CD-RW drive problems.

[TwilightSora]

A few months ago my CD burner ceased to work. When I insert a CD it isn't able to read it. When I try to burn a CD it doesn't work. So in essence, it's dead. However, the drive does respond when I put in a CD. It shows the mouse pointer with a little spinning CD next to it and such. But alas, it can't read it. Any thoughts about what can be wrong with it?

 

[Azurith]

A few months ago my CD burner ceased to work. When I insert a CD it isn't able to read it. When I try to burn a CD it doesn't work. So in essence, it's dead. However, the drive does respond when I put in a CD. It shows the mouse pointer with a little spinning CD next to it and such. But alas, it can't read it. Any thoughts about what can be wrong with it?

Zeee docta will zee you now!

(Sorry for the wait.. I've been abit busy.. o.o)
More than likely, I'd say your CD-RW drive is toast aka dead.
(Yes, it really is 'dead'.)
I've had this actually happen to me, although for a different reason.

Your drive probably just woreout or overheated and melted a chip.

I have had the later happen. I actually opened the drive up.. and on one of the chips I found a 'white powdery' substance.. (No, it wasn't coke..)
Logically, I could tell from the black scorch marks around the chip that it had clearly caught flashfire and melted. (The top of the chip was completely warped from being melted.) The white powdery substance just so happened to be SAND.
That's right. SiO2. Silicon Dioxide!
The chip's silicon reacted with oxygen in the air during the flashfire.. turning the silicon into sand.

There wasn't anything I could do to fix it. I just had to go and get a new one.. (I could replace the chip.. but ah.. more of a pain in the butt than it's worth..) So now I have dual-dvd drives... one to play, one to burn..

At anyrate, If you have a friend that will let you, put your drive into their computer and see if it works.

Chances are, if it doesn't work on your friend's computer your drive is toasty.

You'll need a new drive.
And DVD-/+RW drives are getting so cheap, why not get one of those?

 

[TwilightSora]

Zeee docta will zee you now!

(Sorry for the wait.. I've been abit busy.. o.o)
More than likely, I'd say your CD-RW drive is toast aka dead.
(Yes, it really is 'dead'.)
I've had this actually happen to me, although for a different reason.

Your drive probably just woreout or overheated and melted a chip.

I have had the later happen. I actually opened the drive up.. and on one of the chips I found a 'white powdery' substance.. (No, it wasn't coke..)
Logically, I could tell from the black scorch marks around the chip that it had clearly caught flashfire and melted. (The top of the chip was completely warped from being melted.) The white powdery substance just so happened to be SAND.
That's right. SiO2. Silicon Dioxide!
The chip's silicon reacted with oxygen in the air during the flashfire.. turning the silicon into sand.

There wasn't anything I could do to fix it. I just had to go and get a new one.. (I could replace the chip.. but ah.. more of a pain in the butt than it's worth..) So now I have dual-dvd drives... one to play, one to burn..

At anyrate, If you have a friend that will let you, put your drive into their computer and see if it works.

Chances are, if it doesn't work on your friend's computer your drive is toasty.

You'll need a new drive.
And DVD-/+RW drives are getting so cheap, why not get one of those?

Ah...thank ye kindly. Someone told me the lens might of broke too. I'll have to open it up, see if it's fried or not. I already have a DVD-RW drive so no worries. It would have been nice to have both of them working at the same time to burn from disk to disk. Oh well :/