Hopefully someone can help me with my CD drive. It's not reading some of the CDs I put into it. My CD writer / DVD ROM combo drive is reading and running CD-RW disks but not reading normal CD-R disks. It also varies with programs & games. My drive will read and start up my old NHL 2002, but it won't read my new game ( FATE ) which i bought last week or my fish & sea turtle screensaver disk. ALL of the disks work in my other computers just fine. It sounds like it tries to read it by making a couple of small sounds then stops.
On a very rare occasion the drive will read the CD, but it not very often.
This problem happened to an older computer I had, I did a system recovery and the problem on that computer has apparently cured itself. I'd rather not go through another system recovery if I don't need to.

I have already checked other threads and tried various methods such as uninstalling the driver and rebooting into safe mode but nothing is working.

I have:
HP Pavillion 1100n
Windows XP

Have you tried replacing the drivers?

Ludington eh? I spent two summers in Pentwater just up the road in the late sixties.

I would try one one those store bought cd/dvd drive cleaners.

hit the send button too fast...

I'm having trouble copying DVDs from drive to drive. And sometimes I have to keep "marking" my drives "enable recording on this drive." Seems tohave a mind of its own. I'm using Sonic on a Dell e310 with a lite-on DVD-ROM

I tried cleaning the drive but it's only reading the disk every so often now, which causes me to fear a decline in performance. The cleaning didn't seem to do the job though.

I tried a system recovery hoping it was the same problem I had on my older HP, but it's still not working properly. Looks as though i'll probably have to buy myself a new drive and go from there.

Any good drives that are low in cost but good on long term usage? What kind of speed should I get for a good disk drive? what about maybe an EXTERNAL drive? I might have more interest in that if they can work as well as an internal? Anyone have suggestions?


Thanks everyone for your help, it is greatly apprechiated!!

dcc: Hope you enjoyed your stay the West Michigan area.