Is my computer killing CD and DVD drives?

Hello all, I've got quite a stumper here. I bought my computer (a package Compaq Presario P4 2.5 GHz 512 RAM etc.) 3 years ago at a Day after Thanksgiving sale (got a great deal). Anyway, Every CD and DVD drive it has had has slowly ceased functioning little by little, and they always follow the same pattern.

When I bought the machine, it had CD-ROM and CD-RW drives. After about a year, the CD-ROM quit recognizing new disks, unless it was placed in the computer on startup. Then it stopped recognizing disks altogether, until one day, the Device Manager did not list the drive at all and I could not reinstall it.

Fine, I thought, bad drive. I bought a new 8x Optorite DVD-RW/CD-RW drive to replace it, since I wanted a DVD drive anyway. After some finagling that drive worked excellently.

Shortly after installation of the new drive, the factory CD-RW drive started going kaput in the exact manner as the previous drive. I thought, this computer must be assembled with cheap CD drives, at least my DVD drive works.

Guess what? Now the DVD drive has done the SAME EXACT THING, and being of good build from a different manufacturer, I can only wonder if my system is doing something to cause them to lose functionality.

I have tried everything on all the drives from updating drivers, to flashing firmware, to replacing physical wiring from the motherboard to the drives and nothing has worked. Furthermore, Device Manager has never displayed a problem with the drives. They always show "this device is working properly" (dispite the opposite being the case), until the drive mysteriously drops out of the system.

Can anybody help? Does this happen? I can't find anything on the net like it.

One of the possibilities could be the power supply. Have it checked for correct voltage, fluctuations, etc. Does the system display any other abnormailities? Blue screens, sudden restarts?

Also have a look in event viewer for possible problems.

I would be looking at the PSU too.... I would also move the cd from its current position on the ide to another - eg if its primary slave, move it to secondary master...

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

I would be looking at the PSU too..

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Would you ? I'd be starting with the 'cd boot test' (see the 'sticky' in this forum) to see if all these drives were really dead/dying or trying the unit elsewhere, as my gut reaction to this lot of symptoms, is s/w errors, not hardware.

I'll give those ideas a try.

No, I have really had no other symptoms with the computer, at least not connected to power output or the CD drives. It runs great, especially the physical drives.

I had considered power output but I'm not sure where to start with testing. I guess I'll try plugging the drives into a different machine? I will also test the standard power supply's wattage etc. If you have any tips I'd appreciate it.

Also, I have that similar hunch that the error is software related. This may be a red herring, but I didn't mention before, when I remove disks Windows Explorer still displays the content of the drive as if it believes the disk is still inserted, until I click on a particular file. I can even browse the entire directory structure. This also applies to 'virtual' cd drives (i.e. using VirtualCloneDrive), though I can ultimately mount and unmount those without problem. It's just that windows still sees the virtual drive's content as mounted until I mount a different image, or eliminate the virtual drive. Odd.

Putting the drives in a different machine will tell you if the drive is faulty in most cases. Testing a powersupply is not the easiest thing for a home user, often it comes down to begging or borrowing one and swapping it out and seeing if it makes a difference. Obviously it is easier to prove the drive is ok than muck about with powersupplies. I had made the assumption that full troubleshooting had been carried out on the previous drives, but from your last post, it would seem not.

Virtual drives can upset windows no end... Confus-ed has a sticky thread at the top of the cd drive forum to aid with troubleshooting - start with that and post the results of the filter load order.

Thanks for your help guys, it turns out I needed better antivirus and spyware software. After all the drive testing, I know my drives are fine. I changed my software suites, ran some more sweeps, found several viruses and spyware which norton and spyware doctor didn't catch. Removing them allowed the drive to come back online.

Thanks for your tips again.

I have a sticky in the Antivirus forum for the most used tools. It may help you to choose which to use and which to check your regular programs against in future. Glad you got it sorted.