Member Avatar for Twenty8

Hello all,

For several years now, my CD-ROM drive has been acting strange. It will read and write CD-RW discs just fine, but can neither read nor write CD-R.

Whenever I try to put in an old CD-R disc with data, it won't read or show that a disc is present in the drive.

The drive is listed as "HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4241N." The driver is from Microsoft (version 5.1.2535.0, date: 7/1/2001), and the "device is working properly," so it says. I'm running XP SP2.

Any steps on troubleshooting? Do I need a new driver? Help is greatly appreciated, and I apologize if I've posted this in the wrong forum.

Best,
Twenty8

Edited by Twenty8 because: n/a
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Member Avatar for mjdodd

worth trying a new or updated driver.
Worth checking the disks are OK on another machine.
Worth ensuring that you have not had a cd RW disk in the drive before the CD R as it may be remembering that type of disk and then finds it can't write to it as it is a R only disk. (mayneed a reboot to perform this. and then try the CD R disk/s)
M

Member Avatar for sarah newton

Just clean your CD and ensure whether you are able to run it in another drive.

commented: Erm, what has that gbt to do with the actual question? Did you actually read it??? -2
Member Avatar for sarah newton

If you are not able to run, it on another system, reboot the PC to get a better performance from the CD drive.

commented: sigh... -2
Member Avatar for Twenty8

The CD-Rs run just fine on other machines, and I power down/boot up my computer everyday.

This has been going on for years. I really have no clue why.

Thanks for the replies thus far. I'm guessing I should try an updated driver via Windows driver search?

The manufacturer drivers are here, but I don't think any correspond to the CD ROM drive, right?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=97450&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=96344&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1098

Edited by Twenty8 because: n/a
Member Avatar for javanoob101

Maybe your CD-Drive doesn't read CD-r's????? (That would be really odd if it is true!)

Try using a CD laser cleaning CD and maybe that will help...or use a can of compressed air (use caution here!) and blow it into the drive's CD slot (open the cd drive's door) perhaps that will help clean it out... Dust can cause this...

Hope this helps!

javanoob101

Member Avatar for Twenty8

update the firmware of your cd room..... or go to this link...

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems/

Thanks for the link. However, it wants me to install SP3 and NET, and I don't see how either of those will fix the problem. In fact, I had NET before I did a restore, and the problem was still there.

I think I'm going to be stuck with this until I get a new computer. Funny thing is, it reads CD-Rs that have been written as audio, just not CD-Rs written as data.

Strange.

Nonetheless, I appreciate all the replies.

Member Avatar for javanoob101

I think I'm going to be stuck with this until I get a new computer. Funny thing is, it reads CD-Rs that have been written as audio, just not CD-Rs written as data.

Strange.

Nonetheless, I appreciate all the replies.

That is just strange... It reads Audio CD-R's? but not Data CD-R's?!?

I think (unfortunatly) you might just be better off buying a used CD drive from ebay or something for a cheap price...

Unless your CD drive can't read Data CD-r's in the first place...
Or maybe it can't read the CD's file system. (usually they can read CDFS file systems)

javanoob101

Edited by javanoob101 because: n/a
Member Avatar for Twenty8

That is just strange... It reads Audio CD-R's? but not Data CD-R's?!?

I think (unfortunatly) you might just be better off buying a used CD drive from ebay or something for a cheap price...

Unless your CD drive can't read Data CD-r's in the first place...
Or maybe it can't read the CD's file system. (usually they can read CDFS file systems)

javanoob101

Who knows what happened? It used to read/write CD-Rs and RWs just fine, but now only RWs. It plays DVDs fine, too, or other software that wasn't written on a blank disc (e.g. I am able to use the restore disks just fine).

My laptop is old, though -- circa 2002. I'll have to save up for a new one.

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