BleepingComputer.com: cds won't burn anymore

I'm trying to burn an audio cd but i'm not sure what happened since it seems i can't burn cd's anymore. windows media player, nero, and realplayer all fail to burn very quickly into the first song. everything worked fine a couple weeks ago when i last burned a disc.
i'm using the same cds i've been using with the same setup and they always worked before.

i'm not sure if it's a virus problem or not since i ran rkill, then ran malwarebytes, spybot, and ccleaner. it all came up clean.
i also tried to see if there were some odd programs running, but i don't think there are. i checked the recent programs that i installed this month and i don't think any of those could really have caused this either, but i could always try and delete the stuff if i have to.

please help me with this, i've already wasted six discs trying to find a fix. i need to burn a mass amount of my music cds by next week.

by the way, my disc drive CAN read cds just fine, i just put in a music cd and it played perfectly in windows media player.
i've been trying to check other threads online but i think i'm stumped, so i figured i'd ask here.

Hello and welcome to Bleepingcomputer.

Your drive appears to be able to still read disks, but the burning process uses a different laser angle and at a higher power to burn a disk.

Your problem might be solved with using a simple CD drive disk cleaner found in most music stores, sometimes dust particles can settle on the laser which sits facing up at the disk, those cleaning disks have little brushes which brush off the laser when it is spinning.

Try one of those and post back to us with the results either way.

Bruce.

ok, thanks for the reply

i've been searching online for these things, does it really matter which one i get? i think they might sell them at office max so i might be able to get one there. what about these ones?

http://www.officemax.com/catalog/search.js...&search.y=0

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digital-Innovati...leaner/11078704

http://www.amazon.com/Allsop-56500-CD-Lase...mp;sr=8-2-fkmr2

I burn audio CDs with this program. It works on xp, vista, windows 7.

http://majorgeeks.com/CDBurnerXP_d4242.html

sorry it took so long, but i finally bought a lens cleaner thing.
i bought the memorex cd/dvd optidisc from walmart, it said it's a lens cleaner for cd and dvd players but i'm not sure if this thing even works.

the instructions say, put in player, press PLAY, then follow the audio instructions. i put this thing in my dvd drive and nothing happens. my pc doesn't detect this so i'm not even sure what i'm doing, or if this is even the right thing to be using in my drive.

someone please help with this, did i just waste $9 on this piece of crap?

The CD is supposed to have some media on it, usually music, as it plays the lens is supposed to move along until the brush on the disk hits the laser, its supposed to brush any dust off of the laser lens.

Are you saying its not spinning up the disk?

Bruce.

when i put the disc in nothing happens, no autoplay or anything. i try to click on the E: drive which is my dvd drive and nothing happens. it seems like it's trying to read because the bar on the top of windows explorer is moving but eventually after about 10 minutes it says there's no disc in the drive.

i also just tested that my drive by putting a music cd in and it works just fine. so i'm not sure what's wrong.

Hmmm, well I know you said it was a $9.00 piece of crap, I can't vouch for the disk maker, but usually when you pay that much things usually work.

If you feel comfortable enough, you could do what I do when my drives try to be a pain in the ...! I remove the drive and open the case and remove the magnetic disk hold-down disk, then the bracket that holds that silly thing in place, usually you can gain easy access to the laser. Now not all drives make it that easy though, some require removing the whole drive from the metal enclosure to gain access to the laser.

If you can get that far, try using a q-tip or cotton swab dipped in 70% isopropyl alcohol, make sure it is not dripping, but just damp and run the damp q-tip across the lens very lightly, you do not want to disturb the orientation or angle that the lens is seated in.

Use the dry end to dry the lens and clean the lens further.

Put the drive back together and try it again.

If you try this, please post back letting me know if your drive is working properly again.

Bruce.

to be honest, i'm not sure if i'm comfortable doing that without proper instructions.
the drive i have is an HP LightScribe DVD SuperMulti Drive / CD-Writer. according to the windows system info, i have a HL-DT-ST- DVD-RAM GH10L SCSI Cdrom device.

if you can give me instructions on how to do this with my HP drive then i'll give it a try, otherwise i'm not so sure. maybe i can google something if i really have to, to get the general jist of it.
but if i can't do this is there an alternative to fixing my drive? there has to be something that i can do to this or maybe something else is wrong? i'm lost right now on why it won't work, especially why this lens cleaner won't read, which doesn't make sense to me.

Here are some links to various web sites explaining how to do this.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2044857_clean-cdrom-drive.html

http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/ar...ArticleID=31106

http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-the-Lens-on-a...Player-or-Drive

http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1225

Warning this site may have popup ads. http://www.howtodothings.com/computers/a36...-rom-drive.html

Bruce.

ok, so i finally got around to taking my drive apart.
i wasn't able to fully take it apart like from the pics. i was able to get the backside off but it seemed impossible to get to the front with the lens. i basically used some air duster stuff to hopefully try and get the dust out of there if any.

i plugged my drive back in and tried to burn a cd. surprisingly, the cd actually burnt, but later tried to burn a dvd and it failed. i then tried to burn another cd again to see if it still works and again it failed on me. the drive was kind of spazing out a bit as well. i put a blank cd in and it wouldn't even read, the autoplay wouldn't pop up. i tried to open nero and windows media player and they weren't responding for some reason. when i clicked on the cd drive in windows explorer it stopped working. then all of a sudden the drive just opened up for no reason, i was able to close it again and the blank cd finally read, but still failed to burn.

so i'm not really sure whats going. i think there might be something wrong with my drive all together. i'm not sure if i should just scrap it or maybe try and do more tests on it, but i don't want to waste any more of my cd's with this thing.