Okay, I was just wondering if anyone else had ever had this problem, as the gaming crowd would be the most susceptible to it.

My CD-ROM drive is beginning to read the CD less and less often. I put the CD in, and there is no acknowlegement of it. If I double-click the D: drive, it gives me that stupid "device not ready" message. And there seems to be no consistency. If I open it and close it several times, occasionally it "catches" and starts working. It's so wierd. Having spent the better part of the last few years working on computers, I've seen a lot of strange things, but this makes my list of "Top Ten Strangest Things I've Seen a PC do."

So, just wondering if anyone has had this happen to them, and how they fixed it. I'm open to ideas. I think either a.) the drive is overheating (as it tends to be more likely to happen after I've played awhile or b.) the drive is just flat dying. Either way, I fear it will have to be replaced, but I'm looking for other ideas here. Anyone got anything?

I've been having precisely the same problem with my old Toshiba 32x CD-ROM. Intermittent failures to recognize the disc, just as you describe. As one would expect, these problems started right after I mentioned my fear of the drive's death in another thread. I guess I forgot to knock on wood or something.

I also have a Sony 8x4x32 CD-RW drive, and it has none of these problems, so that makes me think it is a drive problem and not a Windows problem. My guess is that the old drive is having trouble reaching the tracks on the edge of the disc, and as I understand it, those are often where the copy protection tracks are placed.

I have been looking for an excuse to buy a Pioneer 16x DVD, this is probably it. I've had the Toshiba for so long I have a sentimental attachment to it. Well done, good and faithful servant.

I don't know if it has anything to do with copy protection, as I can switch CDs, and it doesn't help, and it happens in Windows when trying to read CDs that it's been reading for years. Don't even have to be running anything. (My CD-RW isn't doing it, either, and in DOS, it doesn't acknowlege there being a D: drive when the problem is occurring, so it's definitely not a Windows issue. My drive might be a Toshiba, also. Hmm...)

It's not that old, but it's not that new, either, and it's read a LOT of CDs in its life. They're not that expensive to replace, but that's not the point.

I was thinking of trying to talk my wife into either getting a DVD drive, or a better CD-RW. (I think the one I have is like 4x2x8 or 4x2x16 -- either way, it's very ssslllooowww.......I don't think I could handle playing or installing from it for long.) I guess great minds think alike -- always look for an excuse to upgrade!

Yup, happens to me too. Maybe it's a problem with the Toshiba drives? Occasionally when I start my machine, the CD light will stay on, which means the drive hasn't registered the disc. I have to open and close the drive a couple of times to get it to work. Once it starts reading the first time, it's usually okay for the rest of the session.

- Alan

I had Alan's exact problem many years ago on my old 486/66. I solved it by tapping lightly on the little LED whenever it didn't catch. I have no clue why, but it worked.

I have a Toshiba drive in my current (also very old) machine, and it's very finicky about even slightly unbalanced CDs. If you've heard about publishers having to offer replacement CDs (Baldur's Gate), that was me. :)

Have you tried using a CD-ROM lense cleaner? They're quite cheap. Most are just a disc with tiny brushes on them. I used to think they didn't do anything, but running it just once on mine cleared up a lot of misreading/no-reading problems. Other thing to check would be your power connector and interface cable - I've had each loosen on occasion.

Your mileage may vary. :)

Speaking of overheating, I have a Kenwood TrueX doorstop (I waited too long and couldn't return it) that overheated so badly I worried my CDs were going to start melting. :(

I unhooked it last night, but I may get a lens cleaner and see if that helps. It got so bad that it would work less than ten percent of the time, and when playing Baldur's Gate it became a huge pain as you have to switch CDs so much, and it never "registered" the new CD. So, I pulled it last night and am just running off my CD-RW for now.

I checked the cables -- they weren't loose. It's not a Toshiba, though, so it doesn't have anything to do with that. It's not getting REAL hot, but a little more than I would like.

I hope the lens cleaner does the trick. I've already got too many things that I'd like to get for that computer to add to the list! And it's painfully slow using that old CD-RW to read...

I know you want to keep what you have-- but a brand new Mitsumi 48x, which is a rather high-quality CD-ROM, is only 30 bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=6&manufactory=1322

Of course shipping will be a pain when you buy only one item. This site has outstanding prices on computer equipment, so if you're planning to upgrade, maybe now is the time to consolidate shipping charges?

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

Yeah, I can't really afford to upgrade right now -- we just paid taxes!! Perhaps soon, though.

If I can get the drive I have to work, I'll hang on to it -- at least, for a little while.

Thanks for the advice, though. I appreciate it.

My Toshiba 24x acted like that.It stopped reading CR-RW discs,the my backup CD-R's, and then copy-protected games.Eventually it just gave up and died.It lasted a good 4-5 years of crap copy-protected games.

Try turning off the DMA,that helped a little bit until it finally croaked.

-Monkeybutt

You can go down to Best Buy and grab a CD-ROM for $30-40. I just had to add my old 40x back into my system after my 16x/10x/40x Yamaha burner choked on the reinstall of BG2. It got to disc 2 then spun way way up high (I was worried it would break!) then finally came down but it locked up my machine. Now the 40x is in next to the burner and the install went flawlessly.

BTW, I have an old 12x (that is in my server machine) that has the exact problem you mentioned. Ejecting the disc and reinserting it eventually worked every time.

-- Xaroc