How do you test your DVD drive?

[Vanguard-741]

I am not sure what is wrong with my DVD player on my laptop. It can install stuff, like the PCLinuxOS distro with no errors, no strange sounds. But when I try to burn a CD into an MP3 format (using grip), the drive makes a lot of noise and later says that there isn't any CD's detected.

Although I doubt it's the drive; one never knows for sure until it's tested.
So, how do you test to be sure it's the CD/DVD drive?

[luikki]

welcome!

test with a different  brand of cd's...

[jaydot]

look at the drive to ascertain that it is a dvd/cd drive.  if it's too difficult to read (some are) open pclinuxos control centre, look under hardware and that should tell you (misc) if it's a dvd burner.

[Vanguard-741]

thank you for the welcome.

I find it odd that it installed PCLinuxOS using the same brand of CD, and also a DVD-R, but trouble using grip.

I'll try some more CD's. I was thinking that while typing this, but thought maybe there's a command you type in the konsole/terminal to determine that.

I'll also check the control center to see what it says. Thanks guys.

[T6]

some drives when old, tend to fail to handle properly cds

dvds tend to work normally, also burn them can be done but sometimes the cd capbility is lost

is it a old drive?

what brand of cds are you using?

what kernel are you using?

have you tried brasero?

[Vanguard-741]

some drives when old, tend to fail to handle properly cds

dvds tend to work normally, also burn them can be done but sometimes the cd capbility is lost

is it a old drive?

yes, quite a few years

what brand of cds are you using?

mainly Sony; both DVD-R and CD-R

what kernel are you using?

not sure, whatever is default on the latest PCLinuxOS distro

have you tried brasero?

not sure what that is

I popped in another disc (CD-R) and it wouldn't stop trying to read. The other one I tried with grip is brand new, two or three days old.
It was able to install a DVD-R disc with a Linux distro on it. able to install a CD-R one (this one; PCLinuxOS), but it does sound like maybe the drive is failing.

[luikki]

try to clean the lens with cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol.

brasero (available from synaptic) is an app similar to k3b...

[T6]

+1 to this but you'll need to disassemble the drive to do it

[Hootiegibbon]

Install "qpxtool" from the repo

what is qpxtool?

QPxTool is the linux way to get full control over your CD/DVD drives.

It is the Open Source Solution which intends to give you access to all
available Quality Checks (Checks) on written and blank media, that are
available for your drive. This will help you to find the right media and the
optimized writing speed for your hardware, which will increase the chance for
a long data lifetime.

Includes tool to update your firmware (firmware not included)

[luikki]

you'll need to disassemble the drive

it is a laptop. so, no need to disassemble...

[jaydot]

on my laptop the lens is visible when i eject the mechanism.  i clean it with a cotton bud and isopropyl alcohol.  there should be a lever/slide on the bottom of the laptop to release the drive so that it can be removed altogether.

[Vanguard-741]

sorry for such a poor delay in getting this going. I am hoping to get Linux on my iMac to take care of some things. But I am also trying to get other things done before that.
I don't know if I mentioned this, but I tried another CD-R, year or less old easy, was worse. It wouldn't even show any information in that software grip.

The lense may need cleaning. What I still don't get, is how it can install a distro (CD-R and DVD-R), but not run a simple music CD-R.