My CD-ROM has stopped recognizing CD's put into it, I get a message "Please insert a disc into Drive M" whenever I put a CD in and try to run something;& I cannot play any games, etc. Is there any way to fix it, or am I going to need a new one? I have a H-P with 833 MHZ PIII, with 128 meg of RAM. Nothing else is malfunctioning.

Could be a loose IDE connector. Those are the grey ribbon cables if you want to check.

More likely its simply dirt on the lens. CDROM cleaner costs about 5 quid.

<font color=steelblue> First try reloading the drivers for it. You probly have some kind of troubleshooting software in your computer, that could help you. I dont know other than that man. Sorry... :( </font>

<font color=steelblue> Duh... [img]graemlins/doh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] , why did'nt I think of that. Just clean the darn thing. [img]graemlins/awesomework.gif[/img] Good call andrewas. </font>

<font color="#ffccff">The IDE connector being loose would most likely cause the system to not see the drive at all. This symptom sounds like either a dirty lens or a dead laser. Im betting your best bet is to try cleaning the drive and if that doesnt work....get a new one...fortunatley fairly decent CD-ROMS can be had for as low as $30 </font>

yep.. probably just the lens... ;)

ijust have to share this... hehehe

i had this cd-rom.. i tried cleaning it, no good... anyway so it was just sitting pretty since i bought a new one... bought a new pc and gave the hand-me down to my mum who needs it for typing... tried to see if the cd-rom that was wrecked could be fixed... well... it was running... nothing was wrong... now what's up with that??? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Maybe it just needed a Mother's touch [img]tongue.gif[/img] Sometimes I think the hardware acts up just to torment us [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

Thanks, guys, I think that the window-dirty thing may be it. The tray powers in and out just fine, and the light blinks for a while, and then goes out. What is CD-ROM cleaner? Some kind of spray? And, how do you find this lens?

<font color="#ffccff">You can find CD player cleaners at most music stores, wall mart and target. They are just cd's with little felt pads attached or brushes and some cleaning solution. </font>

Darn, I was just at Wal-Mart last night. Now I'll have to go back. Thanks, MagiK.