ASUS BW16D1HT all of sudden not seeing any discs

[Ezatoka]

Hey everyone,

my four year old ASUS drive (which worked flawlessly until two days ago) suddenly... doesn't recognize any disc anymore.

Any disc, no CD, no DVD, no BluRay.

I opened the case and checked the mechanics, everything is fine. If I power up the drive with the case open, I could see how it checks the disc first with the blue laser and then with the red laser (currently writing blind because adjflhslgkhsldfj.... joking, of course I didn't looked directly into the lasers).

The tray functions normally, it spins up the disc as well. But it just doesn't recognize something. I watched it from below while it tries to:
It moves the sled to several parts of the inserted discs (in this case a BluRay) and checks it with the blue laser. It's doing so for like 30 seconds before it gives up. The lasers were cleaned very carefully, so I can say it can't be dust on them.

I even tried shaking the drive off some, moving the laser sled slightly while it tried to read the disc, but the drive just repositioned the sled to another position and tried reading again.

I would assume... it worked really perfect for four years and helped me ripping hundreds of DVDs and BluRays, but I'm afraid I have to lay it to rest, if nobody has any more ideas.

[Coopervid]

Sounds like RIP. Get a new one.

[SainJain]

I just ordered a new one and it also started doing that after 5 rips of a UHD.

Reflashing firmware helped me, whyever.

Athough i get it that mine is new and yours could be really rip, could be worth a try.

[SainJain]

I have to say it is actually a bit crazy, that i can rip like 2 UHD and then have to reflash.

First: read error, no disc, SCSI error, etc etc ... after flash: put in UHD BD, start ripping.

What's going on, i dont know.

[Ezatoka]

I just ordered a new one and it also started doing that after 5 rips of a UHD.

Reflashing firmware helped me, whyever.

Athough i get it that mine is new and yours could be really rip, could be worth a try.

Reflashing didn't work for me, the behaviour stayed the same. I bit the bullet and bought myself a new drive. At least I have one with manufacturing date January 2021 now, not January 2017 like before I hope it lives four years as well.

[Coopervid]

If your drive is in an enclosure I guess your USB port has not enough power.