CD drive gone bonkers

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How do I clean my CD player? I bought one of those cute cds with the little brushes and used it. I used the air canister to blow through it. Anything else?

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First, canned air can be dangerous to the inside of a CD. Use it sparingly, in very short blast(s) if you must use it. Second, the effectiveness of most CD lens cleaners is debateable. Does yours include antistatic brushes? Don’t overlook cleaning your CDs. They are more often the culprits than the CD player. After that, if there is still problems, it is cheaper to replace the drive than try to repair it.

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TX ! Cleaning has helped before when there was skipping or scratchy sound

But this time it is sticking its tongue out at me. The drawer keeps opening and closing for no reason. I put a disc in it and close and the light blinks then it opens and in a few seconds it closes blinks opens closes etc. After a half dozen times or so it suddenly decided to run the disc. Doesn’t matter if it is a data or music disc. Doesn’t matter if there is anything else open or not. Doing a reboot didn’t fix it one time but did another.

If I try to get to it from Explorer or Run it says “the device is not ready”. But when I check the device manager it says the CD is operating properly. Checked the driver and reloaded the Wn98 default driver for this Creative CD which is what it has always used.

I have not knowingly made any changes to the system.

So what is the average life of a CD drive? Do they decay if they don’t get used? I don’t use the thing three times a week. And I have only had this one a little over a year.

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I have had two cd players go on me right near the one year mark. Its not uncommon. They don’t “decay” without use. As with anything mechanical, they wear with use. Dirt, dust, etc. is the biggest contributor to malfunction in a cd player. Does anyone smoke near your computer? Is this a burner or just a player? You say the manufacturer is Creative Labs. What model?

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I had an older (1995 model) Creative CD-ROM drive start acting almost exactly the same way when it was about 2 years old. Same reaction to a CD when inserted, sometimes working & sometimes not. Followed the same dance routine you went through with this one. Removed and reinstalled drivers and the device (Virtually and Physically) and like your situation, nothing helped. I finally hit frustration saturation and replaced the drive. THAT solved it.

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TX to you both. Built in obsolescence — whether you use it or not it wears out one day after the warranty expires.

This is the third one in five years. What really bugs me is I know people who use theirs constantly with fewer problems.

My keyboard has also started doing intermittent freeze ups.

Could it be memory related? Do those Ram chips wear out? This is an old machine 3GPentium® and 80M RAM.

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RAM does not wear out as such, but it can fail.
I suspect your problem is more a function of original build quality. I am not suggesting you have necessarily bought cheap, some makes are just more reliable than others.
Or you could just be unlucky.

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Tx Lief Does RAM fail in increments? Or all at once? Is it possible that it is just not enough to handle the work load? If it is insufficient to handle everything on the computer would that cause a problem with the keyboard and/or the cd?

Of course I bought cheap But I thought Creative was supposed to be reliable.

“original build quality ” Sometime when you get bored with life Email me and I will send you the Saga of the Bookbox Computer.

Maybe I will just downgrade this one to personal use and buy a new one for the business. I am considering a newer version of the Dell Woody bought a couple of years ago. If it is good enough for him it should be good enough for me.

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As far as I know, RAM either works or it doesn’t. If your system is detecting the correct amount of installed RAM at bootup then that shouldn’t be an issue here. You don’t say how old the system is or what the specs are. But if it’s a P-II or older machine (if it has a “saga” I’d bet it is) then just about anything that you buy today will be a MAJOR improvement. BTW – I believe Woody bought his new Dell early last year.

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Tx everyone Now if I can just convince the tax man that I need to upgrade.

I wouldn’t say this system is old but the tech who built it is out of jail again. He only served 3 of 5 (bank fraud). Apparently he didn’t know computers as well as HE thought he did.

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