CD ROM DRIVE wont read some CD rom

[fifi]

I am fixing a PC for a friend. The CD ROM drive on an old gateway will not read some type of CD but will read others. I put in a CD-R data CD recorded with Adaptec it works fine. But when I put other CD like kids game or music CD it wont. Is this a formatting issue, CD-RW issue or What. I even chage out the drive with an older drive it does the same. please help. Is there a reader or something I could install to solve this?

[bailey]

are the cd's that it won't read a copy or a cd you made at one time
or are they store bought orignal cd's

[Bob42]

A lot of the older computers can't read CD-RWs, but can read very basic CD-Rs. My old gateway can't read anything but CD-Rs. I think it has to be a multiread drive, which is newer, to read other formats.

[fifi]

It reads the CD-R I recorded but wont read any other CD like games and music bought from stores (not copied). I think this may be a hardware problem unless anybody know of a flash or new driver for these older CD drives.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I don't think there's a problem with the CD themselves unless they are scraped or damaged in any way. I wager it's the drive itself. Just how auld is this puter and what is the speed of the CD-ROM drive?

My auld 6X CD-ROM couldn't read certain CD-Rs and it announced its imminent death when it also stopped reading some original CDs.