Hello Everyone!!

My DELL computer is about 3 years old and now won't run any CD's, data or music. I also have a CD burner. The burner used to play CDs but now won't.

I see on the websites that there are DVD drives, combo drives, CD RW, etc. How do I know which one to buy to replace the other one?

I'm not interested in watching or burning DVDs, and would like to just have a CD ROM.

Just when I thought I knew enough about computers this problem sends me for a loop!! LOL


Anyone have any suggestions???

Stay gravy!!

Gulfie

Hello. When you say cd, do you only want to watch cd's? If the answer is yes, you need a cdrom. If you also wish to record cd's, you need a cdrw. I would buy a dvd rom/cdrw. If you never want to burn a dvd, you might want to play one, and a cd player will not. It may be that you need to update the drivers on the old ones. What are the error messages? If you right click on my computer, select properties/hardware/device manager and look up around the top, you will see your dvd/cd drives listed. Double click your drive and select properties. That window will tell you the status of your drive, and allow you to update the driver.

If the optical drive still appears in Explorer, then the most likey problem is that the lens is dirty. You can buy a CD/DVD lens cleaning kit fairly cheaply. Otherwise you can take the drive out of the computer, open up the top cover of the drive and carefully wipe the lens with a soft cloth and a little rubbing alcohol.

If you need or want to replace the drive (in a desktop case), prices for a CD+DVD burners have plummeted in the last year. You can get a top notch burner in black or beige (delivered in the US) for less than $45 $40.There is relly no pont to buying a drive that can only read DVDs (CD-RW+DVD-ROM) unless you really need to save that last $10.For 10 clams you can copy rip your favorite DVDs with DVDShrink and burn them to a DVD+R or a DVD-R with Nero, Roxio or Sonic. You can buy Nero 6.6 Suite on EBay for less than $12 $6. I personally use Nero Suite 6.6 and love it. The same goes for my slightly older model NEC 3520A optical drive.