CD-ROM Drive Malfunction

[MrFlibble]

Yesterday my faithful CD-ROM literally choked on a disc and stopped functioning. Whenever I insert a disc now, it doesn't read it and acts as if no disc were present at all :( The system info says it works okay though... Is there any way to check the drive for errors without taking it to repair or ultimately replacing it? Maybe some diagnostic program or whatever... a cleaning disc?

And BTW, can this be an effect of a virus infection?

[Phoenix]

You havent add any harddrives or cd/dvd players to the computer before you noticed the problem??

assuming you didn't..

This is not really possible by any virus as far as I know...

The IDE controller which is in the CD-ROM drive is still ok (thats why windows still recognizes it), but the "reader" that is the laser beam and/or the lens is probably not functioning properly (this is why you see the cdrom drive as if nothing was inserted)...

The only thing I can advise is buy a new CD/DVD-rom, costs around 25 to 50 euro.

a new cdrom player alone is even cheaper, but for a little more you can also read dvd's

[Timenn]

Though first perhaps you can try uninstalling the driver and reinstalling it. Usually the driver is just a default Windows driver.

[Phoenix]

Though first perhaps you can try uninstalling the driver and reinstalling it. Usually the driver is just a default Windows driver.

fair enough I think...