What's happened to my computer??

Nucular

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Oh please help.

I've got a computer with a DVD drive and a DVD+/-RW drive (make is difficult to tell). I've been using them fine for months, last wrote a DVD on Xmas Eve.

But now my RW drive has stopped recognising any disks. Windows System claims it's "working correctly", but when I put any disk in it just says it's empty, "please insert disk". I HAVE!!!

What can have happened? In the last three days? It's not like I've used the computer very much these last few days.

If anyone has anything of any help to say, then please say it and I'll be your best mate.
 
I have the exact same problem. I am also up for best mate duties if a solution is forthcoming.

I've used one of those DVD cleaning discs, to no avail.
 
The first thing I'd try is to make sure the flat connectors are firmly seated in the drive and on the motherboard. The problems I've had with my computers generally resolve to loose connections.

IIRichard
 
IIRichard said:
The first thing I'd try is to make sure the flat connectors are firmly seated in the drive and on the motherboard. The problems I've had with my computers generally resolve to loose connections.

IIRichard
Click to expand...
Cheers for the suggestion IIRichard - I've wiggled everything that's wigglable, but it all seems to be pretty firm.

It starts to recognise the disk when you first put it in, the light comes on and it makes a noise, and windows says the drive's 'busy', but then it just stops and says the drive's empty again.

Thanks for the thought :)
 
Have you tried blowing into it? That's the first thing I would do. Eject the tray and blow, quite hard, into the unit. Don't spit!

Sometimes they will pick up a bit of fuzz on the sensor and blowing dislodges it. If that doesn't work it's troubleshooting time. Try the unit in another computer.
 
Do NOT 'blow'...

...into any computer or gaming system.

Regardless of your attempts, your breath WILL carry moisture, and eventually cause other problems.

Buy a can of air, and spray away, although spraying consitantly WILL cause items to almost freeze, so be careful.
 
Could be a corrupted driver as well. I'd try going into device manager and delete the drive, then reboot & let your system detect the drive & install the drivers.
 
What happens if you connect the drive to the other IDE controller ?
 
King of the Americas said:
Regardless of your attempts, your breath WILL carry moisture, and eventually cause other problems.

Buy a can of air, and spray away, although spraying consitantly WILL cause items to almost freeze, so be careful.
Click to expand...

This is true.

I'd probably still blow into it but I live on the edge. :cool:
 
Thanks all for the advice, you all, without exception, rock.

Still not working though. I've tried deleting the drive in device manager, and Windows reinstalled it, and exactly the same problem persists. I then, against sound and sober KotA advice, gave it a quick blow - exactly the same.

I will try connecting it to the other IDE cable tomorrow, that's what I'll do (I think that's what you mean, El Greco? I wish I was more au fait with this stuff. I installed the drive myself, and was very proud, but plugging it in is the extent of my powers.)

Again, cheers all for the input :o
 
One other option is to go into the device manage and remove the whole computer from the list. Reboot windows, clear the ECSD data if you need to, and windows should rebuild everything that's connected. Make sure your have any extra drivers you need before doing this, though.
 
Nucular said:
I will try connecting it to the other IDE cable tomorrow, that's what I'll do (I think that's what you mean, El Greco?
Click to expand...

Yes, and this may mean you will also have to change the jumbers on the back of the CD to fix the master-slave thingie (in case you connect more than one device on the same cable). If you've never dealt with this ask for clarification.
 
Umm... Nucular, regardless of your DVD drive situation, is the hard disk light on all the time, and the system seems to be slowing down much more than usual? Perhaps your network is awful slow too?
 
Optical units are pretty much the only ones that have consistently broken down after regular use during the years I have had a computer. They arent built to last.
 
ahoneycutt said:
One other option is to go into the device manage and remove the whole computer from the list. Reboot windows, clear the ECSD data if you need to, and windows should rebuild everything that's connected. Make sure your have any extra drivers you need before doing this, though.
Click to expand...
Blimey ahoneycutt, that sounds pretty scary - I'm not sure I wanna try that one, especially as I'm unable to back anything up at the moment!

El Greco said:
Yes, and this may mean you will also have to change the jumbers on the back of the CD to fix the master-slave thingie (in case you connect more than one device on the same cable). If you've never dealt with this ask for clarification.
Click to expand...
Cheers EG - yep, I swapped the IDE connector, and changed jumper settings accordingly - didn't help I'm afraid. Exactly the same as before. Good plan though, I convinced myself that would work.

Zep said:
Umm... Nucular, regardless of your DVD drive situation, is the hard disk light on all the time, and the system seems to be slowing down much more than usual? Perhaps your network is awful slow too?
Click to expand...
Actually, I checked for those things, and no, everything seems to be normal. My computer's a little slow, but that's all the stuff that loads at startup I think (would that affect the DVD drive?). I'm not on a network, but internet seems faster just lately, if anything. HD light isn't always on, and it's not always churning either. What would it mean if I did have these symptoms, Zep? A virus?

Vitnir said:
Optical units are pretty much the only ones that have consistently broken down after regular use during the years I have had a computer. They arent built to last.
Click to expand...
What's an optical drive, Vitnir? If I have to buy a new drive, should I avoid an optical one?


Cheers all for the suggestions! Sadly, it's looking like my drive has just plain broke, right after Xmas when my bank account's at its lowest point of the year. Darn!!
 
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