Disc Drive not recognising discs?

JMurph

Hi

I'd be grateful for any advice. A munchkin has been hiding cardboard coasters, and sometimes two discs at once, in the disc drive of my pc, and now I can't burn discs. I have just checked and apparently the pc says the drive is working fine, drivers up to date etc, but no program will recognise either blank or recorded discs.

Any suggestions, apart from get a new one (drive, not munchkin!), greatly appreciated.

Thanks

steve1980

Laptop or desktop?

Richie-from-the-Boro

JMurph wrote: »

Hi

I'd be grateful for any advice. A munchkin has been hiding cardboard coasters, and sometimes two discs at once, in the disc drive of my pc, and now I can't burn discs. I have just checked and apparently the pc says the drive is working fine, drivers up to date etc, but no program will recognise either blank or recorded discs.

Any suggestions, apart from get a new one (drive, not munchkin!), greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Try it on a different machine / cable etc, to be honest if your munchkin has had two CD / DVD's in it and its never been spun up the odds are its prolly goosed, if it has been spun up its almost certainly deffo goosed.

£18 for a new CD / DVD, keep the munchkin s/he has already cost you a small fortune and a replacement would be uneconomic

JMurph

Thanks Richey, it's a desktop, a five-year old (at least) Dell. Not sure about how uneconomic it would be to replace munchkin, the ongoing costs are piling up.

I have opened up a desktop unit before, so am not totally useless, but is it straightforward enough to replace the internal disc drive, and is that the cheaper option to an external one?

Thanks for all advice!

Donnie

JMurph wrote: »

Thanks Richey, it's a desktop, a five-year old (at least) Dell. Not sure about how uneconomic it would be to replace munchkin, the ongoing costs are piling up.

I have opened up a desktop unit before, so am not totally useless, but is it straightforward enough to replace the internal disc drive, and is that the cheaper option to an external one?

Thanks for all advice!

Very simple to replace the drive and it's half the price of an external drive.

What is the model number of the desktop?

Richie-from-the-Boro

JMurph wrote: »

Thanks Richey, it's a desktop, a five-year old (at least) Dell. Not sure about how uneconomic it would be to replace munchkin, the ongoing costs are piling up.

I have opened up a desktop unit before, so am not totally useless, but is it straightforward enough to replace the internal disc drive, and is that the cheaper option to an external one?

Thanks for all advice!

It really is easy, I could teach your munchkin to do it so don't be afraid of tackling it.

It's a desktop not a lappie, and at 5 years old it will probably be IDE not SATA. Open the case 4 screws and 2 cables to take out, reverse the procedure with the new drive and your away & working.

Open it up pull the cables from the CD/DVD drive end only is it SATA or IDE, which of these two cables are attached to your CD /DVD?

Is it SATA :

Or is it IDE :

Donnie

The only other thing with an IDE drive is to make sure that the jumper is in the right place. Usually will be, but we can check that at the time.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Donnie wrote: »

The only other thing with an IDE drive is to make sure that the jumper is in the right place. Usually will be, but we can check that at the time.

Yep :

Donnie

That's got it covered then.

JMurph

You guys are incredibly helpful, thanks so much. Its a Dell Dimension 3000, a bit dusty by now, running Windows XP, Pentium 4, 1GB of RAM. Maybe it's just getting old? I'll try opening it up tomorrow I'll be able to get out to maplin or somewhere if needs be.

Donnie

JMurph wrote: »

You guys are incredibly helpful, thanks so much. Its a Dell Dimension 3000, a bit dusty by now, running Windows XP, Pentium 4, 1GB of RAM. Maybe it's just getting old? I'll try opening it up tomorrow I'll be able to get out to maplin or somewhere if needs be.

Guide. You won't need to follow much of it, as you will just unplugging the old one and plugging in the new. Very simple.

Optical Drives(IDE)

If you can't wait because you want to get hands on this weekend, you can pick this one up from PC World for £19.44. This comes with Lightscribe, so you can impress the little one by printing pics directly on the discs without the need for a seperate printer. (Not in colour and you need special discs).

Examples: