Member Avatar for iceman1007

i have a sony dvd r/w drive that i can't get to play dvds on my pc. can some please help me out i have windows 10 on my win XP home?

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Brief diagnostic summary tied to the existing posts: the Sony DVD‑RW is known to work in another PC with PowerDVD (per ), so a missing codec is unlikely despite ’s suggestion. The error reported and Explorer showing the drive as a CD device point to an OS/hardware interface or driver/controller problem on this machine rather than a pure playback-decoder issue. ’s Device Manager uninstall is a good first move; the steps below expand the troubleshooting chain to isolate the real cause.

Troubleshooting checklist (perform in order, backing up the system/registry first):

  • Confirm the drive at firmware/BIOS level: verify the drive appears in BIOS/UEFI. If it does not, check power and data cables, try another cable or port, and (for PATA) confirm jumper/master‑slave settings.
  • Compare media types: test a known-data CD and a retail DVD. If CDs read but DVDs fail, the DVD layer/firmware or controller mode is implicated.
  • Isolate Windows filters and drivers: after exporting the registry for backup, inspect the key
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
    and remove any UpperFilters and LowerFilters values, then reboot. (This is a common fix for drives detected incorrectly.)
  • Test outside Windows: boot a Linux live USB or WinPE and check whether DVDs are readable there. If they are, the issue is Windows configuration/drivers; if not, the motherboard/controller or drive interface is likely at fault.
  • Update low-level software: install or update motherboard chipset/IDE/SATA controller drivers and check for a Sony firmware update for the model. If the drive is SATA, try different controller modes (IDE/AHCI) only after confirming compatibility.

If all above fails, the problem is likely a controller/hardware incompatibility on the host system; trying the drive on a different controller (or using a USB adapter/enclosure) will quickly confirm that.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

i have a sony dvd r/w drive that i can't get to play dvds on my pc. can some please help me out i have windows 10 on my win XP home?

i assume you mean windows media player 10.what you need it dvd codex to make it work ,if your computer came with the dvd player it should have come with cyber link power dvd player or another popular dvd player ,you will have to google for dvd codex for wmp 10 if it didn't come with power dvd .
http://www.google.ca/search?q=wmp+10+dvd+codex+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Member Avatar for iceman1007

i assume you mean windows media player 10.what you need it dvd codex to make it work ,if your computer came with the dvd player it should have come with cyber link power dvd player or another popular dvd player ,you will have to google for dvd codex for wmp 10 if it didn't come with power dvd .
http://www.google.ca/search?q=wmp+10+dvd+codex+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

well i got powerdvd xp 4.0 and it does not want to play the dvds. what do you recoomend?

Member Avatar for Darvus

What DVDs are these? Burns or retail movies? I don't really care, but it may be relevant to the problem. Also, is was the drive pre-installed or did you just add it recently?

Member Avatar for iceman1007

What DVDs are these? Burns or retail movies? I don't really care, but it may be relevant to the problem. Also, is was the drive pre-installed or did you just add it recently?

they are actual movies. this drive was recently installed. i have put a dvd drive in another computer and used the cyberlink powerdvd xp 4.0 and dds work great there but not on this one

Member Avatar for Darvus

they are actual movies. this drive was recently installed. i have put a dvd drive in another computer and used the cyberlink powerdvd xp 4.0 and dds work great there but not on this one

Ok, are you getting any error messages when you put the DVD in? I assume you tried to start the disc manually through the program as well. What happened? Does it just sit there, make noises, or pop up any messages?

Member Avatar for iceman1007

Ok, are you getting any error messages when you put the DVD in? I assume you tried to start the disc manually through the program as well. What happened? Does it just sit there, make noises, or pop up any messages?

when i try to play it the message says the disk in the drive is not formatted. i can see the light go on and hear it spinning but does not want to go and play the dvd.

Member Avatar for Darvus

when i try to play it the message says the disk in the drive is not formatted. i can see the light go on and hear it spinning but does not want to go and play the dvd.

That's an odd message...that sounds like a Windows error rather than a player error. Are you relying on auto-play, or did you open the DVD player software and try to play it manually that way?

Member Avatar for iceman1007

That's an odd message...that sounds like a Windows error rather than a player error. Are you relying on auto-play, or did you open the DVD player software and try to play it manually that way?

i try to let it autoplay but wont start so i use the powerdvd and start it manually and get that message. when i go to my computer to access the drive with dvd in it is says it is a cd drive rather than a dvd drive.

Member Avatar for Darvus

i try to let it autoplay but wont start so i use the powerdvd and start it manually and get that message. when i go to my computer to access the drive with dvd in it is says it is a cd drive rather than a dvd drive.

Hmmm...sounds like a Windows problem.

Right-click My Computer, select Manage. Click on Device Manager. Expand the DVD/CD-ROM Drives section. Delete the entries here. Reboot.

When the system reboots, it should see and re-install the drivers. Once it's done, reboot again for good measure (even if it doesn't tell you to) and try again. Let me know your results.

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