new, and if so which OS did it have on it?

What is the model number? There's a huge bunch of different ones to select 
from, when I was looking for the docs, starting with 22A, and I just left it 
as "all".

Looking at the downloads, and drivers menu item for a 3000 n200 0687 with XP 
as the OS (link below), There is an entry for "InterVideo WinDVD software 
update. If you click on the entry, and scroll down a bit to "Summary of 
changes", itsays:

<quote>
Fixed situation where uninstallation of preloaded version removed optical 
drive.
<end quote>

It does also say that the update will only install if you already have a 
previous version of WinDVD 5.0.11 installed.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/product.do?subcategoryind=0&familyind=370177&brandind=10&doccategoryind=0&modelind=0&doctypeind=9&validate=true&partnumberind=0&sitestyle=lenovo&template=%2Fproductpage%2Flandingpages%2FproductPageLandingPage.vm&operatingsystemind=53385&machineind=372419

and another link directly to the update, as the line above may not wrap 
correctly.

http://www.307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-68730.html

Now I could be talking a load of rubbish now, but it could be that this WinDVD 
software on the Lenovo machine, somehow initiates the optical drive for 
playback of CD's DVD's, etc. I say this because removing the WinDVD software, 
as quoted above, removes the optical drive.

Of course all of this depends on if you bought the machine new, with either 
XP, or VISTA installed on it, and still have all the CD's that came with the 
machine.

I was born in Jersey, Channel Islands. In the central market, an impressive 
building built in Victorian times with much ironwork, and a fountain with 
goldfish in it (much fun for the kiddies), there was a shop named the Red 
Triangle Stores. They sold childrens toys, model trains, electrical bits, and 
pieces, etc. They had a sawdust barrel just inside the door, in which were 
hidden various things, colouring books, little toys, etc. You'd pay your 
money, and could thrust your hand into the barrel, hoping to pull out some 
wonderfull prize. Often it was something you didn't want.

Trying to come up with a fix for your problem is a bit like that. I thrust my 
hand into the barrel, thinking "there must be a solution in here somewhere". 
Fishing about for a while, and feeling various things, I grab hold of 
something, saying "this must be it", but no, just another colouring book.

All very frustrating, trying to fix seemingly unfixable problems.

Have a nice day tomorrow, and forget about computers for a while.

Nigel.