CD-RW drive no longer burning CDs.

Recently and quite randomly, my CD-RW drive started having problems burning CDs. Whenever I would try to run Roxio Easy CD Creator, it would give me this message: "There are no available supported CD-Recorders on this system." I thought it was just a software problem, but under the "Settings" tab in the CD Drive properties, it lists the current Read and Write speeds as 0x Max, and states under Media Type that the "device is not ready," though it still states that the drive is a CD-RW.

How can I fix the problems with the CD drive?

Specs
OS: Win XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 2
Machine: Dell Dimension 4300
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1400MHz/1.40GHz 512 MB of RAM
CD-Drive: _NEC NR-7800A (as listed under the Hardware tab in CD Drive properties)
Location: Location 0 (0)

 

How old is the drive? Most likely the drive finally crapped out and needs replaced, then again, there has been issues with the Roxio CD-Writer that XP loads has been known to cause some problems.

Try pulling the drive and place in another machine to test if it is in fact the drive. If it tests out as bad, with the prices of DVD-Ram drives nowdays, that would be a better option.

 

I don't know the lifetime for a CD-RW drive, it's about 2 or 3 years old, as old as the machine. Unfortunately, I don't have another system to place it into, so I don't know how to check if it is the drive itself.

How would I check if Roxio is causing the problem, and how would I fix it?

 

Only way would be to remove Roxio from the system, along with Highmat in Add/Remove, and just load the base Roxio program (do not update), and try to see if it will find the drive. If it does not, try replacing the IDE cable with a new one, and try. If still not resolved, time to buy a new drive.

Removable media drives have been known to go out even within six months. I have a Pavilion xt923 that the CD-RW went out on it within one year, but never replaced it, due to have been waiting for DVD-Ram drives to come down, which they have now, just need to go out and buy one.