OT: CD drive died! Help please!

[Captain Kwok]

It sounds like a physical problem with the drive. You could try using a cleaning kit to see if it's just a dirt sort of problem...

[Thermodyne]

Can You hear thr drive head seeking? Sounds like a faint zipp-zipp-zipp.

Not much you can do other than uninstall it and reinstall from scratch. Most of the base micro code is flashed into the drive itself. Sudden death syndrome is a problem with cdrw drives.

If you play games that read from the CD for hours on end, then you should use a pure reader (cd drive) and save the burner for writing cd's. Readers are cheap <$15 bucks. So you can afford to have one die now and again.

[boran_blok]

Imho if you dont hear spinning up the motor either died or is jammed.

[ToddT]

I would agree verify if Drv is spinnig up i've had a cd player die simply besause motor ceased operating, and cdrom that died the same way. its most like the speed controller for the motort that went capute. Th cdrom genrated no error messages when motor died, problem only should up when i tried access a cd. it would spit disc out after a short period.

[Renegade 13]

Have you restarted the computer since the symptoms began?

3 times.

It sounds like a physical problem with the drive. You could try using a cleaning kit to see if it's just a dirt sort of problem...

I'm going to try to get in there and do whatever cleaning I can, just in case it is merely a dirt problem. I do live near a really dusty dirt road, the drive becoming clogged with dust is a very real possibility.

Can You hear thr drive head seeking? Sounds like a faint zipp-zipp-zipp.

Not much you can do other than uninstall it and reinstall from scratch. Most of the base micro code is flashed into the drive itself. Sudden death syndrome is a problem with cdrw drives.

If you play games that read from the CD for hours on end, then you should use a pure reader (cd drive) and save the burner for writing cd's. Readers are cheap <$15 bucks. So you can afford to have one die now and again.

I can't hear the drive seeking, I only hear a few faint noises, none of which I'd describe as a zipp-zipp-zipp. I hadn't known that CD-RW drives were prone to sudden death...good to know.

Imho if you dont hear spinning up the motor either died or is jammed.

Will see if it's jammed, since no spinning occurs.

I would agree verify if Drv is spinnig up i've had a cd player die simply besause motor ceased operating, and cdrom that died the same way. its most like the speed controller for the motort that went capute.

Well, everyone seems agreed. Problem with either jammed or fried motor. Looks like I'm headed for buying a new drive

Thanks everyone, if you have any further suggestions please share them!

[Renegade 13]

Well, dust/dirt isn't the problem. Cracked open the drive, was sparkling clean, no problems. No obvious damage either, though any existing damage probably wouldn't be obvious! New drive, here we come.

[boran_blok]

If you're going to buy a new one anyways, at least crack open the old one, tinker a bit inside and try to fix it. (if it doesnt fix it, it doesnt matter anyways)

[Renegade 13]

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

[Captain Kwok]

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

[geoschmo]

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.