I’ve struggled to find any helpful information online about my problem. For various reasons that only underline my lack of foresight, the manuals for the drive are not available. I’m going to post in a few message boards but I thought I’d try here first.
I have a PC with an internal DVD/CD-ROM drive: A SONY DDU220E ATAPI model.
What should happen: I insert a CD, an orange LED comes on whil the disk spins up and then it goes out, replaced by a green LED. I carry on with my life and all is well with the world. What actually happens: The drive attempts to read the disk but is unable to, the orange light remains on for about 20 seconds then goes out.
Attempts to access the disk in Explorer give the standard “Drive not ready” message. I hold my head in my hands and begin to despair ever seeing Spaced season 1 again.
Any ideas? I’d like to run a laser/lens cleaner on it. That leads to a vicious circle: I can’t use a lens cleaner disk until I can get the drive to read said disk.
sorry, man, that sucks. my sister’s cd drive just crapped out on her and i still haven’t been able to figure out why. first of all, you may want to go to sony’s website and try to find a diagnostic utility, but don’t put that high on the priority list, cause if it don’t read cds, it probably won’t tell you more than “it don’t read cds.” so, the first thing i would do is try to access it in dos, and not a little dos window inside of windows, but reboot to dos mode. if you can access the cd from there, bad news: windows doesn’t recognize your cd drive, and you’ll probably have to reinstall windows to get it back. it you can’t access it from there, open up your box and make sure all the cables are in real good. if that still doesn’t work, then you may want to try to clean the lens manually, but you’ll have to disassemble the drive for that, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could do more harm then good. best of luck!
I assume that the CD’s you have tried on the faulty drive work OK in other drives, so that rules out the obvious answer.
Try removing the drive from the box and taking the lid off so that you can directly see the laser lens. Give it a clean with alcohol (methylated spirits or similar), then reinstall the drive (reassembled) for testing.
The other place that may be a problem, according to a computer tech friend, is the rubber ring that the central hole of the CD sits on. It may become worn and smooth, so you could possibly fix this with a gentle wipe over with acetone (nail polish remover).
A couple of points:
[ul][li]It is a DVD drive.[/li][li]I can CDs/DVDs in and out of it, they just won’t read.[/li][li]The CDs/DVDs themselves are very clean, hell, some of 'em have never been accessed (part of why I’m so frustrated by the whole business)[/li][/ul]
I’ll have a look round for compressed air. That sounds like the safest option. I’m really not going to crack the thing open except as a last resort, but if it comes to that, how do I minimise the possibility of damaging the thing?
My bedroom isn’t exactly a “cleanroom environment” however much I hoover.
Handy: If only I could get a drive for $20. Here in the UK they are much more expensive.
Thanks again,
~atarian
A dvd is basically a cd drive. I have opened some of them. You have to take it out of the computer of course, take the screws off the top, take the top off & there youll see the laser eye. clean it like you were cleaning the back of a fly-gently.
CD/DVD drives are not typically fixable by even geek inclined consumers unless it’s some simple CD loading mechanism mis-alignment or blowing dust off the the lens. You are mostly likely dealing with a service or toss situation. New CD/DVD drives are around 50 - 80. Service cost is likely to be more than replacement cost unless it’s in warranty.
RE new drives see http://www.newegg.com
TOSHIBA DVD ROM, 16X DVD, 48X CD ROM. 16X DVD-ROM playback 48X CD-ROM playback Random access: 115ms DVD-ROM, 95ms CD-ROM Compatible with CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-R media 128KB Buffer MTBF 100,000 Power on Hours Model SD-M1502 - Drive Only -0 $ 56.00
I had a similar problem with a friend’s Sony atapi CDR. I called Sony for tech support they said I had to call Dell (which was free anyway). Dell went through a whole rigamarole of stuff I “had” to do, including reinstalling the CDR and drivers, and finally formatting and reinstalling my friend’s whole system.
I said “but I don’t have backups” and they told me I should make them. I was on my way to make backups when the CDR stopped working, so how was I to make them?
Anyway, I found out that if I let the system sit over night the Sony CDR worked. The longer the computer was running, the less functional the Sony CDR was. Basically, it needed rest.
Not that this is a GOOD thing…but this was a solution. And Dell won’t send a new one.