Hi, my internal cd-rw drive is giving me a big problem lately.... i dont understand why its responsibility in reading a CD is so slow. Occasionally (if i wait long enought), the driver is still able to read the cd but most of the time it causes my computer to lag and hang. I have tried to uninstall and reinstall the driver but this problem of not being able to read a disk still exist. *sigh* can anyone help me?? give me some solutions please? Thank You

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To me it sounds like the drive is going bad. I would recommmend purchasing a new one since they are quite cheap now. Normally when this happens it means either the laser is dying or could be out of line. Both of which you can not actually fix.

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I have had a couple of CD drives go downhill on me. Your problems sounds exactly like what happened to my drives.
It's a long shot, but are all of the cables plugged in properly on your drive? I have never heard of it happening but there is a chance that a loose connection might cause data loss while transmitting.

If your drive is dying, optical drives don't cost that much at all these days. Some times you can pick up a DVD burner for less than $60. The only thing that you might have to watch is that some older computers have a 40 wire IDE chain rather than 80 for the optical drives.
I had this problem with an older computer (bought in 2001), I went to install I new DVD drive and I had to put it on my HDD chain to get it to work

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Here's a silly question, but is this happening for just one CD, or any CD you insert... Because, if it's just a few CS's, it means they are damaged...

Anyways, this probably means that the laser inside your optical drive is weakening, and will eventually fail... You probably got Sony, or LG drive, right? They are the ones that most commonly fail in this manner... Get a new one, several months ago, I bought a NEC DVD-RW drive, for 40 Euros, it's surely cheaper now...

And to stray off-topic a bit, concerning IDE-40 and IDE-80 cables...

These two are compatible, meaning that any IDE-80 cable will work on IDE-40 device, and motherboard... IDE-80 is by physical properties identical to IDE-40, only has slimmer wires, and is technologicaly more advanced... I know bunch of people using new IDE-80 cables on old motherboards, and old drives... So, that's not the issue... I can say with 85% certainty, that if it won't read any of the CD's inserted, it will fail very soon, and drive should be replaced...

Here you can find more info on IDE-40 and IDE-80 cables...

 

 

 

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