Laptop Cd Drive Not Recognising Cd's

[Gizmonster]

I've recently been ripping quite a few CD's onto my laptop and not had a problem .... until now.

When the CD is inserted, it spins .... then nothing. When I click on "DVD RW Drive E", it prompts me to insert a CD, as the drive is empty.

I've tried going into device manager, then DVD/CD-ROM Drives and uninstalling the device and then rebooting, so Windows can reinstall the device .... still the same.

The CD in question plays fine on my OH's laptop, so the CD isn't the issue ..... plus I've tried other CD's ...... any advice please????

[SlackAlice]

Try very carefully to clean the CD. Some CD Drives can be fussy about slightly soiled CD's

[Buenchico]

You seem to have have eliminated the usual causes. My own experience is that, if uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't fix the problem, it's time to buy a new optical drive. PC World will charge you £60 for fitting one, plus the cost of the component, but my own solution would be to buy an external (USB) drive, which only costs twenty quid in PC World (or slightly less online).

[JimF]

Is it all CDs, or just one?

[Gizmonster]

//// Is it all CDs, or just one? ////

It was fine until today. I've tried a few CD's, but none of them work.
I had a feeling it was going to be the drive itself :(

[Buenchico]

^^^ It seems to be all of them, Jim. See Gizmonster's final paragraph:
"..... plus I've tried other CD's ...... "

[Buenchico]

Oops! Crossed posts!

[bhg481]

If you have a drive-cleaning CD it's worth trying that. If it has no effect think about changing the drive yourself, it's not difficult. Remove the back cover and then it's usually just one screw holding it in. There are two types - one which "swallows" the discs and one with a tray which pops out. See if you can get the old drive out. If you can, buy and fit another. If you can't buy an external one.

[diddlydo]

CD drive in my laptop packed up years ago. Bought external CD drive (as I needed it for work purposes) for £27 and charged to expenses. Perfect and still going strong.

[Gizmonster]

Looks like a new CD drive is in order and I'm prob going to get an external one - I'm assuming it just simply plugs into a USB port and then it'll work in pretty much the same way, insofar as I put my CD in and rip it, using whatever programme I'm using, etc??

Any particular brands I should be avoiding, or any other tips, etc , please :)

[bhg481]

Your assumption is correct, Giz. Just plug-in the drive to a USB socket and away you go - your computer should load the drivers automatically. You also have the option to upgrade the drive, if you wish, to a DVD or even BluRay; you also have to choose whether you want to be able to write data to the drive or you'll only want to read from it ie, whether to get an RW drive or a read-only one.

[fender62]

i had a similar problem, you can buy a laptop cd drive new or used.
i had an old unused laptop, i removed its cd drive and just changed of the faceplate, or as suggested buy an external drive.