I have an acer aspire 3500 computer and up until today have been able to watch movies by putting the dvd in the drive, today I hear the drive working hard but nothing happens, thought that it might have been the dvd so put another in with the same response. I went to "Run" and tried to open the disc that way but it says that it isn't responding. Any clues???? Thank you in advance....Oh I am not all that smart with computers so could the response be in layman's terms thank you.

What Distribution are you using? (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.)

You need to have DVD player software installed. You might also need some sort of libdvdcss to play most commercial movies.

I've found that ogle gives me the least number of problems.

The movies that I am trying to watch are movies that have been burnt. I have in fact watched one previously and there was no problem. I don't know what you mean by distribution, I am so dumb that all I have ever done in the past is to put a movie in whether it be a burnt movie or a commercial movie and the computer just brings it up. As I said this is not the case today and I don't receive any message errors at all. Thank you for your response to date though it is appreciated.

If it has worked before, it is probably the dvd drive crapping out on you. My handyman method of fixing this is opening it up, blowing out dust, putting it back in... and try again. It's not very techy, but it usually works. If the drive is making noise, it's usually because it can't find the track, then the motor slams the lens back to it's starting position, and tries again.

Linux usually comes packaged by a distributor. Common distributors are: Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, Suse, Mandriva, Fedora, RedHead...

Just to clarify this... You have been able to watch dvd's on this computer with the current operating system?

Perhaps:

• Restarting the computer will make the DVD drive work.
• You had a bad burn (the disc might be bad).

Thanks I have tried blowing out the as suggested, still nothing, the movie that I am trying to watch has worked before so don't think it is a bad read, my son made the movie and is really computer savvy, unfortunately he lives too far away to come and look at this problem for me....I will restart and try again. 40 degree temperature here today which isn't helping my cause as it is so frustrating. I did put in a disc that I had from my server just to see if that would open and it did. It is just the burnt movie ones.

Are you 'even' using Linux?

Probably not, it was stated in my first post that I was on an acer laptop 3500 series, and I thought that linux was a page where it just helped anyone who is a dummy like me....that you all though for your input, I do feel really stupid now and guess that I will have to wait for my son who is my computer guru....it is just a shame that he lives some distance from me due to my impatience...and I also like to try and solve problems myself...well with the help of others as I am often told "Google the problem" That is how I came to be at this site

There is a forum on this site for non linux problems. It's just that by posting in "Linux-Newbies" that assumption was made initially that you were using Linux.

You may simply need to clean the dvd drive.

For dvd's you purchase, it turns out they have a limited lifespan. After 10 years they start to degrade. The CDs or DVDs that you burn yourself use different materials. This is just for CDs and DVD movies that you purchase.