cd drives stopped working suddenly

[kontrol87]

Today in the morning i noticed that my cd-rw drive and cd drive stopped working suddenly. They have been working for years and both do not read discs anymore. The trays open and close normally and they both show in the Device Manager and say they are working properly. This is what happens:

I open the CD-RW tray and put in a disc.
I close the tray.
Then on the drive I see the green light flash about 6 times (scanning).
Then the orange light comes on and flashes fast continuously.
Nothing happens and the light keeps flashing and does not stop until i take the cd out.
The drives do not read the disc and in the explorer it shows the drives with no disc in them.

I tried checking the IDE (ribbon) cables and they are all snug...I also checked the jumpers to make sure its set right...I tried uninstalling the drives from the device manager and nothing works.

someone help!!! ive tried many tech forums but they cant help!

 

[kontrol87]

anyone?

 

[15357]

I had that problem, formatting worked.

 

[Asus]

Hows the ribbon cable? Is it plugged in firm?

 

[kontrol87]

I tried checking the IDE (ribbon) cables and they are all snug.

yes...they are all in fine.

 

[15357]

If you have another CD drive, plug it in.

If it works, your CD-RW is messed up.

If it doesn't work, Reformat.


I had the same problem.

 

[kontrol87]

how do i reformat with a non-working drive?

 

[15357]

The HDD can be reformatted without a CD drive.

 

[kontrol87]

how do i do that?

 

[diluted]

The computer won't even boot a CD off the drive? Have you tried having the XP cd in the drive when you boot up?

 

[15357]

how do i do that?

#1 Get a powerful, big magnet.

#2 Rub it constantly to the HDD



or


Change BIOS settings to CD boot

Put the windows XP Cd .

 

[bryanf445]

Can you try a different ide cable? I've had so many that went bad, that might be the problem.

 

[kontrol87]

ive tried a different cable...and ive tried putting in the windows xp cd in...and selecting the drive as the boot device in bios...didnt work.

 

[bryanf445]

maybe they're dead, try a diff drive then

 

[kontrol87]

whats weird is that the orange light will blink even if windows hasnt loaded yet...like if i put a cd in the drive...then turn the computer off, then turn it on...the green light will flash as if its scanning, and then the orange light will start blinking again while my computer is booting up....