CD Drive question

  • Thread starter Thread starter JE Timothy
  • Start date Start date
J

JE Timothy

For some reason, my PC and the programs which use the CD drive are telling
me that there is no CD in the Drive when one is present. When I go to My
Computer, the CD drive is listed but explorer will not read it. When I go to
burn a disc, the program tells me the drive is empty when there is a CD in
it. This just happened within the last 2 days or so. I have never before had
a problem.

What always happened before is when I inserted a CD, a listing of all the
Media Players and CD software would come up and ask me what I wanted to do
with the CD. Using Windows to do various tasks was an option on the list.
This would always appear even when you might be using another program e.g.
Real or Windows Media Player. That no longer happens and I cannot get it
back.

Please help - I have no idea what could have gone wrong. Thank you in
advance.
 
JE Timothy said:
For some reason, my PC and the programs which use the CD drive are telling
me that there is no CD in the Drive when one is present. When I go to My
Computer, the CD drive is listed but explorer will not read it. When I go
to burn a disc, the program tells me the drive is empty when there is a CD
in it. This just happened within the last 2 days or so. I have never
before had a problem.

What always happened before is when I inserted a CD, a listing of all the
Media Players and CD software would come up and ask me what I wanted to do
with the CD. Using Windows to do various tasks was an option on the list.
This would always appear even when you might be using another program e.g.
Real or Windows Media Player. That no longer happens and I cannot get it
back.

Please help - I have no idea what could have gone wrong. Thank you in
advance.
Click to expand...

It's possible the lens is just dirty. Try using a lens cleaner on it. If
that doesn't work then then it might be failing and would be cheaper to
replace than to have fixed It would also be a good excuse to replace it with
a DVD burner.
 
It sounds as if your optical drive (CD Drive) may be going bad or you are
using bad media. Is this happening with all CD's or just CD-R's (burned
CD's)?

You can try going into the Device Manager (Right-click My Computer >
Properties > Hardware > Device Manager) in the DVD/CD-ROM drives, right-click
the device and remove it. Then reboot and Windows should re-install it.

You can also open the computer and make sure the cables are secure, but this
most likely isn't the problem if Windows already sees the drive.
 
JE,

I just had that happen with my faithful 5 year old Plextor. After
trying the various fixes which others have suggested, I replaced it
with an inexpensive CompUSA/BenQ unit. All the strangeness went away.
 
Yes - this problem happens for all CDs which are placed in the drive. I
tried uninstalling the CD drive (device Mgr) and restarting WINXP but still
have the same problem.
 
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