# CD Drive problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984 "2008-12-19T22:06:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/1 "2008-12-19T22:06:48Z")
My CD drive will play a music CD, but it won’t read a program disk I want to load. It also won’t read the driver disk, so I can’t reinstall it. Is there something I can do to avoid dragging this to a repair shop? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/2 "2008-12-19T23:41:45Z")
What make and model? ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/3 "2008-12-19T23:49:56Z")
It’s likely that the drivers can be downloaded for free from the manufacturer’s website. Assuming it’s a driver issue, of course, which I don’t have enough information to determine. But it couldn’t hurt. ETA: Wait, do CD drives even come with drivers anymore? All of the ones I’ve installed in the past few years have been automatically configured by Windows upon installation. ETA #2: If you determine that faulty hardware is the problem, I’d recommend avoiding the repair shop. It’s going to cost [well over the cost of a brand new CD/DVD drive](http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=5&name=CD-DVD-Burners) to repair such a thing. And swapping them out isn’t too difficult, really. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/4 "2008-12-19T23:51:01Z")
Samsung SW 252S I ran Driver Detective and it said everything is fine. But it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/5 "2008-12-21T00:33:54Z")
New wrinkle - it’ll read and install commercially produced CDs, but it won’t read a couple that I burned. Maddening… ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/6 "2008-12-21T01:11:26Z")
Are you waiting for it to pop up automatically after you put the CD in or are you navigating to the drive and finding that nothing is there? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/7 "2008-12-21T01:14:17Z")
Try using a laser lens cleaning disk in the drive. This often fixes a problematic drive with your issue. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/8 "2008-12-21T16:08:26Z")
Fubaya - I’m going to the disk and seeing nothing. I tried the disk on another computer and it’s fine, so it’s my drive. I’ll try cleaning the lens. Thanks for the suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/9 "2008-12-21T16:40:56Z")
It seems to me the music is not being read digitally through the IDE bus but rather it is going directly via analog cable to the sound card. In other words, you may have a problem on the digital IDE cable. The first thing I would do is check cable and connections. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/10 "2008-12-21T17:24:25Z")
How old is it? They all go bad eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/11 "2008-12-21T17:32:49Z")
For $5 more than a cleaning doo hickey you can just buy a new one. Hell, splurge and for $25 you can get a new burner. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/12 "2008-12-21T17:49:19Z")
A new burner is only $25? Well, dang, maybe I’ll just do that. This system is (thinking) 6 or 7 years old maybe… ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-drive-problem/477984/13 "2008-12-21T18:27:17Z")
For $25 - $35 you can get an internal DVD player/burner, which will also play and burn CDs.