Windows 7 DVD drive intermittently works

[frigg]

I have an asus G50V refurb that was working fine fine for about a month, then the dvd drive started to mess up on me.

The dvd drive only works about 1/3 of the time after rebooting now. The green light on the cd tray blinks during startup, but doesn't always actually open or read cds/dvds for me after startup completes. Those times when it actually does work, it eventually just stops reading dvds after a few hours or so of use. Other things i've noticed are that the device wont show up in windows explorer or device manager after it goes unresponsive (or if it is unresponsive right after rebooting). Sometimes when I try right clicking it in windows explorer, explorer will freeze for approximately 15 minutes or so. My computer sometimes hangs for about 5 minutes during shutdown, this seems to coincide with my dvd drive failing. It also sometimes displays the BIOS boot animation twice for some reason (but not every time during startup). Also, it has been hanging on the windows startup screen the last two times i've booted it up.

I've tried a system restore, thinking that some software may have been conflicting with it, but no change. I don't know if its a hardware fault or not, but it doesn't seem so to me since it works (lights and cd tray sounds) during startup. Any ideas? I thought maybe it might be a bios problem, but I want a second opinion before I try to do anything.

 

[Firecracker]

You said this?

1). The green light on the cd tray blinks during startup.
2). It eventually just stops reading dvds after a few hours or so of use
3). Other things i've noticed are that the device wont show up in windows explorer or device manager
4). My computer sometimes hangs for about 5 minutes during shutdown
5). It also sometimes displays the BIOS boot animation twice for some reason
6). Also, it has been hanging on the windows startup screen the last two times i've booted it up.

This could be many things......
1). The DVD Burner is going or is dead
2). Memory Issues/Fualty memory
3). The processor is going bad.
4). The motherboard is going cactus
5). Your PSU is too small/not enough Juice or is going sad
6). Bad drivers/Conflicting Drivers
7). A Virus of some type

Is your computer crashing or BSODing?

 

[bobalazs]

One thing to add, power and or sata/ide cable broken. Might give it a shot, and is cheaper than replacing aforementioned hardware.