My ODDs doesn't read CD, what could be the problem?

[qasmiqiqu]

This will be a bit long, I give you all the info I can.

I'm a retro PC enthusiast, and I have several PCs.
Recently I encountered a really odd problem.

None of my optical drives read CDs while no issue with DVDs with the combo drives.
It doesn't matter if the disc is a factory printed legal copy or home written.
There were no file transfer between the PCs. They weren't even on the same network.
Some of them never were connected to a network. 2 of them never even were in the same city when the problem occured.

The problen doesn't relate to OS, PSU or motherboard.

What I did so far:
Switched the drives between the PCs.
Did more than one BIOS reset.
Flashed a new firmware on one of the drives.
Tested without HDD, tested on primary and secondory IDE channel.
Tested both as master and slave.
Tested under windows XP and 2000.
Removed the drivers and drives, booted the setup without a drive phisically installed then added it back.


The PCs are a Coppermine based Celeron, a Coppermine Pentium 3, a Tualatin Pentium 3 and a Prescott Celeron D (soon Northwood Pentium 4). I can give detailed specs if needed.

The Coppermine Celeron was a gift from a coworker, It's the same setup than it was when I got it and no part of it had any contact with the rest, physical or galvanic at all, and even that doesn't read CDs. Though I only tried my legal copy of Morrowind since I installed a Windows on it.

The CDs are good, my everyday PC reads them fine, and I see it more than unlikely that 4 drives die in 4 entirely separate PCs or that 4 entirely separate motherboards die the same way in a short time. Even those drives or PCs do it that I never used before.

Sometimes, though really rarely the drives do make an exception and willing to read a CD, that's how I was able to install a Windows 2000 on the Prescott based system. That was the only CD it read (neither XP, nor Win98 or Win 95) and only that one time.

 

[phaelax]

You've tried multiple CDs? You said your modern PC reads them but 4 other machines won't. The lasers are better in modern drives and it could perhaps be the CD is scratch too much for some older drives to read properly yet newer ones can manage. I've seen this happen in car stereos. It's a stretch but I'm not sure what else would affect multiple drives at the same time.

 

[qasmiqiqu]

You've tried multiple CDs? You said your modern PC reads them but 4 other machines won't.

I did. I tried Win95, Morrowind, music CDs, driver CDs, ones that came with IT magazines, all legal copy, also tried ones I wrote myself, some of them were written with one of the drives that are now faulty.

Most of the CDs are as good as new. Even the more worn ones barely has a few light scratches. I'm unreasonably careful about my disks. Also one of the drives is not much older than the one in my everyday PC. 2 years older myabe. That drive itself is not particularly young either, about 9 or 10 years old. Only that it's SATA. The youngest IDE drive was made in late 2007, the oldest in mid 1997.