Windows 10: Using an external DVD drive with Windows 10

,I am a long time Windows user who changed over to Mac Pro for a while and now I am back to Microsoft, having recently purchased a Surface Pro. I was annoyed that Microsoft removed a DVD player/writer as standard equipment in the Surface unit. I tried purchasing several external units but they didn't work. I first tried an LG EXTERNAL DVD-ROM/RW. It would try one time to read the DVD, then pause, then would stop shortly thereafter. Attempts to auto start failed alltogether. The box and documentation promised full compatability with Windows. Tried another unift fom Dell had the same results.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks for any help!

:)

 

Windows 10 and External DVD drive

Hi,

Thank you for keeping us posted.

I would suggest you to open the device manager and check if the drive shows up in device manager.

Follow the steps given below:

1. Press Windows key + R to open the run command.

2. Type devmgmt.msc and press enter to open device manager.

3. Expand DVD/CD-Rom drives and check if the external DVD drive is listed.

4. If so, right click on it and uninstall it.

5. Restart the computer.

Let us know the result.

 

External drive

Hi Richard,

There are several factors that can cause your external drive to not read DVDs even though the system is recognizing the device. This could be caused by a driver that needs to updated or corrupted files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly answer the questions
below:

• Just to confirm, the device that is not working properly is a external DVD optical drive?
• Were there any recent changes or updates installed on your computer?
• Have you tried to plug the external drive to a different port on your computer?

As a initial recommendation, we suggest that your run the built in troubleshooter in Windows 10. Kindly refer to the steps below:

• Type “Troubleshooting” in the Search bar and press Enter.
• Click on “View All” in the top left corner.
• This will display the list of troubleshooters which are built-in in the computer. You can click on
  Hardware and Devices from the list and you can run the troubleshooter.

This will check for common errors that affect hardware on your computer and attempts to correct them.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.

 

external dvd drive and windows 10

After having to reinstall Windows 10 on my laptop my computer will not read from my external dvd drive. Suggestions??