Jon, This sounds like a laser pick up type of issue. What makes the most sense is a bad pressing of the blue-ray and DVD in question. The fact that other DVD/Blu-ray disks work on the player tends to eliminate the player as the issue. You stated the region was correct and the disk is undamaged, also that getting a new copy did not resolve the issue. My suspicions are as follows: (1) The DVD box says it is for the correct region but the disk is not encoded for the region on the box. (2) The polycarbonate material is defective and is filtering the laser light wavelengths and attenuating the signal the pickup is getting to a level that is basically “in the noise” so the device gives up. My suggestion to find the cause is to try the non-functioning disks in another player or on computer with a DVD drive that is compatible with the disk. (DVD or Blu-ray) Please note that I have had a computer tell me that the disk is from the wrong region where a set top device just wont play the disk. One last thing comes to...

I came upon this question a bit late. If you have no display when powering up the laptop on both the built in LCD monitor and a monitor connected to the VGA port the issue is a bit more serious. The cause of the issue is a clogged radiator in the exhaust fan. That being said depending on how quickly you address the issue the fix can be simple or quite complex. Either way you will be disassembling the laptop and removing the cooling fan and heat pipe assembly from the mother board. With the assembly removed clean all the old heat-sink compound from the two (2) heat sinks on the cooling pipe assembly as well as the two (2) ICs they mount to. Disassemble the fan and with a soft brush or "canned air" completely clean the radiator fins. If the problem is addressed right away by cleaning about 6 out of 10 machines need nothing else but reassembly with fresh heat-sink compound applied. If the problem is not addressed right away the repair is not for the feint of heart. To repair- After removing the heat pipe...

I am afraid I am not familiar with the Samsung model in particular so I will give you a few general tips that may get you going. 1- Make sure you hear the spindle motor spinning the disk to an even speed. If it seems to be speeding up and slowing down you could have a dirty/bad optical pick up assembly. 2-Try with different DVD/ CD to isolate. Many times it is just the disk is dirty scratched and the player cannot reliably read information from disk. 3-Look for signs of lubricant/dirt on/under the player tray or on disk. I have had optical drive mechanisms spit lubricant and have left an oily film on the pick up unit causing this. 4-Clean the pick up unit. Be very careful with this one as some units are mounted on very flimsy suspension/positioning mechanisms that will break if you look at them cross-eyed. 5-Re-seat all the connections inside. A loose SATA or Data cable may be all that is stopping the information from the disk from getting to the circuit board. 6-Swap the drive with a known good one. Many...