okay I install Knights of the Old Republic just fine.
I go to play it, it gives me an error saying that the cd is a copy, but it isnt.

issue 2:

I try to install farcry and it feezes on the third or fourth cd.

help?

Is that your only drive?

I would look for new firmware for it first off. If there is none, perhaps it's time to look into a new DVD-ROM or Burner.

Is that your only drive?

I would look for new firmware for it first off. If there is none, perhaps it's time to look into a new DVD-ROM or Burner.

yes its my only drive. what exactly is firmware?

Firmware is a bit like software, except it's stored in the memory of the actual piece of hardware (in this case DVD-ROM drive) rather than on the hard disk. You'll get this from the manufacturer's website, but in all honesty, you very rarely need to update firmware on anything.

Anyway, back to the original question. Is the DVD drive old? I had one that was quite old, and it stopped being able to play DVD's reliably (managed CD's just fine). You could try a CD/DVD lens cleaner before trying anything else, since that's the easiest thing to do.

And if the worst should be true, and the DVD drive needs replacing, the good news is that they're cheap now. You can even pick up a good DVD burner for about £40 (70ish USD).

but in all honesty, you very rarely need to update firmware on anything.


I'm going to call you out on that because that's ... wrong.

You want to update the Firmware on optical drives if possible because it will

1. Add support for more media
2. Possibly fix any copy protection issues one may be having
3. Improve error correction, read speeds, fix any other numerous problems with a drive.


If there was no reason to upgrade, they would not make the firmware update in the first place.

If there was no reason to upgrade, they would not make the firmware update in the first place.
Which is why I said rarely, not never :|

Which is why I said rarely, not never :|

But that's a pretty big thing :p

Everyone has CD-RW drives, so hence almost everyone should have some type of upgrade to do.

I've upgraded my CD-RW drive at least 3 times with new firmware.

I've never ever made a firmware update.. I've never needed to. :E

Manufacturers tend to give out new firmware versions when:

1) they find a bug in software
2) incompactability problems
3) any improvements

My Samsung DVD-Rom Master 616Q hasn't not got any firmware updates to date and it a couple of years old. My Samsung DVD-RW on the other hand has a an update a month after i brought it new.