Drive in use?

Factual Questions
1

After much delay, the time has come to determine what is wrong with the CD/DVD drives in my computer. Over a period of a few months they have exhibited strange behavior ranging from read errors to no response. Below are the drives in my tower, with their associated symptoms:

  1. CDRW – This drive will sometimes cease responding after the computer has been running for an extended period of time. The disk will not spin, no lights will flash, and even the tray will refuse to open. It will essentially become a lifeless brick until the next restart, when it springs back apparently unharmed. This drive has also briefly claimed certain disks as unreadable only to change its mind later. Currently the main problem is that when running Nero 6 to burn a CD it will claim that the drive is in use… but no other programs are running.

  2. DVD – This drive was my favorite before the errors, because it is much quieter than the CDRW. Now it almost always presents the same response to an inserted disk: A spin up to speed followed by what sounds like the read head hitting one end of its track. The drive will then slightly reduce the speed of the disk and try again. This repeats until the disk is completely stopped, and no more attempts are made. (Sometimes after a restart this drive can correctly read a disk, but it is almost always a one-shot deal. Take the disk out and return it, and the drive will choke.)
    I am willing to accept the possibility that the drives are just jammed by dust or even KIA through my own fault. However, the aid rendered by a restart makes me think that the problem might be related to software. If that is the case, what could cause this problem and how can I fix it?

2

The clicking sound of the head on the DVDRom is the laser lens smacking into the disc. The drive goes sends the lens into an up/down seek cycle to find the best focus. As things age and get dirty, things foul up and the lens really bounces around.

Outside of opening the drives up and doing a very careful and proper cleaning using the right tools, a DIYer would probably just mess things up. Their are adjustments for serveral settings inside but you need to manuals and equipment to do it right.

Don’t ever use a “lens cleaning” disc. As in never.

The best strategy I can suggest is that you download and install the latest firmware for your drives. Sometimes the makers realize they’re products are having certain types of problems and issue new firmware to handle them.

Check also that the drives are not overheating. But years of getting too hot is not reversible.

Certain makers of optical drives just churn out junk that don’t last long. E.g., one company with a lot of P’s in their name.