Clicking stopping CD ROM drive from working

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My CDROM has stopped working. Explorer can see the drive but when I put a
disc in, it clicks relatively slowly four or five times and then gives up
reading the disc

I did have a problem with Easy CD Creator a month or so ago when I had to
uninstall the program and it deleted the CD keys from the registry so the
whole computer coulndt see any CD drives. Someone with access to the MS
knowledge base pointed me to a Microsoft patch which indirectly put the XP
CD keys back in the registry so I SUSPECT this is nothing to do with that
problem unless anyone knows otherwise (other CD reader/writers arent working
at optimum either and none will write at the moment and the internal CD
writing function of XP has NEVER worked since, - which might be a problem
with SP2?) but this clicking seems to be a symptom of the internal CD ROM
drive on my Sony PCG-F590 computer:

Are these symptoms of a dead drive? non-focussing laser? or merely a laser
needing cleaning
 
news.rcn.com said:
My CDROM has stopped working. Explorer can see the drive but when I
put a disc in, it clicks relatively slowly four or five times and
then gives up reading the disc

I did have a problem with Easy CD Creator a month or so ago when I
had to uninstall the program and it deleted the CD keys from the
registry so the whole computer coulndt see any CD drives. Someone
with access to the MS knowledge base pointed me to a Microsoft patch
which indirectly put the XP CD keys back in the registry so I SUSPECT
this is nothing to do with that problem unless anyone knows otherwise
(other CD reader/writers arent working at optimum either and none
will write at the moment and the internal CD writing function of XP
has NEVER worked since, - which might be a problem with SP2?) but
this clicking seems to be a symptom of the internal CD ROM drive on
my Sony PCG-F590 computer:
Are these symptoms of a dead drive? non-focussing laser? or merely a
laser needing cleaning
Click to expand...

More likely the drive motor. Remove the drive and install in a desktop
to test?

Q
 
Yes it does sound a bit like that: But this seems to be a non-removeable
drive in what I think is called a three spindle Vaio unit. Maybe someone on
sci.electronics.repair knows?
 
Quaoar said:
Try asking for disassembly instructions at
http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony You might have to register,
but there is a lot of expertise.

Q
Click to expand...
Try cleaning the laser eye with a camel hair brush, then make sure the cd is
spotless by using lighter fluid on a clean duster. If this doesn't work,
your drive is probably US. A speck of dust on the eye is all it takes to
blank the laser beam.
 
Having mentioned percieved problems, I now see that there are lots of these
drives described as being for F series Vaios cheap on e-bay and on
http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony, people seem to think you can
replace any drive with any other slimline drive. I wonder what the
connectors are on the back once one dissembles one? Are they all
standardised and can I just put a DVD in from a broken laptop I have and
install DVD express and be ready to go? On ezboard, they even seem to think
that the faceplate is only a matter of cosmetics and preferences

Are these things REALLY all made in the same Quanta factory in Taiwan!
 
news.rcn.com said:
Having mentioned percieved problems, I now see that there are lots of
these drives described as being for F series Vaios cheap on e-bay and
on http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony, people seem to think
you can replace any drive with any other slimline drive. I wonder
what the connectors are on the back once one dissembles one? Are they
all standardised and can I just put a DVD in from a broken laptop I
have and install DVD express and be ready to go? On ezboard, they
even seem to think that the faceplate is only a matter of cosmetics
and preferences
Are these things REALLY all made in the same Quanta factory in Taiwan!
Click to expand...

I will say that the slimline option is true for newer laptops, i.e., the
XP generation when replacing an existing slimline drive. Previous
drives were a variety of formats, some with custom connector designs;
some were completely proprietary drives..

There are a lot of undocumented statements about where Taiwan, Inc.
manufactures laptops and components. Quanta and Compal make a
substantial portion of laptops, but not all. Many components and
laptops are Chinese origin.

Q
 
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