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dvd ram drive not reading cd roms

Hello all, new here and baffled!

Well this recently just maybe a month ago that it wouldn't read CD roms. It reads and loads DVD roms fine. Sometimes I can get it to read the CD roms by opening and closing the tray with the cd rom in it like 50 times. I even tried a clean reinstall of windows, didnt help. I've tried reinstalling the drivers.

I just don't know what to do, as i'm computer illiterate. Also, device manager says it's working fine. My driver is HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H20L.. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

shrink
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4 posts since Jun 2008
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are the cdrom blank or do they have data on them, are they commercial disk like games or music,or disk you've created yourself using a burner .are they dirty perhaps or scratched

caperjack
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Hello and thanks for replying. They're new CDs I had just bought, they're games, (age of empires 3) to be exact. And I just got them to install on my computer about 100 tries, quite frustrating. Have no idea why it just wants to work when it feels like it.

shrink
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weird ,for sure

caperjack
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Have you tried cleaning the lens of your CD or DVD ROM? Don't touch it, if you don't have a CD that cleans the lens of the CD & DVD ROMs, you can use a compressed gas duster can. I have had problems like that and thought it was the CD or DVD ROM going bad, but actually the lens was dirty. The recommended cleaning is once every 10 hours of use.

Here is a link in how to clean your CD's and DVD's and your CD and DVD ROMs too.

http://www.howtodothings.com/computers/a3631-how-to-clean-a-cd-rom-drive.html


:cool:

johnny80
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31 posts since May 2008
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I was thinking that too Johhny, but I was told there is only 1 lens for a dvd ram drive and if I was to load a dvd rom in there, it'd load up perfectly fine. And the cds that I am putting into it are perfectly clean, had just bought them.

I called HP service and they are baffled as well, they just told me to go buy a new dvd ram drive as they're cheap nowadays but that's not an option for me.. I had just moved into a bigger place and bought all new furniture so im pretty strapped atm.

shrink
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never hurt to try and clean it

caperjack
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have you tried playing other discs??? probably like, music cds??

hans9
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I was thinking that too Johhny, but I was told there is only 1 lens for a dvd ram drive and if I was to load a dvd rom in there, it'd load up perfectly fine. And the cds that I am putting into it are perfectly clean, had just bought them.

I called HP service and they are baffled as well, they just told me to go buy a new dvd ram drive as they're cheap nowadays but that's not an option for me.. I had just moved into a bigger place and bought all new furniture so im pretty strapped atm.


Yes, that is true, there is only one lens for the DVD drive. Maybe i confused you, but what I meant was to try to clean the lens of the DVD drive. The link I gave above is to a web page that shows you how to clean your DVD drive. Just try to clean the Lens and see if it works. If it does then, it will be better than buying a new one.

johnny80
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31 posts since May 2008
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Yes, that is true, there is only one lens for the DVD drive. Maybe i confused you, but what I meant was to try to clean the lens of the DVD drive. The link I gave above is to a web page that shows you how to clean your DVD drive. Just try to clean the Lens and see if it works. If it does then, it will be better than buying a new one.


if it were dirty it would't read the DVD's and play them .would it

caperjack
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I thought the same, shrug!

shrink
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This article has been dead for over three months

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