The front of the tray is the first place to look for capabilities.

You need to identify the drive correctly on the HP website and check the specification. There may be drivers available for download.

Kaled.

Theoretically, it could. But I'd suspect that sales on that model would not be good.

Capture the on-line sales page and the manufacturer's device specification page, and request a return for refund or credit toward an upgrade to a model capable of playing DVDs on the basis that their advertising was incorrect.

Also, check that manufacturer's device specification carefully. If any of the details in your "story" above are slightly wrong (or just simplified) and the drive *can* actually handle DVDs, then the problem may be that you need an updated driver and some DVD encoding and decoding software.

I ran into this before on an older machine. I had to install a 3rd-party player in order to play DVDs. I downloaded it as trial-ware, and installed it. After the trial expired, I removed the program, but the DVD encoder/decoder "driver" remained, and the machine could still play DVD's using Media Player.

Jim

[edited by: jdMorgan at 11:10 pm (utc) on April 15, 2009]

Well thats the problem... its not a driver or hardware compatability... the HP model # after research says its only a CD ROM, BUT this 3rd party site says HP Laptop Drive CD DVD-RW Drive ¦ CD-ROM Drive (Multibay II) - 24x read speed...

which means, they are claiming that this drive should play DVD's right?

Basically they made a false claim on their site about this drive?

and yes, the plate on the from has the DVD RW logo and DVD logo...

If the front plate shows "DVD" and the manufacturer's hardware specification says it's only a CD-ROM, then the vendor who sold you this drive may not be at fault -- It sounds like HP made a major manufacturing error, installing the wrong front panel!

Call HP technical support and/or sales and ask/complain about this. Get as much info as possible before calling the vendor for a replacement/refund.

I think HP will be very interested in your problem, as this just should not happen, and represents a major "quality control" problem if they put the wrong front plate on the drive. Such errors are rare, but they do happen.

Jim

Could it not be this third party vendor who slapped on a new plate?

my 2 cents?

they put a label on the website, with the cd dvd language.

someone like my friend buys it.

(which took 3 weeks to get becuase of back order)

my friend, who is not tech saavy, installs it, and realizes it should play DVD's but it doesnt... spends all of their time researching, installing drivers...etc.

by then, the 2 weeks refund timeline is over and they are stuck with something that doesnt do as is claimed.

i think its a scam and told her she should not settle for a "discount" on a new one...

they wont even give her the money back to purchase the right hardware... basically they said "sorry" your ordered the wrong part.. even though it was labeled as DVD capabilities.

I've run into CD/DVD drives that won't play DVD's until the region is set. On a retail product it will already be set but on a bare drive it sometimes isn't set as you only get to change it 5 times. In your device manager you can view the properties of the drive and you'll see the DVD Region tab.

William.

There is no DVD Region tab... thats the issue... this is not a DVD player... they sold my friend a piece of hardware they claim has DVD capabilities, and it does not.

If it works mechanically/optically, then it should be possible to play DVDs. Presumably the firmware needs to be updated.

RE: Refunds
If something doesn't work, and the supplier can't immediately solve the problem, you send it back. You don't wait two weeks or whatever. However, in the UK, if a product is described incorrectly, arbitrary time limits have no legal standing.

Kaled.