my factory hp cd-rom (cd-r writer) will open up and close.. seems to actually "work" but won't write or read cd's.. this a sign of it going bad? or something that can be fixed...

Check in Device Manger whether Windows is determining if it's working properly. Also, while you're there, see if the driver is loaded for it. You may want to check your cable going to it from the motherboard to make sure it's making a good connection.

TMPletz said:

Ok.. it says its working fine... but it isnt.. what the f is going on?

Also check to see if the jumper is set properly on it. If it's the master on the secondary IDE cable, then it should have it's jumper setup to be master. Or slave it to your primary cable but then you'd have to mess around with making your hard drive jumper setup as master.

Also see if it's being read properly in the BIOS.

I just checked the cables.. everything seems to be in place.
I've used this computer for bout 4 or 5 years.. never had a problem with it..

isn't that kindof strange it works (opens closes) but won't read disks?...

Sdldawn said:

Is the cd-writer new or is it as old as the rest of the computer?

TMPletz said:

is as old as rest of the computer.. nothing has been changed on this thing..

nothing tampered with.. only added was memory like 3 years ago

Sdldawn said:

Sounds like the writer may have died, then. You can get a decent CD-RW these days for around $20 or a DVD-RW drive for around $40. I'd go with the DVD drive just to make it worthwhile.

TMPletz said:

You recommend anywhere to get one?

Sdldawn said:

www.newegg.com has been pretty decent, and I'd go with them again. I bought a Lite-On DVD-RW drive last year and have been very pleased with it and their service.

The drive is dead. I recently had two broken ones on one of my computers, they break down a lot.

Sdldawn said:

This is actually what most commonly happens to cd-rom drives. The mechanism that opens/closes the drive may function fine but the lens and motor that read the CD may have 'died' or become mis-aligned to the point that it can no longer read a CD properly. The easiest way to test if it is a hardware error is to try and boot off a bootable CD. If that works, then it's an issue in the OS installation and if it doesn't then you have pretty much verified a defective drive.

Sdldawn said:

Kick it!

thanks for yalls help.. i think it really just died.. that sucks...


geez..

althom said:

tried it