DVD Drive sees no files on system reastore CD

[Mark Brookes]

The time has come to completely clean up my PC because various peripherals are beginning to fail to work and the booting up process has become unreliable. But sometime in the last 2-3 weeks, when I last used a CD in the DVD/CD drive, a fault has appeared. The PC no longer sees any files on the CD's DVD's I insert. I have tried various disks.

This means that I cannot boot from the DVD Drive to begin my software re-build.

I have tried removing the device driver and reinstalling it (even though it reports that it is working properly). But still no luck.

Puzzlingly the CD/DVD drive still puts the tray in & out. Both when I push the button on the front and when I use 'eject/load' within My-Computer. My-Computer sees the drive but whenever I try to see what is in the CD it reports that nothing is.

Other facts:
* Win XP
* no floppy disk drive
* I have an Acronis disk image restore/backup set form the last time I did a computer cleanup.
* I have the manufacturers resture factory settings CD (Although this will destroy my logical partitions where I store my daily data and archived.
* I do have most of my data and archived mirrored onto a USB hard drive. (I saw problems comming a month ago) :shakehead
* Gradual build up of problems when scanning is what prompted me to decide to rebuild and to discover that the DVD drive was not working.
* Also been experiencing gradual buld up in internet access problems over that last few weeks - after some time online the broadband connection for IE6 would freeze, even though outlook express still worked. My solution was to re-boot 3 to 4 times a day.

* ALSO (big confession) I experimented with LINUX - Ubuntu - a couple of months ago. I decided I didn't want it on this PC (and could'nt cope with it ) so deleted it. I began getting Grub error 2 errors when trying to boot up, but could boot using Acronis Disk Director, which had a 'choose operating system' program. So for the last couple of months this has enabled me to boot into WIN XP, which I was content with waiting till I had time to do a complete software rebuild. Sometime since all this experimenting the DVD drive has stopped working.

* I have talked to a Premium Rate computer software support telephone helpline. They say that as I have uninstalled and reinstalled the device driver then the problem must be broken hardware, and that I should return it to one of their shops for a repair. -- I am not confident of their reply because the computer still operates the DVD/CD hardware (eject & load) it just can't see the files.

Is anyone able to help, please?

regards
Mark

[Leonardo]

There have been times when I've tried CD players that just wouldn't play/read a CD that I knew to be good, that worked in other CD drives. You may have a drive that is going bad. Have you tried other DVDs/CDs in this drive in the last couple days?

EDIT: I have tried various disks. Sorry, I missed that the first time. Do you have a spare drive cable, the ribbon type? If so you could remove the present cable and see if the drive will work with a new one. Also, have you checked to ensure the present cable is firmly connected to the motherboard and the drive?

[Mark Brookes]

Thanks for your reply

Yes, I have tried several.

Each time the Drive light flashes for a few moments then stops. When I use My-Computer it lists the DVD Drive as drive D and lets me open it. But once open it shows no files. Even on CDs which have files on them.

regards
Mark

[Mark Brookes]

No Problem.

I have not tried swapping cables etc. I don't have any. But surely if it was a hardware fault then the drive tray would not go In & out and the light would not flash; and it would not respond at all to commands from My-computer.
???

Thanks for your ideas

[profdlp]

If the laser is bad the drive would do everything except read discs.

Can you borrow a drive and use that to test the system? If the new one works with your existing hardware/software setup then you'll know that the old drive is bad.