[GRLUG] DVD/CD drive failure?

[Tim]

john-thomas richards wrote:
> My Gateway MT6840 laptop was generating errors for the Optiarc DVD RW
> drive.  It is still under warranty so after going through Gateway's
> Tech Support scripts twice via email, they sent me a new drive.  Upon
> booting with the new drive, I am getting the same error message:
>
> rondo:/# tail /var/log/messages
> May 23 23:01:19 rondo kernel: Restarting tasks ... done.
> May 23 23:01:20 rondo kernel: hda: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady
> SeekComplete Error }
> May 23 23:01:20 rondo kernel: hda: drive_cmd: error=0x04 {
> AbortedCommand }
> May 23 23:01:20 rondo kernel: ide: failed opcode was: 0xef
>
> I compared this message to what I had in the earlier logs and it is
> identical, i.e., the new drive has the exact same problem as the
> original drive.  The original drive would often hang when trying to
> mount a disc.  Playing music would work, but it would take several
> minutes to begin each track (once a track started it played flawlessly).
> Each track would have this delay.  A DVD movie would start playing but
> would always hang shortly after starting.  With the new drive I get a
> delay when mounting a disc or when starting a DVD movie but once a disc
> is mounted or a movie starts it seems to work properly thereafter.
> Music CDs play properly with no delay between tracks.  When I bought the
> laptop it had Windows Vista installed.  I immediately upgraded Vista to
> Debian and had a terrible time with the drive (it would spin extremely
> fast and then stop spinning for several minutes and then spin up again
> and start working for a time).  Other than a delay when mounting CDs
> and starting DVD movies, and error messages (I also get "kernel: hda:
> lost interrupt"), the drive seems to be working fine.  Is it at all
> possible that this is a kernel issue?  Perhaps something is not
> configured quite right.  Any ideas?  Google just says the drive is
> failing and should be replaced.  Since the drive is new (or would
> Gateway send me a bad replacement?) could this be a motherboard problem?
>   
I'd reset the bios to defaults then try a live cd. Also check to see if 
there are any firmware upgrades for the drive.