CD-ROM drive reads spastically...with grinding sounds

[996GT2]

On my Dimension 4550 (yes, I know its not the best computer around...but I have a dual processor computer in the house too )

Anyways, whenever I try to use a CD, the CD-ROM drive will read for a while, then make a sudden grinding noise and stop reading...then it will make grinding noises for a long long time; if I am lucky, it might read again in a few minutes...so can anyone tell me what the problem may be and how to fix it?

 

[Pardus]

make a sudden grinding noise and stop reading

gateway had this issue on there Mitsumi FX-400 CD-ROM, there fix and yours is to replace the drive.

 

[996GT2]

well, I was thinking maybe something was jammed in the case causing it to misread...but I guess it has to be replaced

 

[ShotgunSteven]

How old is the drive in question? A lot of CD and DVD ROM drives have plastic parts now that wear out and might be causing this. Same things happens with some disc-based console systems, thus the old trick of turning one's PlayStation to get the drive to engage properly. Not really an option with a PC, though. Plus most PC disc drives get replaced simply due to speed and age before they ever wear out to that degree, at least im my experience.

 

[996GT2]

The drive (and computer) aren't that old. The computer has a 2.66 P4 and was bought around 2 years ago. The CD-ROM drive almost never gets used, only on occassions where I transfer some music or files. Also, my drive doesn't seem to have much of a problem with distributed software CDs, but with burned CDs it has a pretty big read problem.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: 996GT2
The drive (and computer) aren't that old. The computer has a 2.66 P4 and was bought around 2 years ago. The CD-ROM drive almost never gets used, only on occassions where I transfer some music or files. Also, my drive doesn't seem to have much of a problem with distributed software CDs, but with burned CDs it has a pretty big read problem.

My old computer used to have a problem with burning CD's, burned CD's, maxxed out CD's during extended installs, et cetera. It looks like the problem was that my power supply was just barely adequate for my machine. When doing burns or long installs, the drive would spin up and slow down repeatedly as though it were a train that wasn't going to be able to make it over a hill. It didn't make grinding noises so much, but it was far noisier than a drive ought to be in the course of operation due to the constant spin-up/slow down.

It wasn't the drive, it turned out that every drive I tried did this with my old machine build.

 

[996GT2]

well, that could be a problem:

my dell dimension 4550 comes with a 250W PSU, which is powering an Intel P4 2.66 ghz, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, ancient NVidia Mx420 graphics, and a floppy/cd drive. however, the drive just reads randomly, not necessarily after a long time...so I think it's the drive...and besides, my older PIII dell has no problems with its CD drive whatsoever...neither does my newer comp...but that has a 420W antec PSU...