Question for all computer gurus

[CthulhuLuke]

Well a few days ago, I got ePSXe, a pretty damn good playstation emulator, I have 2 CD-ROM drives, and I was using my normal 44x atapi cd-rom drive when all of the sudden, I tried to load up the game for the second time and my cd-rom stopped reading the cd.  I messed around with the different CD drivers inside of ePSXe to see if I could get the cd-rom to detect, but it would absolutely not find anything, it would just say reading error, which I'm pretty sure it did when you don't have any cd in the cd-rom.
  So I thought that was a bummer, I just used my D: drive which is my Samsung cd burner, it works great, the emulator runs fine.  But now, my E: drive (the 44x atapi cd-rom) will not run any cds.  I put a CD into the cd-rom drive, and I don't even hear the cd-rom spin to detect it, the green light flashes for a second and it stops, which is the exact same reaction that I get when I don't put anything in it at all.  So what I think happened is maybe a piece of dirt rubbed off on the lens of the CD-ROM, because I never hear of CD-Roms just dieing for no reason before.
   Question:  What could possibly be causing the CD-Rom from not even detecting CDs? It is still in the windows explorer, I can eject the cd-tray from windows, but it just won't detect any cds.
   I'm kinda scared to say that I might be right in that my CD-rom busted, but that would suck, cause I would probably have to buy a new one cause my dad would blame me.  I hope there are some computer gurus out there that can try to help me with this problem.  I'm pretty sure it's not a software issue, I'm going to try moving it to another computer and installing it there to see if it will detect cds on the other computer.  If it doesn't detect them there, then I'll be convinced the cd-rom is broken.
   -Thanx, sorry for the long question
    -CthulhuLuke

[Elkor]

Yeah, unfortunately they do die.  If the drive does not spin when a cd is inserted (they will do this whithout even a connection to the computer) then most likey something is wrong with the drive logic and/or motor.

If you are electronic savvy, you could crack it open and take a look as it could just be a loose connection due to a cold solder joint or something of the like; but, more likely it's dead for good.

The good news (if there is such a thing in this case) is that 44x ide cdroms can be cheap.  check www.pricewatch.com  here's a link to the section you need

http://www.pricewatch.com/1/40/1807-1.htm

note: when putting cdroms in a case, try not to put them directly over a fast hdd or something else that gets really hot.  They are notorious for not liking the heat and it will eventually cause premature failure.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help

-C

[mrhowell]

Make a DOS boot disk with CD drivers and see if the drives work that way.  If they don't, your probably hosed.  Be sure to check the cabling/ power connectors. If you need a new burner, check out Best Buy. I a 16x10x40 for $75.00 plus it came with nero burning software, much better than EZ CD creator in my opinion. Make sure you get one with burn proof technology.  BTY, to make the boot disk, go to control panels, add/remove programs, go to startup disk tab at the top.
Good luck

[ReaperMan14]

Are these CDR's your trying to read in your drive, or just plain CD's?  Sometimes CDR media can cause strange things to happen to a CD drive.  Not all CDR media are created equal.  Some drives are more picky than others.  This could be the case for you.  Try a regular CD and see if it works or not.  If it doesn't, then I tend to agree with the others.  Pricewatch had a 48x listed for $16, so you won't be out too much.

[CthulhuLuke]

Wow, thanx for the quick responses guys.  Well, since I don't really want to try to crack open the cd-rom to hunt around for many many hours for a cold solder joint, I'm just going to say the cd-rom is busted.  I did find, however, a Samsung 52x cd-rom drive for 25.99 plus 9.95 shipping on ebay (that's the buy it now price, the bidding is like 24) so I think I might snag one, since my Samsung burner seems to be holding up well.
-MrHowell, yeah, Best Buy has some killer prices.  I believe my 24x14x48 speed Samsung cd-burner was only like 80 bucks or something insane like that.  My dad bought Roxio Adaptec CD Creator Platinum, so that added to the price quite a bit, but it was still wayyy reasonable.  24x burning is insane, and almost always works.  The only time it doesn't is when I do a cd to cd copy from E: to D:, then the sound will be choppy if I don't slow down the burning.
-ReaperMan, I've tried quite a few CDs and CDRs.  It won't even act like it's going to read the cd, it just flashes green for a second, and bam, it's done, and doesn't detect the CD.
 -thanx all, hopefully it will magically work, but I should be able to convince my dad to spend 35 bucks on a new CD-Rom.
   -CthulhuLuke

[mrhowell]

Make sure your two cd  drives aren't on the same controller.

[brandon]

I would crack that bad boy open if I were you.  THat is, after trying everything else.  I mean it could just be acumulated dust or something that has bound up the motor or is covering the laser.  If you crack it open try spinning the motor manually to free it up again.  I had a professor at school get a HD going again by flicking it back and forth in his hand like a door knob to make the platters inside start spinning again!  If you are going to trash it you might as well experiment.  Who knows you might get it working again.   Either way you might learn something or have fun just tearing something apart

[ErikRuud]

I have a SCSI hard drive in my old Amiga 2000 that is like that.  I have to give a good flick or two, before I turn on the power.

It is often referred to as Sticky Head Syndrome.  

I have never heard of it happening to CD drive, but you never know.