cd drive wont read cd-r's

[matt_stan40]

hey not quite sure what kind of cd rom drive i have but when i open the cdrom/dvd drives portion of the device manager it says dvd/cd rom drives next to "type" and below that it says (standard cd rom drives) next to "manufacturer". im running windows 7 64 bit
over the last couple days i have not been able to burn cd's. i use windows media player to burn (always have, never had any problems til now), it would appear to be burning the cd but when it reached 100 percent the cd-r would eject and wmp would give me a message saying that it couldnt be burned. that was happening yesterday and before, now whenever i instert a cd-r i cant even get the drive to read it. it always says there isnt a disc inserted. i put a dvd in it earlier to see if it would read and it read the dvd no problem. i read on a post from about a year ago where someone said something that it might be a hardware issue, not software or driver issue. if that is the case, can the drive be repaired or is it best to buy a new one??

[hedgehog88]

Try this: open up device manger, expand DVD/CD-ROM drives, right click on your drive and select properties, Drivers tab, click Uninstall. This will remove your optical drive, don't freak out . Now restart your computer and let it detect the optical drive. It should automatically install it again. Try out and see if the disc gets recognized.

[jason2074]

Try using another free burning software.

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
http://www.nero.com/eng/index.html

[Salmon Trout]

hey not quite sure what kind of cd rom drive i have but when i open the cdrom/dvd drives portion of the device manager it says dvd/cd rom drives next to "type" and below that it says (standard cd rom drives) next to "manufacturer". im running windows 7 64 bit
over the last couple days i have not been able to burn cd's. i use windows media player to burn (always have, never had any problems til now), it would appear to be burning the cd but when it reached 100 percent the cd-r would eject and wmp would give me a message saying that it couldnt be burned. that was happening yesterday and before, now whenever i instert a cd-r i cant even get the drive to read it. it always says there isnt a disc inserted. i put a dvd in it earlier to see if it would read and it read the dvd no problem. i read on a post from about a year ago where someone said something that it might be a hardware issue, not software or driver issue. if that is the case, can the drive be repaired or is it best to buy a new one??

If you have a drive that can (or could, before) write and read both DVDs and CDs then it contains four lasers. The consequences of one of them failing is as below:

• DVD write laser failed: you can read DVDs but not write them.
• DVD read laser failed: you can neither read nor write DVDs.
• CD write laser failed: you can read CDs but not write them.
• CD read laser failed: you can neither read nor write CDs.

It is not worth repairing these drives because they are so cheap that any repair by a repair company (even assuming they would do agree to do it) or even a pre-repair estimate is going to cost more than a new drive, and in any case repairing an already well used drive would leave you with one new part among a set of well used ones. The lasers and mechanical parts have a lifetime. if you attempted to do it yourself you would need specialist soldering/unsoldering equipment, the right parts, and the knowledge necessary to do the job.

[matt_stan40]

Try this: open up device manger, expand DVD/CD-ROM drives, right click on your drive and select properties, Drivers tab, click Uninstall. This will remove your optical drive, don't freak out . Now restart your computer and let it detect the optical drive. It should automatically install it again. Try out and see if the disc gets recognized.

yep tried that. it uninstalled successfully and was detected and reinstalled successfully. still no luck though. i just tried insterting a blank cd-r again and this time the drive made a weird noise i never heard before with any other discs. it was sorta like a dull thud noise.....if that makes any sense

[BC_Programmer]

DVD burners have two lasers- one for CD R/W and one for DVD R/W.

The only difference between Reading and writing is the power. CD and DVD however use different wavelengths (780nm laser for CD, 650nm for DVD).

if you are unable to write to a CD; the CD R/W laser is not working properly at the higher power output that burning requires. Same for DVD. If the diode also malfunctions at lower power input then you won't be able to read (and certainly not write). with that wavelength, making you unable to read or write to the respective disk type.

here is a picture showcase of a DVD writer dissection: http://www.die4laser.com/dvd-rec/DissectionofaDVDwriter.htm

in this case it sounds like the symptoms over time show a regress of the CD laser; first it stopped functioning at the higher power input required for writing, then it stopped working entirely. Naturally the DVD diode is unencumbered by the CD laser not working.

[Salmon Trout]

DVD burners have two lasers- one for CD R/W and one for DVD R/W.

The only difference between Reading and writing is the power. CD and DVD however use different wavelengths (780nm laser for CD, 650nm for DVD).

Has this always been the case, or were read & write diodes separate at one time? I'm fairly sure that what I wrote was true at one time. In fact there are quite a lot of references to separate read & write lasers. I'm quite sure my first CD burner had them.

[BC_Programmer]

It might have been, but I cannot think of a way that it would be economical. After all, writing simply requires the application of more power than reading; if a CD-burner were to have a separate diode/laser for reading writing, it would be redundant, since even if the read diode was somehow unable to be used with the higher power, the burn laser would be able to be used with less power for reading.

[Geek-9pm]

He can buy a new DVD/CD burner for under $50 almost anywhere.

[hedgehog88]

yep tried that. it uninstalled successfully and was detected and reinstalled successfully. still no luck though. i just tried insterting a blank cd-r again and this time the drive made a weird noise i never heard before with any other discs. it was sorta like a dull thud noise.....if that makes any sense

Likes like something mechanical has failed. Does it read any CD or DVDs, not being writable, by any chance?

[matt_stan40]

Likes like something mechanical has failed. Does it read any CD or DVDs, not being writable, by any chance?

yah i read a dvd just fine the other night after i started having all this trouble. never tried an audio cd or cd with a program on it. is it pretty easy to install a new cd drive in a laptop or is that the sort of thing that (keeping in mind i have little experience messing with computer hardware, and no experience messing with laptop hardware) i should have a professional do?

[Computer_Commando]

Installing an IDE DVD or CD Drive
How to Connect a Sata DVD Drive