Drive stopped reading

[supawiz6991]

Hi Yall,
So I have a WH16NS40, Man Date: May, 2020, SVC code: NS50 Flashed to firmware 1.02 that has decided to no longer read...anything. I bought it February 2022 and am 9 months out of warranty. It previously would read dvds, bluray and UHD and then I went to start a rip a few days ago and discovered that it wouldn't read anymore. The drive opens and closes find, shows up in the os fine but when a disc is inserted, it does its read process then says no disc inserted.

Would this indicate a laser failure? Is it possible to replace the laser?

I did try re-flashing the firmware but that made no difference. I could try re-flashing to stock 1.05 firmware but I don't think that would make a difference.

[Woodstock]

Did it stop reading both Bluray and DVD? Those use separate lasers, although they're mounted together.

Replacement of the laser assembly is major surgery.

[supawiz6991]

It stopped reading everything, DVD, Bluray and UHD. When I insert any of those three discs it spins and tries to read and ends with "no disc inserted".

I already had the drive open to inspect and clean it. I'm not afraid of major surgery to an extent.

The part I'm unsure about is how to determine if its laser failure or something else in the chain of ribbon cables, silicon and solder.

[Woodstock]

There are two lasers in that drive, red (reads CD/DVD) and "blue" (more purple, but reads BD and UHD). If one of them stops, you lose half the drive. Losing both means something major happened.

It could be as simple as a power cable coming loose. That would take out the whole laser assembly. But it also could be the receiver board. You can open it enough to see that the lasers are active while trying to read the disk. If they're lighting up, but nothing is seen, the detector circuit would be next candidate.

Beyond that, you're into time in excess of 20 minutes, which is where cost becomes a factor... Unless you're doing it for fun, in which case, time/cost estimates go out the window.

[zipzaprap]

You can open it enough to see that the lasers are active while trying to read the disk.

How would one do this?
I'm in the same boat all of a sudden. My drive is an ASUS BW-16D1HT that I've had for many many years. Never flashed any firmware (apparently the firmware date is 2115-11-03 11:10 haha, guessing that means 2015!) but now it won't read any BR or 4K discs, it just shows up empty on two computers, one tested with an internal SATA connection and both tested with an external caddy (where it's sat for years)
https://www.amazon.com.au/Verbatim-Exte ... P9VKX?th=1

btw, the ASUS has a firmware of 3.0! Guessing that's pretty old.

[Woodstock]

You need to be able to see the disk from the "reading side" (bottom in the drive) while it's cycling. That means taking the cover off the drive's bottom half, while still being able to have it hooked up. That's the side with the "seal" on it, and the main tag. You should be able to see the laser shining off the disk if it's working and the drive is spinning.

[Billycar11]

https://youtu.be/jhFotkrBTCU?si=Sv6OItBsEcGzniCb
Just opening and closing the tray will trigger it
And you can usually see it through the disc
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qy8NaRHTihsNEmbW9
But you need the top magnetic disc retention puck to do that without top cover I have 1 around from a dead drive.
To get to it you need to peel top sticker

[Billycar11]

fun fact the same magnetic puck works on pioneers to
im actually thinking about doing a drive repair video i have found a fix for a common hardware flaw
but i not sure if i should as people may think i resell them but i dont i only do this on drives sent in for repair.

[supawiz6991]

There are two lasers in that drive, red (reads CD/DVD) and "blue" (more purple, but reads BD and UHD). If one of them stops, you lose half the drive. Losing both means something major happened.

It could be as simple as a power cable coming loose. That would take out the whole laser assembly. But it also could be the receiver board. You can open it enough to see that the lasers are active while trying to read the disk. If they're lighting up, but nothing is seen, the detector circuit would be next candidate.

Beyond that, you're into time in excess of 20 minutes, which is where cost becomes a factor... Unless you're doing it for fun, in which case, time/cost estimates go out the window.

I ran this test. No light from the lasers. While everything moves, during read, there is a click noise that happens a couple of times.

[QuadraQ]

I just had a drive apparently die on me as well. Seems strange that all three of us would have a drive fail around the same time. Model: BD-RE WH14NS40

I have no idea how hard it's going to be to replace...

[twilbur]

Curses, I'm having a similar problem with my flashed Archgon Ultra Slim Optical Drive (MD-8107-U3), purchased from @billycar11. It's been working great for ~20 months, and now it doesn't read discs (neither bluray nor UHD). It spins up, and both lasers are visible (I took the case & parts to see this), but it makes a clicking noise and then spins down and ejects.

I blew it out with canned air, no improvement. It's failing to read discs that I can read with other drives.

I don't have any ideas, hoping someone else does. Thanks to anyone who can offer a pointer to fix or diagnose.

[edit: I gave up and bought a new drive]

[bjaurelio]

I too just had a drive stop working. It's an LG WH16NS40 that I bought three years ago. I noticed it was making loud noises. After removing the bottom, I see that the lasers turn on, but it doesn't spin the drive. I can hear clicking noises, which is odd because it's a magnet with a bunch of inductors for the motor. When I place my finger on the outside of the drum, I feel the clicking too, but it won't spin. It looks like I'll have to buy a replacement, unless there's a fix for this issue. My searches are unfruitful in finding any results with the same issue of the drive not spinning discs.

[macdev66]

My LG WH16NS40 just stopped working yesterday. It's only a month and a half old. Ripped about 150 blu rays so far. Not 100% sure it's the drive. It might be the OWC case. Either way, I ordered a replacement for both. I noticed that both could still be returned to Amazon before the end of January.

I'm getting SCSI errors and input/output errors. MakeMKV can read the contents but when it starts trying to create the MKV file, that's when the errors start. I ripped 7 movies yesterday before the error started. So I stopped for several hours. I tried again last night and was able to get another one ripped. But when I tried today, I started getting the errors again.