Hi mine is Acer Aspire 4520. I was playing movie from a DVD yesterday all fine. I left it inside the drive. Today I found that my DVD Ram device has gone bad; it's showing all empty space in whatever disc I insert in the drive. Please suggest a solution.

There propably isnt anything wrong with the dvd drive itself, Its probably the driver that runs it is corrupt or out of date.
Click start and type drivers into search.
Select update device drivers.
Then double click dvd/cdrom drives from the list.
right click each driver available in the drop down selection and click update driver.

Hope this helps and please rate thanks

P.S if that doesnt work, repeat the process but instead of clicking update driver, click scan for hardware changes

If you have verified the problem exists on more than 1 cd, It sounds like the DVD drive needs to be replaced.

Acer Aspire 4520 Notebook Technical Specifications:


Operating System Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Processor AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-57 (512KB L2 cache, 1.9GHz) Chipset NVIDIA nForce 610M Memory 1GB (1GB installed in one of two memory slots) DDR2 667 SDRAM User upgradeable up to 4GB (one 2GB memory card in each slot)* subject to availability of 2GB cards
*If upgrading after initial purchase, one or more of the memory cards provided with the system may have to be replaced with optional larger memory cards in order to achieve the maximum capacity.
Storage 120GB* hard disk drive Integrated variable-speed Super-Multi drive (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM):
-Read - 24X CD-ROM, 24X CD-R, 24X CD-RW, 8X DVD-ROM, 8X DVD-R, 8X DVD+R, 6X DVD-ROM DL (double-layer), 6X DVD-R DL (double-layer), 6X DVD+R DL (double-layer), 6X DVD-RW, 6X DVD+RW, 5X DVD-RAM
-Write - 24X CD-R, 10X CD-RW, 8X DVD-R, 8X DVD+R, 4X DVD-R DL (double-layer), 4X DVD+R DL (double-layer), 6X DVD-RW, 8X DVD+RW, 5X DVD-RAM
5-in-1 card reader for optional MultiMediaCard™, Secure Digital card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO™ or xD-Picture Card™

Surely to load XP is a DownGrade. As this notebook is dual core, I would run Vista 64 or better still Windows 7 64.
If you wish to persist with an old system, you require SP3 for XP.That may be available from a software store but is no longer supported by Windows.
Try http://www.notebook-driver.com/laptops-information/acer-aspire-4520-notebook-technical-specifications/ for drivers that you will require to have support from Acer.

Hope that clarifies your situation.

Hi there your system does not find any DVD detector software. So you have to install it 1st. Then you can play & record DVD. I suggest you install NERO CD/DVD writer software & after that when you put DVD in your rom its will detect & start work.
Thanks & waiting for your reply.

I do have the same problem, my laptop doesnt detects the DVD writer, checked with the acer support, asked me to check the motherboard and may need to change that.

There's no need for a "driver" -- Windows should _directly_ support it, to let you read CD and DVD media.

However, if you want to "play" a DVD movie, you'll need to have software (either supplied by ACER or purchased online, such as PowerDVD) to play the movie.

I'm guessing you may have locked the DVD region. If you right-click on the device in Device Manager and click the Region tab, does it say 0 changes available? Acer won't fix this, and claim you have to replace the drive. Can't find a firmware flash for this drive online, will post back here if successful!

You will need to install chipset driver but it will be much better if you reinstall all driver for it.

Acer Aspire 4520 driver for windows xp can be downloaded here :

http://www.drivercabinet.com/driver-acer-aspire-4520-windows-xp/

Try to reload the operating system using disk/Alt+F10 first and try to burn again.
If this is still not working. it probably your dvd rom is bad.

Try to clean your combo head with spirit using cotton...thats all..