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General discussion

cd-rw problem

Jun 23, 2004 11:16AM PDT

I have a Creative CD-RW RW8438E. I am running WinXP with the latest drivers and updates. The problem that I am having is this - my cd-rw will not always read my disks. A recent example of this is me trying to load the game Far Cry (5 discs). It will recognize
the disc 1, but not always the first time. It usually takes 3/4 times of opening the drive and closing the drive before the disc is noticed. Then it
asks for disk 2. When I put in the disk it is not noticed by the system. I tried for 5 minutes last night, but it never noticed disk 2. I have had this problem with other disks whether they are game disks, music discs, or cd-rw discs. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can try to fix this? Thanks for any help the be sent my way.

Discussion is locked

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Re: cd-rw problem
Jun 23, 2004 11:01PM PDT

The highest failure rate we hear about is with CD drives. When they start acting up you can try using a CD cleaner to clean them but that is usually a waste of money and buying a new one is the answer. I got one yesterday for $35, unfortunately that is usually the only fix to the type of problem you describe.

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Re: cd-rw problem
Jun 24, 2004 7:35AM PDT

Thanks for the infor JMarchi!! Do you have any recomendations on brands or places to buy them. Also,
should I still go with a CD-RW? Thanks again.

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Re: cd-rw problem
Jun 24, 2004 10:46PM PDT

With the low price of drives there isn't really a big difference between brands. You can buy them just about anywhere, you can walk into a Best buy, Office Depot, Compusa, computer store, etc and get just about anything.

Other than a CD-RW what are you thinking, you could get a DVD burner, which also burns CDs, but do you need that? You want a burner so you can backup your data in case your hard drive dies.

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Re: cd-rw problem
Jun 25, 2004 7:56AM PDT

I don't need a dvd burner just one for cd's. Thanks for the help.

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Re: cd-rw problem
Aug 12, 2004 9:07PM PDT

I have a Asus 1610A CD-RW and it was doing the same as yours. I took it out of my computer, took it apart and found that the laser was out of alignment and was having a hard time reading the centre of the cd's which has the encoding to start the cd. I moved the laser, cleaned the laser, put it back together and now it work's great. Reading cd's that it would not read for a long time.

Thank You, Charlie

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Re: cd-rw problem
Aug 13, 2004 10:44AM PDT

Maybe try a cd-cleaner? As far as installing Far Cry, I had same problem- kept getting to a certain point, and the install would stall. Disabled Norton Antivirus, install went well (great game!). Good luck.

PS: you can find really cheap burners at http://www.newegg.com