Why does CD/RW take 5-6 attempts before disc read?

[wolfman]

Each time it will make some noise, liight up and then nothing. I'll open and close a few times, same thing and then eventually, the hourglass comes up and it reads it. I've looked under device manager, it says it's working properly and the driver does not need updating. All connections seemed tight.  It is a Lite-on writer and I run XP. Thanks

[patio]

How old is the drive ? ?
Is this in an industrial/dusty setting ?

[wolfman]

Only a year or 2 old, enclosed in an oak desk, so a little dust but not much.

[patio]

There are lens cleaners out there that you may try...
Unfortunately the only way to find out if the drive is the problem is to go thru swapping it into another machine to see if it does the same thing...

[Broni]

Frankly speaking, lens cleaner never worked for me.

[patio]

No, i agree....but people like to try them though

[Broni]

Have you ever tried that mechanical CD cleaner?
Like this one:

[minitruck83]

Been having the same problems with a lite-on lightscribe CD/RW.  Finally replaced it. No more probs!

(I know this isn't a repair, but I needed something for a first post.)   

 good luck

Allen