CD-RW DVD-ROM drive Not reeding anything please help

My old computers CD-RW DVD-ROM drive is not reeding anything. I tryed everything taking it out and cleaning it and re connected all the cables. Its spins but i don't know what else to do. I tryed setting the BIOS to default values and that did not help. Any ideas or is it shot confused

 

When you say

do you mean that you took the casing off the optical drive and cleaned the laser lens with isopropyl alcohol?

 

i mean i took the cd rom out of its case and and cleaned the out side of it and re connted all the cables and it was no help

 

Could be:
1. The optical drive is now faulty
2. The optical drive for some reason is not detected by the bios
3. The optical drive for some reason is not detected by the o/s
4. The optical drive laser lens is dirty

Also is it all media that is not recognised ie burned cds as opposed to manufactured 'pressed' cds.

To correct:

Not much you can do about 1.

Is the drive properly recognised in the bios and in the Device Manager. I presume you are using XP. Perhaps change the data cable sometimes they do go bad.

Finally, open the optical up, easily done 4 screws. Remove the casing and with a cotton bud carefully clean the laser lens with isopropyl alcohol, dry with lint free cloth (or coffee filter cone).

Good Luck

 

Ok i am going to try that later today and see if it helps and the reason i want it working is to format the hard drive but the only way i can format it is with a disk and the drive is not working