Can read DVD but not CD

[steua]

Hi everyone!
I have an old Acer TravelMate 290 LMi which I'm trying to fix so my daughter can use it. But the DVD, a Toshiba DVD-Rom SD-R6112, will not read CD's only DVD's. Does anyone have any clues to what can be wrong? It sounds like it clicks in some way so it might be something broken.
I would like to reinstall the laptop completely but the Win XP is of course on a CD and I don't know if it will work if I just makes a copy on a DVD instead.

Steua

[CCT]

Do you presently have an operating system on that computer?

Will it boot-up from the XP install disk?

Are there any yellow markers in Device Manager beside the drive?

[steua]

Sorry about the lack of information in my first post. The Acer laptop has Win XP Pro SP 2 installed and it will not boot from the Win XP Pro SP 2 install disk but it seems to try to read it because it took some time before it stated that it couldn't boot from the CD. The laptop has a Pentium Centrino 1.3 Ghz processor with Intel Graphics and 512 Mb ram and a 30 Gb hard disk.

Steua

[CCT]

In all liklihood, the cd laser is burned out.

You can try uninstalling the cd/dvd in Device manager and rebooting.

You can also try cleaning/clearing the filters:

In Device Manager, right click on your cd/dvd drive (not driver) and click 'uninstall' and carry through with that operation and then immediately reboot.

If Windows recognizes the cd/dvd and it now works, great!

If not, you can clean your filters:

WinXP manual steps to delete the UpperFilters and LowerFilters registry values that can cause CD access problems;
Warning ! Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that

you reinstall your operating system.

To manually delete the UpperFilters and LowerFilters registry values, follow these steps:

1. Start Registry Editor (Start, Run, Regedit)
2. Locate and left click on the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. In the right panel, right click on UpperFilters (if it exsist) and click delete, and then click OK.
4. In the right panel, right click on LowerFilters (if it exists) and click delete, and then click OK.
5. Quit Registry Editor.
6. Restart your computer.

NOTE: After you remove the UpperFilters entry and the LowerFilters entry, if you notice lost functionality in a particular program, such as CD recording software, you may need to reinstall that software.

Try the XP cd boot after each action.

If those actions don't work, I am afraid that your cd component is toast. I have heard about laser 'cleaning' but have no idea how effective that is.

[Platypus]

it will not boot from the Win XP Pro SP 2 install disk but it seems to try to read it

As CCT has commented, this normally indicates the CD section of the dual laser has failed. Other things such as your filters in Windows are not a factor in booting from the CD. You could try cleaning the laser lens in case contamination is affecting only the CD beam - this is not impossible, but would be unusual.

[CCT]

Thanks Platypus - running a little hazy - the fact is that, when booting from CD, Windows isn't running so doing something in Windows registry before trying a CD boot isn't going to be any help on the boot.

Again -sorry for the misleading info.