HP CD writer drive no longer recognizes CDs

**bobybite** · July 14th, 2005, 09:05 AM

The CD drive for my HP Pavilion XT936 with Windows ME has suddenly stopped recognizing any CDs. Neither audio CDs nor blank CD-Rs or CD-RWs are read, and I am unable to burn anything using the Easy CD Creator software that came bundled with the computer. Everything had been working fine until a couple days ago.

This is the drive that came with the unit when I purchased it four years ago.

Device Manager "device status" says the device is working properly. Yet whenever I put a CD in the tray, it won't spin, the orange light comes on, I hear a few clicks from the drive, and the light goes off.

Neither Windows Media Player nor Real Player detect the CD, and when checking the drive through My Computer, it says to "insert disc in drive."

I have gone to Device Manager, removed the drive, and rebooted, and the drive reappears in the listing, but it still doesn't work.

Opening the tray and blowing compressed air has also yielded no results.

CDs and DVDs both play in the separate DVD-ROM drive.

For business purposes it is vital that I have a working CD-RW drive. What procedures do I follow to determine if the drive is really dead (since Device Status says it's working OK)? I don't want to sink a lot of money into a fix, but really can't afford to buy a new computer at this time, either.

Your thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

**shanff** · July 14th, 2005, 03:44 PM

CD-RW drives are cheap. Very cheap. Under $50 if you're just looking at CD-RW and not a combo DVD drive.

If the computer recognizes it and it doesn't read disks, it's probably going to be in your best interest to just replace the drive.

You could also, before replacing it, try booting up from a bootable CD. If it reads the CD to boot off of it, then it may be a software/driver/registry error.

**confus-ed** · July 15th, 2005, 03:59 AM

Read the sticky in this forum & try the 'cd boot test' to check out your unit for failure - you might also like to read about 'class filter drivers' which may well explain matters if this is software, ( & there's a KB with referenced with a fix

)

If this cdr is four years old it may be just 'worn out' & the good news is they are very cheap now to replace, infact if you use your dvd rom at all you might like to think about a DVD recordable instead as they are very cheap too

**bobybite** · July 18th, 2005, 07:21 PM

Thanks for the advice. I wound up replacing the drive with another CD-RW (considered but decided against a DVD-RW because of the computer's age and the likelihood that it will need to be replaced within a year), and everything works fine.

Both of you were sure right about the cost. After sale price, coupon, and rebate, the new drive came to $30! It works like a charm.

Sure appreciate the help!