cd drive stopped working? on my laptop help please

was fine last night ,i did some mp3 burming using nero, now its dead, tried loads of discs, i can hear it try to read it in the 1st 1-2 seconds then nothing


what is the most likely cause? whats the cheapest way of fixing it, i feel if i take it to a shop ill get charged the earth

thanks in advance

 

any self help ideas or tests i can do myself or any other ideas would be appreciated

 

Well I would start with a cd cleaner, but if you tried to burn a 52X disk at 52X with out updating firmware you may have screwed up the drive. As far as I know there is no way to check a cd-drive. Does it still play cd's? I have also had limited luck with cleaning the eye gently with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol.

good luck

 

nah nero only burns max at 24 on mine and i always drop to 16 to be sure , when you say screwed the drive up what do you mean?
ive tried cleaning the eye with no joy


oh and it doesnt even recognise a disc is in there never mind play them!

 

There is a problem with certain types of discs that in order to burn at the higher speed they need a firmware update. according to my media "failure to update firmware may result in permanent damage to the drive" I have had drives that just failed on me. Particularly Compaq, I tried everything I could think of, and nothing worked. What kind of laptop is this, and are the drives hot swapable, so you can remove the drive without pulling the system apart ?

As much as I know, there are still things I don't know, and CD drives are still more voodoo to me, they work or they don't. Thats what I love about desktops, if it stops working I have a test drive to plug in and if that works I throw the bad unit in the trash and buy a new one from newegg. Laptops arn't so simple.

 

There is a regestry problem that can cause the drive to not read CD's. To find out if this is your problem, try booting a CD like the Windows CD or something. If it boots the CD then the drive is fine and the regestry problem is most likley. If not the drive may be bad but not necessarily.

 

its an acer travelmate 2000 i dont know if you can hot swap the drive ? ive tried to boot a system disc and nothing

as i said i burn a lot slower than what it is capable of so i should hope it wasnt that,although the last time it worked i was burning discs!

is it hard to change a cd on a laptop? am i going to get shafted by some pc shop?

 

Well if you flip the laptop over look for a button or a slider near the cd drive also look for a place thatlooks like you would put your fingers. but most likely it isn't hot swapable unless there is an option for a floppy drive.

As for getting raked over the coals, well If I were doing it I would say no more thenthree hours. Go to a smaller shop not a best buy or circut city. check the labor ratesbefore you give it to them, and buy the right drive from e-bay, or newegg. This will save you a mark up of 40% or around there.

If I did it it would cost you around $60.00 Good luck

 

nah no hole mate ! i rang where i bought it from today and asked how much a new driver was he quoted 80 quid english ! just for the frikkin drive


then labour oh dear pants down!!!!

 

how the hell much is 80 quid, is that like 80 # or like 110 us ? thats for a brand new drive, screw that! get a used drive from e-bay. or a go to newegg.com but to do that you need to pull the face off the drive and find out who makes it. the best bet is to ebay it and get the drive that matches.

Good luck

 

I would recomend a new drive. And thesunscreen, £80 is about 140 US Dollers.

 

is it hard to change a drive? im no computer wizz but im not scared to go in with a screwdriver myself, is it just a case of open up laptop unscrew /disconnect old drive - install new drive?
or is there software issues and other uglies waiting for me?

cheers for help

 

I'm kinda surprised more people havn't jumped on this thread but here goes.

The hard part is often getting the laptop open. there are hidden screws under labels sometimes, and keyboard that have tricks to them, then.... once you get all the way down to the disk drive, there isjust the matter of unscrewing the drive and un clipping the harness then gently pulling it out. replace re-install.

So yes once the case is apart its a breeze, usually the drive will get picked up right away no driver needed. mostly because you have to replace the drive with one very similar to the one that came out.

My best advise is to make a mock up of your laptop on a piece of paper and place the screws where they go on the paper. And if you can buy the service manual that would help. One more thing if you are planning on putting a bigger hard drive in it, or more ram or any thing else now would be the time.

Good luck

 

ok thanks for your help, what details off the drive would i need to note to buy another? are they generic or would i have to find the exact one? and what if i cant!!!!!!!

 

If you ebay it, the make and model of your laptop should do quite well, if you buy a new one the model number and mfg from the sticker on top of the drive.

Most likely you can find one ebay, however thereare only a few companies that make drives for laptops, so it will be easy to buy one that works, and just switch the face over. the colored part that matches your laptop, just basicaly unsnaps or there are tine screws under it. Before you disconnect the drive while it is still powered on you should pop the drive open in case you need to remove any screws.

 

The device manager in windows will usually tell you who made the drive and the model.

Also I would try to get the manual from Acer on your Travelmate. I would suspect that there is a very easy way to remove the CDROM.

 

cheers guys im going to give it a go!

