CD Drive not recognizing disks

[SLV]

My CD drive has been suddenly stopped reading any disks that I put in and I can't seem to figure out why.

The drivers are updated and the drive itself is recognized by the computer but the disks aren't. Also, it's not a problem of scratched cds because it wont recognize unused blank cds.

Any advice?

[Mesaeus]

If it also refuses to read pressed cd's (like music cd's), it's probably dead.

[SLV]

If it's not dead is there any other possible reason for the lack of recognition? And what exactly would you define as "dead" because it still powers up.

[Mesaeus]

Well, "dead" to me is not functional anymore and not economical to repair. Try it in another pc and if it's doing the same there, you're going to need a new drive.

[glc]

There are several things inside the drive that could be "dead" but the thing will still appear to power up. The carriage servo could be dead, the laser could be burned out. CD drives are inexpensive throwaway commodities these days, average life span is maybe 3 years. They are not like my first CD burner, which cost over $400 at the time.

[rscaramelo]

I'm having a simular problem with my Sony Vaio laptop. It does read pressed cd's. I was hoping to boot from a ubs connected cdrom drive so that I could format the hd and install Ubuntu. Any thoughts on how to do this?

RC

[glc]

RC, you will get better attention by starting your own thread. Thank you!

[rscaramelo]

Sorry, I didn't want to get accused of not doing a search for a thread with a problem close to mine.

RC

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by SLV If it's not dead is there any other possible reason for the lack of recognition? And what exactly would you define as "dead" because it still powers up.

Replace the IDE cable. If that doesn't help, test the CD-ROM drive in another computer...if the problem persists, the CD-ROM drive is probably dead.

Cricket