CD Drive Issues

[VirusVox]

Hello, around a year ago I was running a game from a CD, and after I ejected it and placed it in again (it wasn't reading properly, the CD was a bit dirty) my computer now no longer reads CD's with any accuracy. Some times it will work, sometimes it wont. The other day when I installed my new GPU it read the driver CD, however now I'm trying to install Thief (the original one) and it wont read it. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Maybe give a CD ROM Cleaner a try?

-Wolf sends

 

[VirusVox]

Maybe give a CD ROM Cleaner a try?

-Wolf sends

I probably should've specified, by 'won't read' I mean it doesn't show up in Windows at all. For some reason it shows a DVD-RW drive and a CD Drive when this problem occurs, both containing no CDs, even though one is clearly in the drive.

 

[Wolfshadw]

In that case, I'd probably try a different connection port on the motherboard. If that doesn't work, then I'd probably try a new drive.

-Wolf sends

 

[VirusVox]

In that case, I'd probably try a different connection port on the motherboard. If that doesn't work, then I'd probably try a new drive.

-Wolf sends

How would I go about changing which connection port it's using?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Assuming it's a SATA drive, you:

1) Shut down the computer.
2) Unplug the computer from the wall power socket.
3) Open the case.
4) follow the cable that leads from the back of the CD-ROM drive to the motherboard.
5) Disconnect that cable from the motherboard and plug it into another available SATA port on the motherboard.
6) Close the case.
7) Plug the PC back into the wall power socket.
8) Power the system back up and see if you can now see the drive in Windows.

-Wolf sends

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Even DVD writers are relatively cheap these days, with a basic CD drive (if you can find one) costing just pocket money - - - so I would jump straight to replacing the drive first rather than messing with anything else like a drive cleaner (and that won't help anyway if a drive isn't even showing up).