Hum, Ho, Disk Drive issue...
 

This may or may not be solvable by simply myself, so if it sounds like my laptop needs to go to the laptop mechanic, let me know.

Ok, so here's the issue. It's pretty strait forward. I have an HP Pavilion zv6000, a pretty decent machine. For the last few monthes, however, the one disk drive, which is a DVD Burner, can't seem to play Audio CDs and the Audio on a DVD without skipping A WHOLE LOT. The video on the DVD plays normally, CDROMS play normally, burned Audio CDs and DVDs play normally on other machines, but for some reason this thing can't handle playing audio strait off a disk.

Now, I never really use my computor to listen to actual CDs and watch DVDs, but it still bothers me that this is happening. It just seems bizaar that the drive can handle almost all things BUT playing audio of a CD or DVD.

Also an unrelated issue... This has to do with playing video files. No matter which program I use to play a video file (Real Player, Windows Media Player, Winamp, Media Player Classic, ect) the video's brightness is way too high, and on the same level. I know how to change these settings in Windows Media Player, but there must be a universal control, since EVERY player does this. I might add that VobDub plays files in their normal brightness, but I'm not keen on using VobDub for my video files.

Any and all help would be very much appreciated.

I think you should be able to control overall brightness of your laptop screen with the power settings. At least, I was able to with my Compaq Armada E500 running windows XP.

Let's rule out the obvious first. Do you have DMA enabled for your drive?

Check Device Manager for the IDE controller to adjust these settings.

You'll have to bear with me, I'm not tech savvy vocabulary-wise... where can I find the Device Manager, I haven't seen it in ages.


Also the brightness issue is video files ONLY, so it's not just my monitor (I think that's what you where saying)

Right click on My Computer > Properties > Hardware tab > Device Manager.

Sorry but I was assuming you were running Windows XP, although you didn't supply this bit of information in your initial post. In XP, rightclick 'My Computer', select properties and go to the hardware tab.

Looks like the Gamma settings for your video overlay might have been altered. You should be able to find these settings in the options dialogue for your graphics card.

Ok, I checked and the primary and secondary IDE channels say "DMA if available"

Double Post:
oh i'm sorry, yes I'm runninng xp.

Double Post:
So any more help? I fixed the brightness issue, easier than I thought...

So, I have DMA enabled, but DVDs and Audio CDs still skip, and by skip I mean constantly.

li-i-i-ke-ke-ke thi-thi-thi-is-is-is...

Please help me :(

I used to see this kind of problem a lot at Staples. Sometimes the DVD drive was faulty, sometimes not. They really are a cheapest, flimsiest part in every laptop and usually break first.

I would hope that the laptop is still covered under it's one year warranty.

Have you tried a lens cleaner?