I have a T150P with a matshita uj822da DVD +-RW drive. While it writes files to CD-R disks it fails to recognize DVD +R or +RW blank media. Have uninstalled/reinstalled the drivers but still no luck. Also, the Sony “click to DVD” software does not seem to recognize it as a valid dvd capable drive. Any similar experience or suggestions before I send in for repair? What is this forum’s recent experince with Sony repair facility turn around times?

i have a matshita drive in my tr5 and have the exact same problem - sony say its a failed drive that needs to be replaced :x

I am also having this kind of problem, I have an S2XP
It reads almost all CDs. It burns DVDs. It plays video DVDs without a single hitch. But it won’t read many data DVDs, even the one that I have just burnt one minute ago.
With DVDs the drive makes a kind of ‘clutching’ noise, where it keeps starting to read the disc but failing and ‘sighing’. I’ve tried a couple of game CDs and it seems to spin them up fine, but then the drive shows up as being empty in Explorer.
This is most annoying as I’ve just downloaded Vista Beta 2 and am gagging to try it out. Also, I’ve just bought an external HD so am ready to re-arrange my internal HD into one partition and do my six-monthly Windows refresh. And I can’t do any of these because the frickin’ DVD is on the blink.

One wierd detail: I put a DVD video in, played it a couple of minutes, then put the Windows XP disc in. It spun up and recognised it fine, and it showed up in Explorer. It never successfully does this anymore. So I restart my laptop to start reinstalling Windows, but then I get the clutching problem again. Gah!