CD, DVD Drives Self destructing Help!

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ccohn2000

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Hi,

I have put two DVD ROM drives on my son's computer and a CDRW since June of last year. All three now refuse to recognize disks. There will be a disk in the drive, but the system doesn't know it. The drives are visible in the bios. The device manager says they are all functioning properly, but they don't work. I can't even boot from them so I know it's not windows. ( I have XP Pro). I replaced the Motherboard, the chip and the ram, and still can't read disks from these drives so I'm pretty sure they're toast. I'm afraid to put a new one on the system til I find out what is killing them. Any suggestions?
 
There might be some dust on the lens.So try cleaning them using a lens cleaner(preferably wet).
If the above step doesn't work,
try connecting one at a time and check whether they are working or not. There might be some hardware clash.
 
make sure any optical drives (CD / DVD) are on the secondary IDE channel and not on the same IDE channel as the hard drive.
make sure one is set to master and the other slave write down the names and serial # try to get the drivers or if you have the disc for the cdrw it would be great
first turn off all power check the ribbon and disconect all but one (the cdrw)
and power up then try to uninstall the drivers
if you are able to find the cd or drivers over the internet its better to uninstall in hardware manager and do a manual ad new hardware in control panel
do not do a automatic install or its gonna give you the same results
and last do the instalation one cdrom at a time
 
Hi There,

Thanks for your replies. I have just now tried the drives, one by one in a different computer. They still show as working fine, but can't see disks when inserted. They are on the secondary IDE channel, but that shouldn't matter. Lots of CDs work as a slave on the main channel. I hadn't considered dust on the lens. That happening to three drives at once seems unlikely, especially since the system was assembled in June, and has been vacummed out at least once since then, when I installed the DVD ROM. I was thinking they might have been zapped by the power supply, as it was a new thing as of last June. I put the computer in a new case then, and used the supply that came with it. Does this sound like a problem than could be caused by power fluctuations?
 
its too much of a coincidence they are giving you the same problems at the same time. i think your faulty power supply is slowly damaging them because of abnormal voltage fluctuations or is not supply the correct power. i would not install another drive until you check or replace the power supply.
 
Yeah,the ps might be the culprit.
By the way,did u recently use any cd having an abnormal shape on your drives? They could be the source for the lens damage.

If the discs are running inside the drives though not getting detected,then u probably have a 'damaged lens' problem.
 
Thanks! I haven't tried any unusually sized cds. Just the standard round ones. I'm pretty convinced it's the PS. I replaced it, and bought yet another CDRW. If this one goes down, then we'll know it wasn't the PS and I'll have a spare. Thanks again for your help!
 
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