2005 PCG-K27 (UC), XPHome, All Updates/Patches, Device Mgr lists nothing amuck, and since 9-2005 format have religiously maintained and run all my AV, Anti-SpyWare/Malware, NIS 2005 Internet Security and AV. Reinstalling DVD-CD-ROM driver doesn't resolve the issues anymore (used to). Maybe I removed the optical drive (?) as all I see in the VAIO's Device Manager's "Disk drives" are the VAIO HD and Memory Stick, but not "Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-12D" (as seen in my Device Manager's "DVD/CD-ROM list"). Is the optical drive supposed to be listed in device manager under "Disk drives"? Some DVD's seems to start to run (a lot of spinning noise for quite awhile) and other DVD's do nothing more than produce (for a few moments) the flashing disc icon next to my cursor. I'm getting pretty sick of this machine as it has always been a bear to get it to play DVD's. My opinion is the problems are most likely due to Sony having buried itself so deep in proprietary and rights management that it's product is all but completely incompatable with Anti-Virus/Spyware/Internet Security firewalls. Any help appreciated.
Have you tried re-installing the firmware for the drive or searching for a newer version? Try this http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3424/76945239DeviceInfo.exe By the way, is it internal or external?
Thanks for the suggestions. The drive is internal. Seems like maybe my iTunes Quick Time may have bunged things up, that or some other application. Not sure what fixed things, but as usual just when I thought I'd tried everything, posted for help, I got the thing working again. Having noticed that at least a few DVD's would play, but only when I had my external HD on and connected, I reinstalled my preferred player, plus re-set my Bio to it's default condition and bing, bang, boom. Joy. Now this frees me up to work on my several dozen other issues with my VAIO and/or 2nd party software. Thanks again.
Oh ya, almost forgot. I also went through the drive's auto-play properties and set them each to my preferences (i.e.; "music, pictures, video files, mixed content, music CD, DVD movie, and blank CD"). Although it seems obvious that each setting for each media form, should be independent, I have some doubts about that. I'm almost sure that despite what one sets for 'music', etc., that when seetting the last one (blank CD), it wouldn't surprise me that some of the other settings are changed when I last click apply (even though I clcik apply for each setting). Next on my list is figuring out why iTunes isn't listed in the "music" option/setting for properties>autoplay, as only 'WMP, file folder and do nothing' options are offered there. iTunes does list in "music CD" and "blank CD" options, just not in the music options).
