16 replies to this topic

[Ezekiel]

Alright. I've been using my Dell for over 3 years now. And, though I hate to admit it, it's been a decent computer. Besides the time the video card got fried (Thank god for warrenties.). On it I have a 48x CD-ROM drive, and a 32x write and read CD-ROM drive (I know, no DvD, but my mom bought me the computer for x-mas and I wasn't going to say sh*t.). As of last year my top CD drive (The 48x read one.) started to selectively choose what it read. Basically unless it was an audio CD, it didn't read it. I figured, it's old, probably on it's last leg. So I just started using the bottom drive for all my gaming. Which most of my games didn't use a CD past installation.

Now as of last week or 2, the bottom drive has suddenly stopped working. At first, wierd I know, would only read games if I put in an audio CD first. Then It just stopped reading anything. Both drives are compeltely useless. I put in a cd, it revvs up, blinks a light, then stops.

Alright, now that the background is over with, to the real point of this post. Is there anything I can do to fix the drives? Cause as of now the only games I can play are CS:S, and Planetside. Which, though isn't horrible, gets incredably dull on days with extra amounts of free time.

Oh, and I'm currently building my next computer. I just have absolutly no money right now, because the weather the last few weeks has just sucked balls, cutting my hours worked from 25 to a sh*tty, barely pay for gas for my car, 5 hrs. Though, this week has picked up and my next paycheck will be back to normal, I have plenty of expences that already consume my next paycheck.

Edited by Ezekiel, 07 February 2006 - 12:14 PM.

[Cyprus]

I have the same damn problem with my dell thats 4 years old! I only have one cd-drive though.

I tried playing Starcraft one day and the drive wouldnt read my cd...
Then i tried playing Diablo, and the same thing happened. The Cd revs up, and then it doesnt load..
Thank god im getting a new computer this summer!

Yeah and about the problem, im doing nothing really. See if there is something wrong with the cd, cuz some of my other games work, but the cd rattles inside the drive, don't want that to happen. Is your warrenty still up? If it is then try getting a new one.

[wyte mafia]

this is nothing like the time mad hatter broke his dvd burner. hahahaha. they dont call him mad for nothing

[IWantWhiteCastle]

I have a compaq and my cd-rw drive stopped working like a year and a few months after I bought it

[Sniprwulf]

i believe cd drives are extremely cheap nowadays.

check it out here

or you can get a dvd+-rw drive for 45bucks free 2nd day shipping

[Novahawk]

thats why gateways own lols..

[Ezekiel]

i believe cd drives are extremely cheap nowadays.

check it out here

or you can get a dvd+-rw drive for 45bucks free 2nd day shipping

I know they're not exspensive. It's the fact that I have $25 dollars to my name, with bills for $30 for credit card payment (Charged my mouse on there.), $50 car insurence, $40 cell phone, plus I need gas in my car soon, which is about $30. Leaving my $140 paycheck strained and gone. I just hope my tax refund comes soon. So I can finish my computer and send my old Dell off with a thermite salute.

I guess till then I'll just have to make due with what I can do with it. Oh well.

Plus, I will never use eBay again. I've already lost enough money to faulty merch off people. f*cking lieing assholes...

Edited by Ezekiel, 07 February 2006 - 04:08 PM.

[DavidHeisel]

with all those failures I'd suspect heat to be the cause, you might want to make sure you have good ventilation in that part of the case before putting a new drive into a potential oven.

[Ezekiel]

Haha. What f*cking luck. I only made $5 in tips at work today, so I took it and bought scratch and win tickets. Won $50 on one and $20 on another, so I picked up a new DvD/CD/CD writer drive.

But now that Heisel posted, I'm kinda worried about putting it in. Because my computer is a Dell, and Dell computers only have that one crappy fan on the back. So, heat could be the issue.

I think I may be better off just saying deal with my computer as is. Save the drive for my computer in progress.

Edited by Ezekiel, 07 February 2006 - 09:55 PM.

[Sniprwulf]

lol it was meant to be. i'm sure the heat won't pose a threat man, i mean esp if its only for 6months. i wouldnt worry about it that much. id just install the mofo.

[Ezekiel]

Ok... Now that I've installed the new drive, my computer wont recognize that there's a new, unknown, device. It just recognizes that the old drive isn't there. Lil help would be nice, my brain is too fried from today to really try a bunch of crap.

[Billy Pumper]

try going into your bios and telling to recognize it.

you know how to do that?

[Ezekiel]

try going into your bios and telling to recognize it.

you know how to do that?

No clue.... Im about to take some explosives to my computer though. Ever since I restarted my computer, I've been getting pop ups every 15 seconds. And my firewall wont do sh*t.... I think I may just reformat again. Or say f*ck the comp and do without till I finish my next one.

Edited by Ezekiel, 08 February 2006 - 09:20 PM.

[Billy Pumper]

ahh reboot your computer and hit F10, F2 whatever it is and bring up bios. if youve never done this before you might wanna go to bed and deal with this in the morning, read up on it on another comp

[monster]

Go buy a new dvd burner man... f*ck they're like $40 CDN.. so they gotta be a f*ck of a lot cheaper in the US

[anadate]

had the same problem with my dell fookin 1400 dollar heap of sh*t.. but at least it was still under the basic warranty .. basically did the same thing you described.. started being a selective reader than hardly working at all then not working at all.. they replaced it for free and quote "we have had alot of these go out seems like I'm replacing 8 to 10 a week" (service dude) dell blows and with you installing a new rom in your puter ..hope you have better luck than i did with an excess drive.. the sh*tty quick connects they have in there i couldn't get any kinda screw holes to line up .. so i had a 30 gigger just laying in there and never got it to work.. something kept fookin up.. so i just put it back in my old gateway and networked to it.. :( dells like a monopoly hard as hell to upgrade but easy as hell as long as you by it from them.

[Ezekiel]

f*ck it, I'm reformatting. I'm getting like 12 pop ups at a time, I have no f*cking clue why a simple restart of my computer after installing the dvd/cd drive would cause so much problems. Manual deletion of unknow, obvious spyware files, resetting to a month ago, nothing. So, I may be gone a day or 2 trying to work this sh*t out.