How do you get a computer to recognize that a CD is in the tray?
I bought a blank CD from the store no more than three hours ago, and my computer just wont believe that it exists. It’s a CD-R disk, and I have a CD burner, so thats not the problem. My computer just won’t see the CD. Is there any solution, or do I just have to buy another CD and hope that that one works?
Does the drive recognize other CDs?
You don’t say what OS you’re using, but Windows will (usually) pop up an Autorun menu when you put a CD in the drive, which would at least tell you that the hardware component is correctly detecting the presence of media in the tray.
Where exactly is your computer leading you to believe that it doesn’t see anything? Does Windows Explorer not show anything in the drive (normal until the disk is burned) or does the software tell you to put a disk in the drive even though you have one in there?
Are you sure the disk is in right-side (i.e., label-side) up?
I’m using Windows. There is no Autorun menu popup, the software is telling me to put in a CD, even though there is one already in. I am putting the CD in shiny-side down.
My computer is detecting other CD’s, just not the blank one.
I think that’s your problem. The writing surface (usually colored) should face down.
Missed the edit window.
When I put a normal CD into the CD drive, the drive whirs and an Autorun menu pops up. Then I put the blank CD into the CD drive, the drives makes loud and irregular sounds. I checked the CD, and it doesn’t seem to be scratched or anything.
By shiny side, I mean the reflective side with all of the colors. The other side is dull, and says “memorex CD-R 52X 700Mb 80min”
Windows can have weird reactions to blank CDs. Have you tried burning something to it? Your burning software might work just fine.
Ah, OK, sorry. I’m used to unlabeled discs that are shiny silver on the label side and dull bluish or greenish on the writing side.
Do you put the CD in before or after running the burning program? It might work if you don’t put the disc in until after you get the prompt.
What is the brand of CD and what kind of CD drive are you using? (Control panel > Device manager will tell you)
I’ve tried putting the CD in both before and after running the burning program. (InfraRecorder, btw.) It didn’t make any difference.
I can’t burn anything to the CD. Neither the computer nor the software seem to know it exists. I would just by another CD, but there’s no guarntee that another CD would work any better than the one I have now, and I would just be throwing money away.
If it matters, it’s probably a really cheap CD, as the jewel case it came in snapped upon me opening it.
I think the brand is memorex; that’s what it says on the CD. According to my CD burning software, my CD drive is a TSSTcorp DVD±RW TS-L632H
Do you have the latest firmware for that burner? A Google search reveals that problems are not unknown with it.
If the CD drive recognizes other CDs and not this one, it’s most likely a faulty disk.
Put the CD in the drive and close the drive.
Right click on Start and go to Explore
Right click on your CD Drive and choose Explore.
If nothing comes up your CD is unrecognized
If you can put another CD in the drive and do the above steps and it sees the CD fine, then it’s your blank CD that is issue. Could it be a CD-R and you have a CD+R. Most drive burn and read both now-a-days, but you never know.
Those cheap CD-Rs from Walmart have a higher failure rate than some more expensive models. I’ve often found that 1:100 cds will be bad in the worst brands. The good thing is that they were, last I checked, only $0.30 per disc. Of course, I’ve never bought less than 50 at a time.
Do you have any CD-Rs that have already been burnt that you can test? I take it you don’t have any spare blank ones, which is too bad. When’s the last time you burnt something? I want to make sure Windows knows you have a burner, and doesn’t think it’s just a CD drive. That’s all I can think of that hasn’t already been mentioned. Hopefully others can help you the rest of the way if it’s one of the problems I listed.
Well, I bought a new set of CD’s, and at least they are being detected by my computer. I wish I could say they are burning correctly, but they aren’t. I’ve tried burning this one file (a Kubuntu .iso) on three different disks, and none of them worked the way they were supposed to. One CD refused to believe it had been burned, and it always claimed to be blank, even after I wrote the file to it for the third time. The other two CD’s worked fine until I burned them, but the computer stopped recognizing them after that, and I couldn’t use them to boot from, which is what I should be able to do with them. I am starting to dislike my CD player/burner…
Wait… how are you burning it? You can’t just do a normal “data disc” burn to burn an ISO file; you need to look for an option like “burn from image” or something similar.
My apologies if you know that already and this post is completely unhelpful.
Lens cleaner might help.
I’m using InfraRecorder’s write image function. So I’m not just copying the file. I even updates the firmware for my CD player/burner, so I don’t know whats wrong anymore.
I buy a new CD/DVD burner about every 2 years. I go through the same thing you’re going through for a while - wondering if it’s the disk, trying to update drivers and firmware, trying out new burning software, getting vastly different results from each attempted burn, etc.
Then, I cave in and spend the $40-80 for a new drive, and everything works perfectly and I think “wow this is the best disc burner I’ve ever seen!” until it breaks and I go through it again.
Sometimes it’s just so much easier to get a new drive. If it doesn’t help, you can always return it. But in my experience, the new drive ALWAYS works.