Cd rom drive not working

[dennis thompson]

I have a desktop computer, running windows 7, with a cd rom drive. However when I insert a cd into the drive and close it nothing happens.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I might fix this?
Thanks

[Grant Wilkinson]

Assuming you did nothing inside the pc to accidentally disconnect either of the cables, the drive is likely toast. They are very cheap and easy to replace.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

While it could be a driver issue or other conflict, chances are high the drive died. Your easiest option is to pick up a USB DVD drive.

At one point in time I had 3 desktops running and 1 laptop, and counted 7 CD/DVD drives on all the machines, yet I only had 1 functioning CD drive. They just don't seem to last long. I ended up buying a LG brand USB slim DVD drive and plug it in when I need to use it. It has come in very handy over the years and it has been surprisingly less-fussy while watching scratched up Netflix DVDs. What is nice is I can use it on any of our devices including the mac laptop.

[Dick Strauss]

There are options in Win7. It could be the CD autoplay has been disabled. Do a search for turning on CD autoplay and that may solve your problem.

[Myk Rian]

If it's just a CD-ROM drive, replace it.
The drives do go bad. Just buy a DVD RW cheap on that place by the bay. $20-$30 shipped.

Don't buy one with a fancy box.
Look for an OEM SCSI drive. (assuming a fairly new computer). They package them in bulk. You get a box with a drive in it. Maybe a cable or 2. That's all you need.
4 Phillips screws and 2 cables disconnected, and it comes out the front. Put the new one in and connect it. The hard part is usually finding out how to get the case open on the computer.

[Roy Petersen]

Look for an OEM SCSI drive. (assuming a fairly new computer).
SCSI (old tech)? Maybe you meant SATA (newest) or IDE there?
375561

[Jim Becker]

SCSI (old tech)? Maybe you meant SATA (newest) or IDE there?
375561

Agree.....

[Rich Engelhardt]

+1 to the USB R/W DVD drive.

The drive on my laptop went out so I picked up a USB drive.
I wish I'd done it years ago.

The biggest problem with the CD/DVD drives inside the computer comes from the fact that they sit and collect dust and junk all the time and are seldom used.
Then when you go to use it finally, it's all gunked up and won't work.

With the USB one, you wrap it up in it's plastic bag and stick it in a drawer & pull it put only when you need it.

The Lightscribe drives are pretty cool too. I have an older one of those that I haven't used in a long time.

[Curt Harms]

If you buy an LG drive - SATA or USB - it'll likely be MDisk compatible. If you want long term electronic media storage, Mdisk seems pretty hard to beat. Of course someone wanting to read the disk in 50 or 100 years would need a drive that could read CD/DVD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

[Roy Petersen]

If you buy an LG drive - SATA or USB - it'll likely be MDisk compatible. If you want long term electronic media storage, Mdisk seems pretty hard to beat. Of course someone wanting to read the disk in 50 or 100 years would need a drive that could read CD/DVD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC
Here I thought I know about most types of data storage materials and options, but I've never heard of that before, and it's been around since 2009.
That same article said testing had it failing in similar ways (under extreme conditions), but still it's interesting. Discs and burners are more expensive, but may be worth it.

[Walter Plummer]

The auto play on mine does not work some of the time. I go to my computer and select the drive and click play and it works. If it did it every time I would go ahead and replace it but the whole computer is 7-8 years old.

[Curt Harms]

+1 to the USB R/W DVD drive.

The drive on my laptop went out so I picked up a USB drive.
I wish I'd done it years ago.

The biggest problem with the CD/DVD drives inside the computer comes from the fact that they sit and collect dust and junk all the time and are seldom used.
Then when you go to use it finally, it's all gunked up and won't work.

With the USB one, you wrap it up in it's plastic bag and stick it in a drawer & pull it put only when you need it.

The Lightscribe drives are pretty cool too. I have an older one of those that I haven't used in a long time.

For most people who don't use an optical drive (CD, DVD) that often, USB makes a lot of sense. They can also be used with the 'ultralight' notebooks that don't come with an optical drive.

[Myk Rian]

SCSI (old tech)? Maybe you meant SATA (newest) or IDE there?
375561
Yes SATA. Goofed that one up good.

[Wade Lippman]

Interesting, I have never had one go bad. In fact I have two from old computers that I just can't bring myself to throw out.

They make cables to use harddrives on USB. Do they work on DVD drives also? I have never really wanted one on my laptop, but someday....

[Jim Becker]

Wade, you can connect all manner of various storage devices externally. While my iMac came with an internal CDROM/DVD originally, I removed it so that space could be used for the SSD I installed as primary storage. I have an external drive attached for the very, very rare moment that I need to read (or write) physical media that isn't a USB key. I have several external USB hard drives attached, too. As to your cable question, you may or may not be able to reconfigure those old DVD drives to connect via USB...it depends upon their interface type and some other things. But the "stuff" to do so may or may not cost more than just buying a current generation portable DVD if you need one...