Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

The scan laser LED will sometimes fail. The drive will open / close, but fails when it check to see if a disk is loaded. When it check to see if a disk is loaded the scan head will try to focus on the disk surface, but if the light is out it won’t ever find it.
If you check the manufacture site tech support, you might find some trouble shooting commands to send the drive to confirm.

Usually cheaper to replace the whole drive then fix.

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

I cracked open the old drive, messed around a little bit, but I couldn't seem to find any obvious issues, and nothing I did helped it out.

I also downloaded a small program from the manufacturers website, it checked both read and write capability. Neither were functioning, and I don't have the expertise to mount a serious effort to repair, so I think buying a new drive will be the most efficient thing to do.

Thanks everyone for your input so far!

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

Spend $15 more and get a CD reader to go with it. You might need a dual drive ide cable too. Its worth the money just for the speed it will give you when making cd copies.

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

Thanks for the advice Thermodyne, I'll do that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

okay, now.

Apparently, since R13 originally posted his troubles, now my CD-RW/DVD combo drive on my laptop is do the EXACT same thing!!!

I drove through the town R13 lives in last week... I think it's spreading. Unfortunatly, in my laptop it's not quite as simple a repair http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif but I'm heading to a computer store today to look at the options.

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

I'm sorry! Didn't think it was contagious!

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

Uh-oh, I live in B.C., too. Let me check if the CD drive is still working...

Yup, the affliction has not yet spread to Vancouver.

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

I'll have to start passing out a vaccine...before the plague overwhelms the entire worlds, and CD drives start crapping out randomly!

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

My wife's Laptop CD-RW/DVD went crazy a couple of weeks ago and will only read audio CD's and nothing else!!!

Re: OT: CD drive died! Help please!
 

I had to replace the CD drive on my laptop a few months ago. It was a little scarey at first, but it turned out to be not too bad at all. Of course, your laptop will be different. The hardest part was finding a diagram that showed where all the relevant screws were. Laptops aren't as standard as desktops. If you've been inside one desktop you can find your way around pretty much any of them. My laptop wasn't any more difficult then a desktop, but it wasn't something that could be easily figured out without a diagram.