# HP Lightscribe DVD Drive not working :(



## saswat (Oct 5, 2009)

Hi,
I have a HP Pavillion DV2940SE notebook with a HP Lightscribe DVD Drive. Recently the DVD drive does not show up in My Computer in either Vista or Win7. I tried booting up from the DVD drive using a bootable CD, but even that does not work. The LED at the DVD drive blinks but the drive is not recognized. It does not show up in Device Manager either.

Please help me regarding this issue. Do I need to download any drivers for this? Or do I need a firmware update of some kind? 

Thanks a lot,
SM.


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## saswat (Oct 5, 2009)

Anybody has any ideas/suggestions for my problem??


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Try uninstalling the drive in Device manager and reboot. 
Laptop optical drives are generally low quality and prone to early failure.


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## saswat (Oct 5, 2009)

Thanks so much for the reply, but I have already checked this approach. This does not work. I believe that the DVD drive is fine, since I can hear it spinning when i put a DVD in it. However, it is not recognized in Windows, and bootable CD also does not work from BIOS. So i believe it is some driver or BIOS firmware issue.

If anyone has any idea on this, please let me know. I will be utmost grateful.

THanks,
Saswat.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

If the drive is recognized by the BIOS and a bootable CD (such as an XP CD) will not boot. The most likely cause is a failed drive.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Dogg said:


> If the drive is recognized by the BIOS and a bootable CD (such as an XP CD) will not boot. The most likely cause is a failed drive.


Ditto.


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## saswat (Oct 5, 2009)

Thanks for the reply. The PC specs are :

Hardware
Product Name	dv2940se
Product Number	FE942UA#ABA
Microprocessor	2.10 GHz AMD Turion X2 TL-62 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
Microprocessor Cache	512 KB + 512 KB L2 Cache
Memory	4096 MB
Memory Max	Up to 4GB DDR2 (Up to 1 GB may not be available due to 32-bit operating system resource requirements)
Video Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M
Video Memory	Up to 1071 MB
Hard Drive	320 GB (5400 rpm)
Multimedia Drive	LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display	14.1" WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
Fax/Modem	High speed 56K modem
Network Card	Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity	802.11b/g WLAN

External Ports	

* 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* 3 Universal Serial Bus USB 2.0
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 RJ-11 (modem)
* 1 TV-Out (S-video)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
* 2 headphone-out
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 notebook expansion port 3
* 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin)
* 1 Consumer IR

Power 

* 65 W AC Adapter
* 6-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion)

It will be great if you can point me to some way of making sure that the drive is actually gone and needs replacement, or whether some driver or BIOS firmware updates will do the trick.

I do have a spare CD Drive from an old computer. Is there any way of converting it into a USB CD drive. I would need some kind of PCI to USB converter. Am i correct??

Thanks for the help.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

Is it an internal or external drive? If it's external, simply test it on another PC. If it's internal, then my above statement still applies...replace it.

As for your spare, simply get an external case which supports that kind for drive (ie: IDE or SATA) with USB and/or firewire connectivity.


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