Broken DVD Drive

I put a CD in and it sounds like it's gonna start spinning, then stops. And it does that about five times before stopping completely. Any idea what's wrong, and how to fix it by myself, if at all posssible? I don't have money for a new one right now, and need to fix it/borrow one from a friend.

 

Does it actually read the disc?

Do you have anything like AnyDVD installed?

 

It doesn't read at all. It won't even boot from it. Also, I don't have AnyDVD installed. I remember it working a while ago, watching movies with it. But there was a huge gap of uselessness inbetween then and now. The reason I need to boot from it is to install Sabayon. So, I really need it.

 

What I would like you to try first is to go into the BIOS and see if it's listed. To access the BIOS normally it's F2 when you see the splash screen, however some mainboards uses F10, F12 and DEL. When you see the splash screen, tap one or all of them until you see "Entering System Setup". Look and see if the drive is being detected here, it if's not check the cable and power connector. Make sure they are tight, it may be a good idea to unplug the IDE cable, reboot, power down, plug it back in and turn the computer back on.

If it does show in the BIOS let me know because there is a registry key that could cause it not to be reading.

Thanks!

 

If you can't even boot from it, that makes me think that the drive has either died, the lens is in dire need of a serious cleaning, the data cable needs reseating or replacing, or the drive's firmware has been corrupted somehow and you'd need to download the newest firmware from the drive maker's web site, and flash it....

hd2k

 

Windows recognizes it, so I'm pretty sure the BIOS recognizes it.

 

The registry would have nothing to do with being able to boot from the drive. The drive is not reading or even recognizing any discs; this is most definitely a hardware problem with the drive or possibly the cable. There's a very small chance that it's the motherboard, but that is VERY unlikely. New CD/DVDROM drives are only about $25, used ones are about $10-15. New DVD burners can be found for under $50 on sale...

 

i'm certain it's not the cord, because when I plug it into my CD/RW drive, it works perfectly. I guess I'll just borrow my friend's external drive. Thanks guys.

 

Why not boot from the CDRW drive?

 

Because CD/RW can't read DVD/RW?

 

I tend to agree with hopper, this does sound like a hw issue and quite possibly the internal mechanism which would generally can't do much about unless you know what you are doing.

My suggestion would be to check the DVD media you are trying to boot to before discarding the drive. So try another bootable DVD media that you know to be working and if at all possible use this DVD media in another system that has a working DVD drive to see if it can boot to it so you can pretty much tell which is the culprit...

One last thing, did you have the BIOS Boot sequence setup to boot to the DVD/CD Drive?

 

Where is my quote does it say anything about booting from the drive, it says there is a registry key that could cause it not to read. Learn how to read closer!

 

ThorAxe1,

One last thing I would like you to try before I agree and say it's a hardware issue. After you complete the below, reboot and see if drive will read a disc. If it does not then it's most likely a hardware issue.

Copy the contents of the below Quote Box to Notepad. Then click File and then Save As. Change the Save as Type to All Files. Name the file fixme.reg and then click save. (make sure you save it somewhere you can find it. Saving it to your Desktop may make that easy.) Then double-click on the fixme.reg file on your desktop (or locate it with Windows Explorer and double click on it if not saved to the Desktop) and when it prompts to Add in to the registry, say yes.

 

bjgarrick: The reason I mentioned the reg having nothing to with the drive not working is because Thoraxe said he couldn't even boot to it. You are absolutely correct in saying that a bad reg key could cause the problem of the drive not reading while within the Windows environment; but a bad reg key would have no effect on the drive's ability to boot...

Ahhhh.... I was unaware that you needed to boot a DVD, and not a standard CD... my bad As I posted earlier, your local used PC shop should have a good, tested DVDROM drive for under $20; new DVD burners are now under $60, and can be had for under $50 if you find one on sale.... good luck!!!

hd2k

bjgarrick: I apologize for any misunderstanding and I didn't mean to come off like some kind of a-hole... if I did, I'm sorry