Why won't some DVDs play in my computer's DVD drive?

And thanks to everyone else who answered on this thread... can I give more than one "Right Answers" on this forum?... it appears so.

Numetro - my model of DVD drive is HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-H73N, which is close to your model number.  This is the drive that has failed a number of times in my Optiplex 755 and that Dell has replaced a few times.  My guess is that it's not a great drive to begin with and decays rather quickly.  And I hardly ever use it.

Hi glnz and osprey4,

glnz, since I found that panel in the device manager for my drive that shows the different region settings, seen in my second screenshot and discussed in that post on page one of this thread, I don't think that it is so much that I have a defective DVD/CD drive, as much as it is an inferior drive with possibly a less efficient laser.

I mean, what a convoluted way to make a drive, with different national region settings... somehow that must be a cheaper way to make a DVD drive.

Now that still doesn't explain why that drive plays only some of my DVDs from the U.S. and most of my DVDs from Japan, even though the region for that drive is and always has been set to the U.S. region, but since that drive plays the same DVDs that it will play consistently, and it won't play the DVDs that it won't play consistently, and it ALWAYS burns ALL of my DVDs and CDs perfectly and reads them perfectly every time (as long as I'm using a third party burner app and not the crummy, non-functional Microsoft disc burning software that comes stock with Windows), I think that pretty much tells me that the drive isn't defective, but just inferior.

If you think about it, why would Dell spend a lot of money on any one of the components that it puts in its computers when it sells those computers for as little as $300?... like I said, this Inspiron 531 came with defective RAM in it and it took years for me to finally test the RAM and find out that it has been defective and reeking infinite havoc all this time... and I thought it was just Windows Vista.  Even though Vista was committing a slow suicide with corrupted, badly written software code, it took the bad RAM that Dell built in to this computer to really drive me crazy when I was troubleshooting all the problems on it for a family member.  Once I put new RAM in this computer and installed Windows 7, it's a different computer with almost no problems.  Since then I've inherited this computer and it is my first Windows PC.

Now back to the DVD playing problems.  As I said yesterday, I have a LaCie DVD/CD burner/player drive from around 2003... and I found it last night in storage, hooked it up and it flawlessly plays ALL of my DVDs.  Even one DVD that played a little glitchy in this Dell computer's drive plays perfectly without any stuttering in this LaCie drive.

And considering that this LaCie DVD/CD drive cost about as much in 2003 as this entire Dell computer cost is 2007, around $300, it should play any DVD flawlessly.  Even using a USB 1 connection to run this LaCie DVD/CD drive on, it still works perfectly.  This drive can use USB 1, USB 2 or Firewire, but this computer only has USB 1.

So problem solved, but any internal DVD/CD drive in any cheepo Dell or any other stock PC drive is bound to be inferior... whereas with Apple computers, the drives are usually top of the line, but you pay for it of course... you get what you pay for, eh?

Thanks again.

Numetro,

Region codes were conceived by the entertainment industry, not the optical drive manufacturers. It takes little imagination to understand why.

Hi osprey,

Then why don't all DVD/CD drive manufacturers make their drives like this LaCie drive is made, to read ALL DVDs?  It is obviously a matter of how much money Dell is willing to invest in the quality of their internal drives and other components and then relay that cost on to their customers.

The defective RAM that came stock in this Dell computer might be seen as additional proof of that.

... what a convoluted way to make a drive, with different national region settings... somehow that must be a cheaper way to make a DVD drive.

Regarding Apple drives, they're made by the same contractors who service Dell and other PC makers.

Okay, but why would I want to replace my internal drive now when it never makes an error burning (when using good software) and it never has a problem reading any of the disks I burn, and I have the LaCie drive hooked up that reads all of my DVDs, regardless of the region?

And in 1994, spending $300 on a CD drive would be like spending $1200 on a CD drive now.

What's your point?

Maybe this will explain things better than we can: DVD region code

Yes, it is possible to hack firmware to make a drive region-free. And not terribly difficult.

Okay, but why would I want to replace my internal drive now when it never makes an error burning (when using good software) and it never has a problem reading any of the disks I burn, and I have the LaCie drive hooked up that reads all of my DVDs, regardless of the region? And in 1994, spending $300 on a CD drive would be like spending $1200 on a CD drive now. What's your point?

Osprey - that's not a bad idea when I'm finally out of warranty with Dell.  But by then I'll probably need a new PC anyway to upgrade from XP to 7, as I would also want it to be strong enough to maybe be able to handle whatever comes five years later.

But my opinion is that this HL-DT-ST line of CD-DVD units for Dell is of very low quality, has trouble reading some DVDs almost from the start and can finally fail 100% quite quickly.

Everyone has an opinion.

FYI Hitachi provided drives as OEM equipment for Apple as well as Dell.

Hi glnz,

You might want to take a look at this LG DVD writer FAQ. LG makes burners for a variety of OEMs.

And obviously, every component of every PC ever made is subject to failure. I've found LG drives to be average on reliability, but in general DVD drives break easily. So it's a good thing they're cheap and easy to replace!