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General discussion

CDRW-DVD combo drive dvd works cd does not

Nov 14, 2004 4:33AM PST

I have a HP Pavillion XH 485 notebook runnng Windows XP Pro with a Toshiba dvd-rom sd-R2002. DVD works fine. Cannot read any cd, I tried music, data, and program install cds. Drive spins but Windows explorer and other programs indicate no disk in drive. Any help would be most appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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Re: CDRW-DVD combo drive dvd works cd does not
Nov 14, 2004 5:28AM PST

Such drives tend to fail in very odd ways in 1 year, 2 year and such.

The first thing I do is to try to boot a CD from such a drive. If I can't boot a XP, Windows 2000 or Linux CD, we swap the drive out and retest. Some will want to spend more time on this and try to save the drive.

CD Lens cleaners, and complete OS reinstalls are typical but my test usually nails it without too much work.

Bob

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Re: CDRW-DVD combo drive dvd works cd does not
Nov 14, 2004 10:19AM PST

Thanks for the fast response. I checked the bios to make sure to boot from cd first and tried to boot from a windows 98 disk. No luck, also used a disk to clean cd drive, still no luck. My notebook is dying a slow death, I was just hoping for a "cheap" fix.

Thanks for your time anyway.

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Do TELL!! I just replaced my CDRW in my laptop for $69
Nov 14, 2004 11:51AM PST

I lucked out and used a computergeeks.com DVD/CDRW drive and wow, what a nice upgrade for at least 1/2 off what the maker wanted.

The big clue is a non-booting CD or DVD/CDRW...

You didn't share make/model numbers but maybe I could share what I did for what I felt was a cheap fix. My Acer ter600's CDRW was starting to get sluggish. A sign...

Bob