Dirty head

[jow104]

My CD Rom drive works intermittently, when I put a CD in the drive sometimes its works OK another time it keeps asking for a disk to be input.

I suspect and hope this is just a dirty head.

Does anyone know about cdrom drive cleaning?

I have got a bottle of that acholol stuff for cleaning video equipment does this work on cdrom drives or is there something more sophisticated needed.

Can anyone with experience of this problem please make alternative suggestions.

[oges]

You can get kits that clean cd-rom drives these days, but the price of cd-rom drives at the moment you might as well just buy a new one.

[jow104]

Thanks Oges, you are right of course, most probably the best in the long run, but will I have to go into BIOS if I have to get a generic rom drive?

[outback]

You shouldn't have to touch the BIOS, assuming your PC is new enough that it doesn't require coal to be shovelled in at the back, the operating system should pick up the change when you boot up.

[barnsey]

For about $A 5 you should be able to pick up a laser cleaning cd - Has little brushes on it that you douse with that alcohol stuff you've got and set it running. If it works well and good( did for me) - If not try again if still no good take your box to a dealer and tell him the problem. He'll try to sort it out and if not then he'll give you a price for a new one which normally will include any driver/bios issues being sorted out ;) :D :D

Jamie

[scooter]

...otherwise douse the computer with some of that alcohol stuff you've got, shovel some coal in, light a match and stand back...... :)


Sean

[jow104]

Scooter

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhush


Its the wifes' laptop ;)

[RETIRED]

OR













Drink the alchohol and then you won't worry about it. :D

[PuppyPaw]

K couldn't help mentioning something here.
Although there are many cheap CD drives available, I have seen them in DickSmith for 50 dollers.

But you must take into consideration that for that price the quality is terrible. The lasers that are used are really poor quality as well as the motors and other crictical peices.

Also, I have found this one out personally, that stated bandwidth thats suppose to be available actually isn't there, running test after test on a few cheaper end CD Drive made me find this one out.

Now onto your problem.
Since its not consistant I would say the actual Laser is gone and its time to replace the CD Drive, however giving it a clean is never a bad idea and everyone should idealy have one and use it monthly. It increases the life of the laser by keeping it clean and not letting anything adhearing to the laser on a more perminate bases.

Replacing the CD drive is quiet easy, It shouldn't require you to enter the Bios at all since the Bios won't really care just as long as its connected correctly (ie, Is it a slave or master, on the same IDE cable and so forth)

If you deside to replace the CD drive and you need more specific instructions just give me a holla and I can walk you through it.

[jow104]

Thanks Puppypaw

You Australian geezzers are great.

Cleaned the lens with whisky (no not really iso acholol)

No go. I can hear the disc spin for a second or so and then it stops.

So it looks like a new rom drive . The present equipment is a reader only Toshiba 2018GAP for a laptop 1.200mb windows XP.
But will most probably treat the wife to a new writer with DVD. £64 in the UK.

[PuppyPaw]

is it an internal CD Drive for a notebook??

If so you will have to get the same drive for the notebook as you had originally..

But I am thinking its prolly not..
So is it an external? Internal? For an actual tower computer?

[jow104]

Puppypaw

It's a laptop with an internal cdrom drive read only. Toshiba 2018 GAP.

Unable to locate a plain old fashioned cd reader to fit, its gone all DVD/CDrom read write over here.

What do you think?, I was just hoping to pull out old rom drive and put in a new job and push in ribbon cable. I'm not too worried if the DVD option doesn't work.

[PuppyPaw]

To be honest I don't think it will work.
Call Toshiba to get a replacement drive.
other CD drives wont work due to the size of the actual drive casing.

[jow104]

OK puppypaw,

I will tread very carefully on this one, after your info and concern.

Thanks John

[PuppyPaw]

Kewl, There is another option I forgot to mention that you may find useful..
http://amacom.co.uk/babycd_overview.html
Its an external CD drive that looks rather small which is a good thing.
It has a host of connection options and with the right connection is self powered.
This is another option for you if you don't want to fork out money to toshiba (which could be expensive)

I have no idea of cost for it.

Sorry for not mentioning it before.. I just plum forgot..

[jow104]

Thanks again.

Had a look at the link, £68. (made the wife weep, she is saving for another autralian trip,)

John

[PuppyPaw]

Hey Jow
That is a lot.
You can get cheaper ones, much cheaper, just search around.

[jow104]

DVD rom drive model no SD C2612 Toshiba details on back of drive.

Drive removed an came out after removing one screw (it states its a DVD rom Drive) Time computers replaced this drive back in april this year when it was still in guarantee.
So it looks like they used the latest drive in their stock.

[PuppyPaw]

so they replaced it and its stuffed up again?
If I where you I would deffinatly have a talk to Toshiba in the UK, tell them its the second time you have had a problem with the drive.

and you will have to buy the drive from toshiba if you want the internal drive!

[jow104]

Thanks Puppypaw,
I think I am stuffed. There are two pressure springs which bear on the underside of the drive. One of the springs has sprung away from its chassis anchorage and I dont think its going to be economical to replace the laptop chassis.
Information from our local web forum is indicating that an external romdrive would most probably not install the operating system when called upon to do this task. Or if it can even a dos set up might be needed.
At the moment I cannot work out if the pressure spring broken also provides electrical contact as well. If not I could perhaps create some pressure with some ingenuity.
To talk to the suppliers of the laptop now the guarantee date has passed costs £1 per minute so you can guess I am not in an hurry to pick up the telephone :eek: