DVD/CD Rom problems - can't get disks to work

[sayrebear]

Okay - I'm going to try to put as much info in here as possible:  On a Dell Desktop computer  (Dimension 8400) there is a DVD/CD Rom drive and a DVD/CD RW drive. In the DVD/CD Rom drive certain disks won't work. Data CDs freeze the computer. I am able to eject the disk but need to reboot computer in order to unfreeze. I have not been able to try data DVDs. Audio cd's work fine as do dvd movies. I have tried uninstalling the drive and having windows reinstall it but the same thing still occurs. THere's no explination mark next to the drive in the device manager. Seeing as I only have one data disk I can't try others. However, I tried that disk in my laptop and it worked fine. I haven't tried any installation disks in the desktop yet but I'm currently running System File Check at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas about this?
   And... if anyone has some idea about it, could you explain it as I'm interested in understanding rather than just repeating someone else.

[Raptor]

AVG Free
-- Anti virus scanner
Adaware SE Personal
-- Anti spyware scanner
Microsoft Antispyware
-- Anti spyware scanner. Windows XP Home and Professional only.
Spybot Search & Destroy
-- Anti spyware scanner
ZoneAlarm Free
-- Free firewall - more user friendly
Sygate Personal
-- Free firewall - more configuration options

[merlin_2]

You may need a cdrom/dvd drive lens  cleaner   ...which can by bought from a pc store or other outlets>>have you tried cleaning the cd/dvd disk which you have the problem with.......do any of your cd disks load......?

[sayrebear]

Raptor: I have avg, adaware, and spybot: s&d.. what is it that you want me to do with them in this situation?

Merlin: I'll try the drive lens cleaner.  It's not a problem with the disk as I have tried it on my laptop (A different drive). The only disks that seem to load are audio cds and movie dvds and vise versa. I was kind of hinted at that the yellow book mode of the lens isn't working so might need to replace the whole drive.

Thanks a lot!

[Raptor]

Configure them to do a full scanner sweep of your system to make certain they miss nothing.

When has your problem first occured?

[sayrebear]

I constantly run those programs to check for problems. They all claim that everything is fine.  I'm not sure when the problem started. It's my dad's desktop and I never have used data disks on it. He doesn't use data/installation disks often (which I tried and it didn't work (like the Drivers disk, XP Installation, etc)). He can't tell me the last time he used them and everything worked - but it couldn't have been that long ago seeing as the computer is about 6 months old.

I was going to get one of those lens cleaners to see if that helps. However, if the computer freezes up on the other disks, how is it going to work with the lens cleaning disk (unless it reads it as a movie/audio disk).

I'm kind of clueless here and Dell hasn't been much help (surprise surprise).

[Raptor]

The cleaner disk is not a data disk, I believe..

[sayrebear]

Thanks a lot