• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

CD drive not spinning

M

MadEye2

Senior member
My friend is having a problem with her CDROM drive. The drive bay opens and shuts but when she puts a CD in she says it isn't spinning and she can't access anything from windows. The drive is listed in "My Computer" but nothing comes up when double clicked on. As far as I can tell she hasn't disabled the CD drive. Do you reckon the motor on it is broke? What else could it be?
 
Check the cables (IDE and Power) first to make sure they haven't come loose. Also, put a fan on the power connector attached to the drive and see if the fan spins (to make sure the connector is not dead). I had a 4 pin connector go bad (no power) and the symtoms sounds similar.

Fern
 
There must be some power going through because the drive opens and closes, and it should spin even without the IDE connecter shouldn't it - behaving like a regular music CD player? I'll ask her to try it but she doesn't want to tinker inside the thing. She bought a fairly old Pentium III 600, I don't know if the drive is new, but it sounds like it might be old and burnt out
 
Originally posted by: MadEye2
There must be some power going through because the drive opens and closes, and it should spin even without the IDE connecter shouldn't it - behaving like a regular music CD player? I'll ask her to try it but she doesn't want to tinker inside the thing. She bought a fairly old Pentium III 600, I don't know if the drive is new, but it sounds like it might be old and burnt out
Click to expand...

On mine it wasn't a bad IDE connector. Rather the 4 pin molex connector from the PSU wasn't carring any(or maybe enough) voltage. I assume there is some current from the IDE channel cable cuz the the optical drive light would come on and the drawer would open & close. It caused a big trouble-shooting headache cuz I knew the drives were working as I had put them in another rig to test. Eventually I began to suspect the 4 pin connector from the PSU and put a case fan on there and it wouldn't spin when I booted up. So no power from the PSU to the drive.

Anyway, it's a long shot. If that connector from the PSU to the drive does have power, and the IDE cable is inserted correctly, then yeah, maybe a bad drive- perhaps the motor in the drive. Or, if they're "belt driven" that c/h come loose. But you'd have to open it up to see something like that.

 
Thanks, theres not a lot that can we can do anyway. She's being stubborn and won't open her PC to check lol and she lives a few hundred miles away so I can't have a look. I didn't know drives draws some power from IDE for the open/close mechanism, and the drive functioned properly the other week, so it's most probably the belt, assuming it's an old drive. Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top