Computers My CD Drive doesn't work!

This will soon be pointless, as I'm getting rid of my 9-yr-old computer for a brand new one very soon, but until I do, I have to live with the piece of junk. And right now, the CD drive doesn't work.

Let's see. It happened some time ago, when I was playing a game that requires a CD in the drive (Birthright). For some stupid reason, I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to close the program while it was attempting to load. The computer froze, and I turned it off by hitting the power button. When I turned it back on, the CD drive wouldn't read any disks! I'd put one in, and attempt to open it through My Computer, but it said the device wasn't ready!

I've tried countless ways since then to fix it, but the best I've done is to have it working for about 5 minutes, after which it failed again. I don't want to send the computer in for repairs, especially when I'm so close to getting a new one, but I would like a working CD drive.

One thing I noticed, though, is that before the incident, my CD drive was labelled as "E:", and now it's "D:". Before that, my Zip disk drive was the D drive, and now it's the E drive. The weird thing is, my Zip drive works fine, but again, the CD drive doesn't. I've put countless CDs in the drive, but it fails to read any of them.

Can anyone help with this problem before it becomes moot?

P.S. My OS is Windows 95.

 

Win95 is known for its reliability, but interrupting a CD in mid-read kills it often. I've had a CD and a DVD burner lost because the OS froze in the middle of burn. So it's probably better to wait for the new one. I've had those burners work on random occasions, but I don't trust them anymore.

 

It's no CD burner. It's a simple 8x speed CD-ROM drive. Reads 'em and nothing else. But, I do know, that with Windows XP, or whatever the newest OS is, some of my games will not work. Among them, Magic: The Gathering (Shandalar), The Need for Speed 1, and others. So I was hoping to fix this drive so I could still play those games.

 

Have you tried setting the cd rom in bios? Check out bios and see if it has detected the CD driver.

 

No, I haven't checked it, but I will. Thanks for all the tips, and I hope they become unnecessary soon.

 

Well, I checked, and though there was mention of my device driver, I saw nothing about the drive itself. If I knew how to get a screenshot of it, I would post it here so you could see for yourself.

As a side note, when I put a CD in the drive, and attempt to open it, the light does nothing (it used to blink), and a window says the device isn't ready. And I've got a near-certain date on my new computer. I intend to purchase it on the 30th, unless I get scheduled to work that day.

 

Hmm...tell you what. Check the CD-Rom just in case. I think the problem lies in the CD-rom, and not your computer. If the CD doesn't respond, that's probably the driver.

Send it to your computer supplier and have it fixed

- Teddz

 

Perhaps I mistyped. Here's what happens: I open the CD drive, I put the CD in, and one of the four lights on the computer turns on. (One is green and is always on when the computer's on, one's yellow and works the same, one's red and is only on when the computer is busy (it's this one that turns on), and the other is green, is part of the CD drive, and is supposed to be on when the CD drive is busy(this one does nothing)) and when attempt to start using the CD (in this case, a music CD, the red light turns on for a moment, then a window pops up and says the device is not ready. If I hit retry, it does the same thing.

I've uninstalled the CD device driver and reinstalled it, but it changed nothing.

If this is the only way to get it fixed, I'm not going to bother, what with my new computer coming in a week or two.

Thanks for your help, though.