Computer not reading DVDs and DVD-roms. Help?

For at least the past few months, my computer has not been reading DVDs. I
pop them in and... nothing. Even starting them manually fails, as the
computer isn't even recognizing there is a DVD in it. Occationally, it will
display the DVD title on the My Computer screen, but still won't play. Upon
exploring one, all I find is a seemingly empty "Audio_TS" folder.

Now, this isn't so much of a problem, as I don't often play DVDs on my
computer, however, it's recently become intolerable.

I've purchased a fairly new PC game release, entitled "The Sims 2: Double
Deluxe." I cannot get the computer to read the disk in order for me to
install it. Sometimes it will display "Sims2" next to my disk drive (E on
My Computer; though most often not. When I choose to explore the disk, all I
find is an image file that is "ready to be written to the CD."

Now the odd thing is that when I first received the game, it began
installation normally. Now, it refused to complete the installation, claiming
certain files could not be "transferred." When I tried to manually copy these
files to my computer, it said something along the lines of "Windows does not
recognize the file type" and would not copy. After giving up for the day, and
shutting down the computer, I have not been able to get it to recognize the
files on the disk.

I've tried to install it on another, older computer with much the same
result. Nothing. However, when attempted on an almost brand new computer at a
family member's work place, it worked perfectly fine. The disk is a DVD-Rom,
which I figure may have something to do with why it won't work since my
computer will not play DVDs either.

I've also tried using a lens cleaning product, though it doesn't seem to
have had any affect. I plan to try coping the files onto a regular CD-RW on
another computer and then trying to run the installation again on this
computer.

Can anyone suggest something else for me to try?

On Aug 17, 11:48*am, debijayn
wrote:
For at least the past few months, my computer has not been reading DVDs. I
pop them in and... nothing. Even starting them manually fails, as the
computer isn't even recognizing there is a DVD in it. Occationally, it will
display the DVD title on the My Computer screen, but still won't play. Upon
exploring one, all I find is a seemingly empty "Audio_TS" folder.

Now, this isn't so much of a problem, as I don't often play DVDs on my
computer, however, it's recently become intolerable.

I've purchased a fairly new PC game release, entitled "The Sims 2: Double
Deluxe." I cannot get the computer to read the disk in order for me to
install it. Sometimes it will display "Sims2" next to my disk drive (E on
My Computer; though most often not. When I choose to explore the disk, all I
find is an image file that is "ready to be written to the CD."

Now the odd thing is that when I first received the game, it began
installation normally. Now, it refused to complete the installation, claiming
certain files could not be "transferred." When I tried to manually copy these
files to my computer, it said something along the lines of "Windows does not
recognize the file type" and would not copy. After giving up for the day, and
shutting down the computer, I have not been able to get it to recognize the
files on the disk.

I've tried to install it on another, older computer with much the same
result. Nothing. However, when attempted on an almost brand new computer at a
family member's work place, it worked perfectly fine. The disk is a DVD-Rom,
which I figure may have something to do with why it won't work since my
computer will not play DVDs either.

I've also tried using a lens cleaning product, though it doesn't seem to
have had any affect. I plan to try coping the files onto a regular CD-RW on
another computer and then trying to run the installation again on this
computer.

Can anyone suggest something else for me to try?

It seems that the optical drive is now having additional problems.
DVD drives tend to have two different lasers with one for use on DVD
medias and the second for the CDs. If you can not use any DVD media
(ie: DVDs, DVD-ROM, DVD-R(W), DVD+R(W)) then the laser for these is
non-functional. You would need to consider replacing the drive itself.