Today, Lenovo is the 9th largest computer company, and its customers are in 180 markets around the world. According to Wikipedia, Lenovo’s history dates back to the early 1980s. First known as Legend, they later rebranded to Lenovo. It was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988, and its global headquarters is in Beijing. The computer company has research centers in Shanghai, Chengdu, Yamato, Shenzhen, Kanagawa and Morrisville (North Carolina). Towards the end of 2004, Lenovo bought the personal computer division of IBM, and it has remarkably grown since then.

Lenovo

Are you having problems with your Lenovo laptop that for whatever reason is failing to play Blu-ray or DVD discs? We will show you the causes, the several approaches you can take to fix this issue and finally how to play DVD on Lenovo laptop.

Part 1: Causes of Lenovo Laptop Cannot Play Blu-ray/DVD

There are several causes which may stop your Lenovo computer from properly playing DVD or Blu-ray Discs, which are as follow;

1. A dirty or scratched DVD or Blu-ray Disc

Before we show you the other causes of this problem, it is very important to check the disc itself. Often times, people just put the disc into the disc drive without checking it, particularly for dirt, scratches or damage. This is the most common leading cause of this problem, since lasers find it harder to read such discs. If the Blu-ray Disc has very deep scratches or if it is severely damaged, then there is nothing you can do to fix this error code, unless you get a new copy. If the disc is dirty, then you can clean it. It is also important ensure that you have loaded the disc with the label side up.

2. Accumulated dust and dirt on the tray

With time, dust and dirt will accumulate and get on the tray and that may cause read errors from your discs. Because of such disc errors, the disc tray may even eject itself, to prevent damage to itself, and the laser lens. To check if this is the case, open your disc tray and look for the dust (if it is dusty, refer to the next segment of this article for the best way to clean your disc drive.

3. A disabled optical drive

Sometimes, your optical drive could be completely disabled by your computer’s operating system (for example, if there are computer viruses, bugs, or if you recently installed hardware updates). When a device is disabled, it means the device remains connected to the computer but its driver is unloaded from memory, and its resources are freed. As a result, the corresponding device cannot be used. In this case, your Lenovo laptop cannot play DVD or Blu-ray Discs.

4. Your optical disc might be failing

This issue can also be caused by a failing optical disc drive. Optical disc drives may fail over time, if they are heavily used or if they are abused by users. It could also happen that the optical disc drive is not properly connected to the computer, which may render it unusable.

5. Incompatible media player

Your Lenovo computer could also fail to play, if the chosen player is not fully compatible with DVDs or Blu-rays. Common media players such as Windows Media Player are well known not to be fully compatible with DVDs and Blu-rays, because of issues with video and audio codecs required.

Part 2: Several Approaches to Fix this Issue

Now that we have shown you the possible reasons why your Lenovo DVD player on your laptop may fail to provide DVD or Blu-ray Disc playback, we will now show you how to resolve the issue with several approaches as listed:

  • 1. Clean the disc

    As discussed above, a dirty disc can make it harder for your optical disc drive laser to read the data which will ultimately prevent playback. If the disc worked before without this issue, and if there are obvious signs of dirt then simply clean it. We recommend you to use cotton or a soft cloth, dipped in some isopropyl alcohol. Clean from the hole to the outer surface in circular motions until it is clean. If the disc has deep groves and scratches, it is unfortunately harder to clean, and you could try resurfacing the disc, or buying a replacement.

  • 2. Clean the disc tray

    If dust has accumulated your disc tray, particularly the laser lens, you can simply clean it yourself. You will need a soft cleaning cloth, and an electronics contact cleaner such as Caig De-Oxit etc. Very gently wipe the lens with a soft cloth, moistened with electronics contact cleaner that leaves no residue. We strongly advise you not to use any alcohol, as it might cause damage.

  • 3. Re-enable the device in Device Manager

    Fortunately, any disabled device including your optical disc drive can be re-enabled. To do that, open Device Manager on your computer, then expand ‘Audio inputs and outputs’. Find and right click the sound device, then enable it. If the device cannot be enabled, it is likely because of hardware failure. In that case, you should take the computer for repairs.

  • 4. Replace the optical disc drive

    Before you take your computer to the repair shop for a replacement, you could first check if the optical disc drive is properly connected. If you have ensured that it is properly connected yet you still face this issue, then the only way out is to replace it. The price of replacement parts and labor may vary according to the situation, and it is necessary to consult the repair shop for the price.

  • 5. Try a different media player

    If your media player is responsible for this issue, then you can always try an alternative DVD and Blu-ray Player for your computer, which can ensure playback. There are lots of softwares that support DVD and Blu-ray Disc playback, like Leawo Blu-ray Player, VLC Media Player, DivX Player etc.

  • 6. Rip Blu-ray/DVD to common video format for playback

    There is another way to go when your Blu-ray/DVD fail to play back, that is, extract the content off the disc and convert the file to video in common formats like MP4, MKV. In this scenario, we’ll highly recommend Leawo Blu-ray Ripper to handle such situation.

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Part 2: Another Super Blu-ray/DVD Player for Lenovo Laptop

One of the solutions to fix your Lenovo DVD player on your laptop, if it fails to play your DVD or Blu-ray Discs is to try a different media player. There are dozens of alternative Blu-ray or DVD players for your computer, but we are sure Leawo Free Blu-ray Player is the media player you might want to use in this case. It has a lot of features, perks or advantages which are as follow;

To discover more about Leawo Blu-ray Player, kindly visit the product page to see more. After you have downloaded and installed the software on your computer, follow the steps below to use it;

  • Blu-ray-player

    Step 1: Load the source media file to the media player. Before browsing and loading the source movie files, make sure you have installed this lightweight media player on your PC. Then click Open File from the home interface to load the source media files to the player.

  • playback-setting

    Step 2: Set the playback options. There will be a bunch of custom features for you to use, including subtitles, audio output, snapshot, DVD Blu-ray and so on. Click the settings button to enter the window for these features.

  • play-the-movie

    Step 3: Enjoy the video/movie playback. Click the start button to play the movie. You will be able to watch the most cinema-like movie streaming at home theater.

Here is a video guide on how to use Leawo Free Blu-ray Player:

If your Lenovo computer cannot play Blu-ray or DVD discs as expected, it is usually nothing to worry about as the causes could be minor. In that case, you can try the several approaches to solve this issue that we suggested above. If the cause is caused by an incompatible media player, you can also try Leawo Blu-ray Player which will guarantee you with payback.