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This has proven very strange. A couple hours ago my CD-R drive made some strange clicking sounds, then a few minutes later opened by its self twice. At that point the button also ceased working and I had to push it closed by hand. I then restarted, and since then the drive has showed a steady red light. Also under My Computer, it no longer has an icon and at one point neither did my normal CD drive, though it came back after a restart and has since worked without problems.

This is all quite strange, I've never had any problems with either drive before, and I haven't changed anything in the way of settings or hardware remotely recently on my computer. I also know there's nothing stuck inside. Anyone have any ideas what could cause this?

Sounds like your drive kicked the bucket.

Check your manual. My Plextor has a self test mode that'll help diagnose problems with the drive. Yours might have one as well.

Or at least it'll tell you that a red light means NO YUO.

If you're looking for a replacement, I just bought the Plextor PX-W5224 at the top of this page.

For $60, it's a steal.
Of course, I bought mine last month when they introduced it at $49.99 shipped.

Check a couple of things. You said the CD-R no longer shows up in when you look at "My Computer".

Have you tried looking at the "Device Manager" to see if the drive shows up there with a yellow exclamation point?

If it is there with a yellow exclamation point, then there is probably a software problem.


If it does not show up in "Device Manager" then check to see if your computer's BIOS detects the CD-R.

If it does not show up in BIOS, either the cable is shot or the CD-R itself is shot. You said your regular CD showed up, are they on the same ribbon?

Given the info you gave us, I would suspect a failure of the CD-R itself.

Try reseating the IDE (on all parts of the chain) and power cables.

Try updating the BIOS; that should give you a fresh start. If that doesn't work, you drive is hosed.

Well thanks for all the advice. But when I restarted this morning everything came back and is at least acting normally, though I've yet to burn anything to test it out.


Edit: Well its back to its old and fucking annoying tricks, with the addition of freezing my computer.

Check your manual. My Plextor has a self test mode that'll help diagnose problems with the drive. Yours might have one as well.

Or at least it'll tell you that a red light means NO YUO.

My manuals a piece of worthless trash designed for the computer literate, no mention of a self test though.

Have you tried looking at the "Device Manager" to see if the drive shows up there with a yellow exclamation point?

If it is there with a yellow exclamation point, then there is probably a software problem.


If it does not show up in "Device Manager" then check to see if your computer's BIOS detects the CD-R.

If it does not show up in BIOS, either the cable is shot or the CD-R itself is shot. You said your regular CD showed up, are they on the same ribbon?

It doesn't show on Device Manager or BIOS. The drives aren't connect by ribbon, it's a cluster of fat wires, none of which are shared.

Try reseating the IDE (on all parts of the chain) and power cables.

Already tired.

Try updating the BIOS; that should give you a fresh start. If that doesn't work, you drive is hosed.

Didn't change anything. And since now the drive was completely stopped working as opposed to its sporadic functioning earlier I'm just going to assume its shot and disconnect it.

Sea Skimmer wrote: Didn't change anything. And since now the drive was completely stopped working as opposed to its sporadic functioning earlier I'm just going to assume its shot and disconnect it.

Well that sucks. A last ditch thing you could try would be to see if the drive funtions in another machine. But it is probably a goner. Sorry, man.
Look at the bright side, they get cheaper all the time.

TrailerParkJawa wrote:
Well that sucks. A last ditch thing you could try would be to see if the drive funtions in another machine. But it is probably a goner. Sorry, man.
Look at the bright side, they get cheaper all the time.

Currently my computer is freezing up so much I think I may have some other problem. I think it could use reformatting.