 

hi i looked at my hardware devices and it says my cd rom is

QSI CDRW/DVD SBW 242B


is that the make and model i need to buy another?

also the device manager says

"This device is working properly.

If you are having problems with this device, click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter."


is that the case or should i ignore this?


cheers

 

QSI looks like it is Quanta and the model would be SBW 242B.
You may want to look at this link before making a purchase. I didn,t read the whole thing but it sounds like a firmware update may get it going.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=111553

 

In the worst case scenario it is really easy to remove and change your CD drive in a laptop (prob a couple of screws and gentle tug in the right direction), easier than in a desktop! Here is a photographic link for dismantling laptops (excellent site) and as the hosts states even if your make/model aren't present you can use the guides generically to dismantle the PC. I used it to clean out the crud from my Sharp.

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/index.htm

or

http://www.irisvista.com/

Has other links on the site for other makes and models as well. Good Luck, by the way there should be numerous Drive makes you could use.

 

In the worst case scenario it is really easy to remove and change your CD drive in a laptop, easier than in a desktop! Here is a photographic link for dismantling laptops (excellent site) and as the hosts states even if your make/model aren't present you can use the guides generically to dismantle the PC. I used it to clean out the crud from my Sharp.

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/index.htm

or

http://www.irisvista.com/

Has other links on the site for other makes and models as well. Good Luck, by the way there should be numerous Drive makes you could use.

 

But you should search for drivers/firmware firstly (could save you time and money!).

Try here:

http://www.splut.com/sub/q/qsi-sbw-242.html

Similar problem here:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Laptops_Notebooks/Q_21313795.html

 

eeeeeeeeeeek guys thanks so much for your help ,i think i however may have hoodwinked you into thinking i know what im on about! drivers er yes kind of understand them, firmwear however no idea and wouldnt have a clue what to do can anyone guide me through this for my particular cd rom ?

id really appreciate it im like to completely wreck everything as i have so often in the past!

 

Firstly it would be good to know your OS (e.g. 95, ME, XP, etc).

For XP Right Click (rc) on My Comp > Properties > click the Hardware tab > clik on Device Manager, find your CD-DVD r/w, expand and dbl clik on that device. This will give you the devices properties you could try the torubleshooting option here. Clik on the drivers tab and you will be able to identify the system drivers for this particular hardware. You can compare these with what are available on the site.

As far as the frimware goes I will have to hesitate here as I am getting out of my depth very quickly. I am hoping someone else can provide the further advice here!

 

ok ive done that ,ive got xp ,when you say compare to the site,what site do you mean?
thanks for help ,now just need firmware advice

cheers

 

Okay first port of call is ACER themselves, so go to:

http://global.acer.com/support/index.htm
better still
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads.html

If you look on the bottom of your laptop you should have the specific model number ( I dont know it so cant provide more info on this site). But search the download section for any CD/DVD (qsi sbw 242b) driver updates.

Someone offering firmware!

http://forum.rpc1.com/viewtopic.php?t=34358

See how you go with this for the moment. Post some more specific info on your sys (model).

 

ok i had a look on the site but couldnt see any drivers for my laptop and i had a good look.
can i just ask a quick question what is firmware? haha i dont know.
do you install it like drivers? why do people like on the forum you gave the link require it? what is its function ,why ,may i need it ? how do you know you need it?

thanks again

 

Firmware is like a bios for your drive. Firm meaning it is actualy a program burned into a chip on the drive. now if you can get an updated firmware from quasi, then by all means follow the directions and update it, kind of like flashing a bios. The worst thing that would happen is the drive won't work if you flashed the wrong update, and well you are already there. The best thing that would happen is it would start working again. other problems may come from, is it run in windows, or do you need a floppy. and does your system have a floppy, many systems now do not. Also I feel the drive has gone down the tubes and you are just drawing out your agony, because it quit while burning, not after a virus attack or something. Cover your bases I guess, good luck.

 

quick question, if i download the wrong firmware for the drive it doesnt work and i replace the drive for a new one ,will this also not work because of the wromg firmware?

 

nope firmware is for the chip IN the drive

 

I could not figure out what the acronym of QSI stood for (which company) if you can sort that out go to their website firstly before anything else.

Thanks sunscreen for the excellent response, as I stated in an earlier post Lord Lucan I was quickly getting out of my depth but there was a link for an apparent Firmware update I gave you posted in another forum you could try otherwise in the worse case scenario the link for disassembling laptops will be invaluable. You should save that as a bookmark at least and let me know how you get on.

 

I did a google or yahoo search on the model number (QSI CDRW/DVD SBW 242B) he provided and it came up as being MFG either by or for Quanta. It's not a name I'm familiar with so I left it to the pros. There was a link I included in my previous post that refered to some similar problems.