www.makemkv.com

Posted: **Thu Mar 06, 2025 8:07 pm**

Hi,
i have an internal bluray drive (ASUS BW-16D1HT with firmware patch) and it workes well with most bluray disks. The last few months I have noticed that it has sometimes problem identifying disks, requirering to insert them multiple times to be picked up. If these problematic disks are then eventually identified, ripping speed is normal as any other disk and without any further issues.

Now I have newly bought disks which my tv bluray player plays without any issue, but my internal drive does not indentify at all (MakeMKV says no disk inserted) while reading other disks without issues. The drive also makes quiet clicking noises (4 times until giving up) and sometimes followed by loud motor noises (like the one at system start only longer). When only the clicking occurs the disk inside comes out of the drive with the same orientation so i assume it does not even spin.

The problematic disks are not visually different to working disks and look fine. The problem seems disk specific with no real pattern.

Does anyone have an idea how i can troubleshoot this issue further or even fix this? Do I need to buy a new drive (if so what would you recommend)?

Posted: **Thu Mar 06, 2025 11:26 pm**

I have no idea what's happening with your specific drive.

The LG based desktop drives (your ASUS is actually a rebadged LG) have been relatively low quality since the pandemic. There are lots of reports on the forum of them being DOA or dying relatively young.

If you're willing to take the drive apart, you could try cleaning the optics with some isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip. Gently dry the optics with a microfiber towel; don't let it air dry. It is recommended that you do this twice while you're in there.
I have no idea if the optics on your drive are dirty or if cleaning them will reduce the number of times the drive fails to identify a disc, but it could help.

If/when the drive needs to be replaced, if you go with an LG based drive, the cheapest one you can find (that's on the list of drives in the Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide) from a place with a decent return policy is the way to go. The innards are all the same.

The drives held in the highest regard these days are the Pioneer drives. Unfortunately, the latest firmware on those drives prevents LibreDrive, and thus prevents them from being used to rip 4K UHDs. Some of the sellers on this forum, however, can still source new Pioneer drives with older, compatible firmware.

Another reasonable option that might be available, depending on where you live, is the Verbatim 43888. It might come with a Pioneer drive inside it that'll work with MakeMKV out of the box. Or it might come with a LG BU40N drive inside it, which will need to be flashed but will then work for ripping everything, including 4K UHDs. The LG BU40N is 'laptop' drive, not a desktop drive, and is in general higher quality than the LG desktop drives.

If you dig around on the forum a bit, you'll see mention of other drives, like the vin power drives, that have a Pioneer drive inside them that can be flashed to work with MakeMKV. The flasher isn't public, so if you go this route you'll either have to ask nicely for someone like Coopervid to share the flasher with you or email Billycar11 who will sell you the flasher for a small fee.

Posted: **Fri Mar 07, 2025 7:13 pm**

dcoke22 wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 06, 2025 11:26 pm
I have no idea what's happening with your specific drive.

The LG based desktop drives (your ASUS is actually a rebadged LG) have been relatively low quality since the pandemic. There are lots of reports on the forum of them being DOA or dying relatively young.

If you're willing to take the drive apart, you could try cleaning the optics with some isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip. Gently dry the optics with a microfiber towel; don't let it air dry. It is recommended that you do this twice while you're in there.
I have no idea if the optics on your drive are dirty or if cleaning them will reduce the number of times the drive fails to identify a disc, but it could help.

If/when the drive needs to be replaced, if you go with an LG based drive, the cheapest one you can find (that's on the list of drives in the Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide) from a place with a decent return policy is the way to go. The innards are all the same.

The drives held in the highest regard these days are the Pioneer drives. Unfortunately, the latest firmware on those drives prevents LibreDrive, and thus prevents them from being used to rip 4K UHDs. Some of the sellers on this forum, however, can still source new Pioneer drives with older, compatible firmware.

Another reasonable option that might be available, depending on where you live, is the Verbatim 43888. It might come with a Pioneer drive inside it that'll work with MakeMKV out of the box. Or it might come with a LG BU40N drive inside it, which will need to be flashed but will then work for ripping everything, including 4K UHDs. The LG BU40N is 'laptop' drive, not a desktop drive, and is in general higher quality than the LG desktop drives.

If you dig around on the forum a bit, you'll see mention of other drives, like the vin power drives, that have a Pioneer drive inside them that can be flashed to work with MakeMKV. The flasher isn't public, so if you go this route you'll either have to ask nicely for someone like Coopervid to share the flasher with you or email Billycar11 who will sell you the flasher for a small fee.

Thank you for your advise!

I will try cleaning it, but also ordered the verbatim drive of amazon as a backup. I made sure to get the exact model number as 43890 and 43889 look quite similar.

www.makemkv.com

Issue identifying some disks by drive

Issue identifying some disks by drive

Re: Issue identifying some disks by drive

Re: Issue identifying some disks by drive