I understand the native drivers should take care of the drive. 3rd party software is WMPlayer, and is up to date. Problem: DVD disks arent recognised (the drive wont get up to a good physical speed - just whirrs slowly etc). It still writes DVDs perfectly!

Could this be a hardware thing? Has my drive died?

Support Information:
Device Type: CD / DVD
Manufacturer: Optiarc
Model: AD-7530A ATA
Interface: IDE
Operating System: Windows Vista
Age of Device: < 2 years old
FCCID:

Type of drive: dvd-r/cd-rw (dvd burner, dvd reader, &amp; cd burner combo)
Location: internal
What recording software are you using?: NTI Cd Maker/version

Find it on DriverGuide (http://members.driverguide.com/index.php?action=srch&sm=b&aax=&qa6=3238&qa5=3&qa7=1801&dp=2&qm0=AD-7530A+ATA&jmd=and&fzz=d) | Find it with Google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Optiarc+CD+%2F+DVD++AD-7530A+ATA+Windows+Vista+) | Research manufacturer Optiarc (http://members.driverguide.com/index.php?action=getinfo&companyid=3238)

3rd. party soft is NOT WMPlayer...WMP is built into the OS. DVD decoding software (like WinDVD or PowerDVD) is required to play dvd disks.

Thank you. Do you think it is 3rd party related, or just physically broken?

Do you have dvd decoding software installed? If not then you need to install your choice of dvd decoding software.

Hmm The only other dvd software I use is NTI CD Maker - but I doubt thats for decoding... I will try Power DVD, but still cant understand why this has never been a problem before. Been working perfectly for the last year and a half without anything else...

Thank you very much for your time and help. Appreciate it!

You may have a bad drive. NTI CD Maker is only a recording software. And PowerDVD is a nice quality dvd decoding software.... it must have already been installed when you got the machine.