Wierd Problem with my CD-Rom drives...

[chockomonkey]

Basically, my cd-rom drives will read some cds, and not others. I have a lite-on cdrw drive and a lite-on dvdrom drive. They both do the same. I don't know when this started happening, because i had taken a break from playing certain games.

So i did a bit of experamenting and discovered a pattern: The cds that tend not to work all seem to have a white, non see-through ring in the middle of the cd.

Pics for reference:

And then cds without this ring tend to work:

Anyway, that is all i've been able to find out... i have no idea what would have caused this, because all of these games were once functional.

Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[D3v1an7]

Have you cleaned the drives recently?

The ring in the middle shouldn't have anything to do with it as the laser doesn't read there. If you were to look inside your drive, you would see that the laser is incapable of moving that close to the center of the disk.

One possible cause for your read troubles is your laser is out of alignment and it is unable to read dual layer disks. Maybe the ring in the center is representative of whether the disk is dual layer or single layer

Every time I have come across a drive doing this, it meant that the drive was about to die.

 

[chockomonkey]

Have you cleaned the drives recently?

The ring in the middle shouldn't have anything to do with it as the laser doesn't read there. If you were to look inside your drive, you would see that the laser is incapable of moving that close to the center of the disk.

One possible cause for your read troubles is your laser is out of alignment and it is unable to read dual layer disks. Maybe the ring in the center is representative of whether the disk is dual layer or single layer

Every time I have come across a drive doing this, it meant that the drive was about to die.

that shouldn't be the case.... at least i hope not. I just built this computer, and it is only about 5 months old.... everything was brand new. i also have tried these disks in both of my drives, and i get the same response from each drive.

Also, something i forgot to mention: It isn't that it doesn't recognize the cd. It will recognize it quite well, until i try to launch the game. It will display the loading screen for that game and then a dialogue box which says it is the wrong cd.

that same message each game that doesn't work.

 

[bignasty]

I agree with the above poster, that should have nothing to do with it, last time i had that prob my drive died, it was a 5 yr old dvd drive from dell so i wasnt sad when it died, i would either rma them or just get new drives, a good combo drive can be purchased for around 40 on newegg....

 

[chockomonkey]

I agree with the above poster, that should have nothing to do with it, last time i had that prob my drive died, it was a 5 yr old dvd drive from dell so i wasnt sad when it died, i would either rma them or just get new drives, a good combo drive can be purchased for around 40 on newegg....

again, i don't think this to be the case.... why would BOTH drives die at the exact same time? it just doesn't make sense...

 

[awdark]

Well its possible that the extra paint causes your drive to not get as good of a contact to grip the disks and would cause slipping..

Um in other words if warranty void, open and clean the parts that come in contact with the center ring in question.

 

[wayne]

maybe its got a bad cd... like, bad software on it... altho i doubt that, fat chance

this sounds a lil odd... maybe your cd rom drive hates you?, lol, jk