CD/DVD drive issues Acer Aspire 3000

Hi
The CD/DVD drive on this machine has become unreliable. It won't write CDs - it comes up with a "there is no CD in the drive" error, but it will read them and read/play DVDs.

I also note that the disk title next to the drive letter (eg in Windows Explorer) often doesn't update or show at all.

I recently upgraded the disk on this machine from the original 40GB to a 320GB. Due to BIOS issues only 140GB is visible but the HD works fine. I also cleaned the CD drive lens carefully with eyeglasses cleaning solution. Are either of those actions likely to have contributed to the problem?

thanks

 

It is possible the drive could have gone bad. If you tired to clean it and it still doesn't work likely it's gone. I've had this happen to me before an I had to replace the drive.

You could try to reset your cmos settings to default by turning on your pc and when you see the popup it should say like "Push F2 for setup" and then when you get into the bios on the bottom of the screen it should say someting like Restore all settings to default.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I hadn't tried that.

I have now done so and the issue seems unchanged. The issue became apparent sometime after I upgraded the hard disk, so I have this lingering feeling that the two things are linked somehow?
thanks

 

You might also check the Acer site for any BIOS updates for your model - I've worked on several Aspires recently to correct a battery discharge problem, but there may be an update to address drive-size and optical drive issues...

 

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. On a hunch I obtained and refitted the original 40Gb hard disc. All the issues with the CD/DVD drive disappeared with the old hard drive fitted - it works normally. So I guess there is some BIOS/Chipset issue caused by using a hard disc substantially bigger than the BIOS/Chipset can cope with, and that this issue messes with operation of the CD/DVD drive. Not what I wanted to discover!

So I guess the choice now is to buy another new hard disc that is no larger than this laptop model was originally spec'd with, or try an external CD/DVD drive with the 320GB disc I already have...

 

Do you know if the hard drive is IDE or SATA? If it is IDE then you may be able to jumper it to limit it's size, although I am not sure if this is possible with laptop hard drives.

 

The drive is IDE, but looking at the label the jumper options are just Master/Slave/Cable Sel. No obvious sign of jumpers related to size.

 

The issue you are having does sound like a problem with ATA configuration.

What ATA speed is the hard drive? Common options are ATA66, ATA100, ATA133(? on last one)

 

The new drive (which causes the problems with the CD/DVD) is a Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVE Hard Disk Drive, 320GB, 5400rpm, 8MB Cache, ATA-6/100; the original disc is a Seagate ST94019A 40GB drive.

 

I have attached a USB connected CD drive just to see what happens, and it behaves in the same erratic way as the onboard one. Ideas anyone?