Is My CD-ROM Drive Dying?

[Len]

You might want to take the opportunity to upgrade to a unit capable of reading a DVD.

Yes, you should get a DVD drive because some games come on DVD these days. I found this out when my CD-ROM couldn't read a game disc I'd just bought. Took me a while to figure out why.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Yes, you should get a DVD drive because some games come on DVD these days. I found this out when my CD-ROM couldn't read a game disc I'd just bought. Took me a while to figure out why.

Yup, and its not to expesinive anymore...

Link (White)

Link (Black)

 

[Scotley]

I have seen intermittent CD drive failures from dust inside the drive, dirty CD's and overheating. How long has in been since you cracked open the case on your 5 year old computer and cleaned out any accumulated dust and checked all the fans? Did you recently add any new hardware that might have increased the amount of heat inside the case or changed the airflow? Is there airspace in front of, behind and on the vented side of your computer? I've seen several failures resulting from people letting papers fall beside and behind their machines cutting off air flow. Cleaning the lens can be helpful in some cases, but blowing the drive out with compressed air can help too. I generally only recommend this for drives that are failing or have failed, because there is some risk of blowing dust or water from the air can into the drive, which can of course do more harm than good. A firmware upgrade is unlikely to help this problem. Try cleaning the CD's themselves. You'd be surprised how often this is the problem. Good luck.