Hi, I am really in need of some guidance here and hope someone out there can help. It is kind of complicated so bear with me and I will try to be brief. My desktop is running Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 3. Back in January of this year, it was necessary for me to do a clean install on my system. After the clean install, neither my CD or DVD drives would open by themselves, but I can get them to open if I lightly tap the top of the tower and once a disk is in, it will open and close properly. The DVD drive will not read any type of disc and the CD Drive will read some but not all media. For example, it will read some OEM software discs and certain burnt discs but not all them. I have checked the device manager which shows no problems, I deleted both drives and reinstalled using the original discs and downloaded updates from each manufacturer’s sites but to no avail. Here is where is gets a little tricky…..I am a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and at the time of the clean install, I had Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) Design Premium installed. Following Adobe guidelines, I deactivated the suite before doing the clean install and I was able to reinstall most software using the CD drive but when it came to reinstalling the Suite, the CD drive will not read the discs. I have checked the discs in my laptop and they work perfectly. I do not understanding why the CD drive will not read the installation discs but I wasn’t too concerned with it at the time because I just downloaded the trial software and then converted it using my serial key but recently I ran into another problem. One part of the software, Acrobat Pro 9 to be exact, would not take the serial number. I have spent hours on the phone with Adobe representatives; who quite frankly, has been very little help. The last time I called they recommended that I remove the software and reinstall using my original discs, which I cannot do because my CD drive will not read it. I told them this and they are pretty much at loss so here we are to my questions…… 1. If someone knows a way to get it to read my disc……great! Tell me how. 2. Is it possible to get an external USB CD/DVD drive for my desktop? 3. Would I be better off forgetting the external and just replacing the drives and is this something I can do myself? Any other advice is welcome and appreciated. Obviously the CD drive works on some level because it does read some discs, just not the one that I need it to read so is it possible that something is not configured correctly? If you think this may be the problem please advise what I should do to correct it. I apologize, I know this is a long post but I figure the more information you have, the better chance I have of someone understanding what I am talking about. For reference, here are the facts: 1. Windows XP, Home Edition, Service Pack 3 2. Name of CD drive: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B 3. Name of DVD drive: Samsung DVD-Rom SD-616E 4. DVD drive does not read anything so I am sure it is done. 5. CD drive will read some OEM software but not all. In addition will read some burnt discs as well. 6. I have tried reinstalling and updating drivers to no avail 7. I have tried deleting and restarting letting Windows recognize the hardware, which it does but it still has no effect. Again, I apologize for the long post and hope someone out there can help me with this issue. If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to let me know. Diana
Hey Diana, that is a very peculiar problem you have there. I'd be lying if I said I knew exactly what you should do but from the sounds of it you'll need at least 1 new drive. There are external drives you can get for you desktop: link But they're fairly expensive and in my opinion that's a pretty annoying way to have to use your computer. I'm not sure if you use you drives to copy disks a lot but otherwise I'd say you only need 1 optical drive. Regardless it is a very doable mission if you choose to replace a drive. I'd recommend something like this if you want to try this route: Samsung burner someone might have to double check me on the compatibility but I'm pretty sure that would work.
the optical stuff inside those drives have gone to hell so u have no choice other than buying a new dvd-rw shouldn't be a big problem as they are cheap things
