CD/DVD player - Dead

[nedah]

Is it a possibility that a DVD disk could incorporate an anti-copy feature which would disable a CD/DVD player even though there was no attempt to copy but just to play the disk? If so how can the CD/DVD player be revived?

The facts are somewhat sparse, as related to me by my grandson (aged 13), but I am hoping for some suggestions about possible courses of action so that when I visit at the week-end I can at least gather some more positive details.

My grandson borrowed a DVD (details unknown) from a friend. The friend stressed that the DVD must not be played on a PC. Naturally (!!!) my grandson attempted to play it on the family’s PC.

The PC immediately froze. After re-booting, with the DVD still in the drive, the player appeared to be dead and the tray was opened manually to extract the disk.

After several cold boots the player is still dead ie tray does not open automatically and no light is displayed. However apart from the player all other elements of the PC are working normally.

Although my thought turned immediately to anti-copying feature, that may be a red herring and there may be a more likely cause of the problem

My only positive fact is that the OS is Windows ME.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Budfred]

It sure sounds like the DVD installed something that messed things up. Have you run Spybot and/or AdAware on the machine. If not I would do so. I would also run a deep virus scan since it could also be that. Update any program that you run first so that they have the latest definitions. If that doesn't fix it, you may need to post a HijackThis log and have us try to find the culprit. You can find links at the bottom of my post...