CD drive errors

[The Keymaster]

Ever have a PRISTINE CD that your CD drive simply will not read? I'm going through that right now and it's driving me batty. It just keeps spinning and the light on my drive keeps flashing intermittently. And this particular CD is too old to be copy protected (2002).

Is there any possible way around this?

[MichaelR]

I have had this - all you can do is try another drive.


Michael

[lv70smusic]

I've had this happen, too. Sometimes the only thing you can do is try another drive, but if you don't have a second drive you can try to reduce the speed at which the drive tries to read the disc. It might recognize it if you reduce the speed to 1x.

[Grant]

Ever have a PRISTINE CD that your CD drive simply will not read? I'm going through that right now and it's driving me batty. It just keeps spinning and the light on my drive keeps flashing intermittently. And this particular CD is too old to be copy protected (2002).

Is there any possible way around this? This happened to me all the time until I realized that one of my drives was about to fail. I took it out and switched places with the other one on the cable and neither would work. So, I took the suspect drive out and replaced it with another and now they both read "problem" CDs again.

So, it's possible that one of your drives is bad.

Drives seem to go out without warning.

[The Keymaster]

This happened to me all the time until I realized that one of my drives was about to fail. I took it out and switched places with the other one on the cable and neither would work. So, I took the suspect drive out and replaced it with another and now they both read "problem" CDs again.

So, it's possible that one of your drives is bad.

Drives seem to go out without warning.

The problem is it's happening with both computers here in the house. :cry: One drive has gotten far more use than the other one over the years, so it'd be very odd if they both went out at the same time.

[The Keymaster]

I've had this happen, too. Sometimes the only thing you can do is try another drive, but if you don't have a second drive you can try to reduce the speed at which the drive tries to read the disc. It might recognize it if you reduce the speed to 1x.


How do I reduce the drive speed?

[lv70smusic]

That depends on what software you are using to try to copy the disc. I'm not at a computer that has any such software on it so I cannot provide a specific example, but in Nero I think it's a setting for drive preferences that allows you to specify your own maximum speed at which Nero will use the drive to try to copy data from a disc.

How do I reduce the drive speed?

[bdiament]

Ever have a PRISTINE CD that your CD drive simply will not read? I'm going through that right now and it's driving me batty. It just keeps spinning and the light on my drive keeps flashing intermittently. And this particular CD is too old to be copy protected (2002).

Is there any possible way around this?

Hi Keymaster,

Have you examined the play side of the disk under a bright light?
Is it truly pristine?
Concentrate especially at the inner diameter, where the Table of Contents is written. If the player can't read this it won't proceed.

Might be a good idea to wash the disk anyway. If you do, remember to keep all strokes radial - never follow the circle of pits around the disk - always radial.

Good luck!

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[The Keymaster]

Hi Keymaster,

Have you examined the play side of the disk under a bright light?
Is it truly pristine?

Concentrate especially at the inner diameter, where the Table of Contents is written. If the player can't read this it won't proceed.

Might be a good idea to wash the disk anyway. If you do, remember to keep all strokes radial - never follow the circle of pits around the disk - always radial.

As far as I can discern it is mint. But I'll take your advice and try to clean it anyway. Do you recommend a cleaning solution? Is water acceptable?

[Grant]

Well, barring the drive (s) being defective or bad, consider that some CDs, notably ones pressed by WEA in the early 90s, are problematic. Many of my Rhino and Time-Life CDs made during this time period do not read or initialize easily on any of my CD roms.

[The Keymaster]

Well, barring the drive (s) being defective or bad, consider that some CDs, notably ones pressed by WEA in the early 90s, are problematic. Many of my Rhino and Time-Life CDs made during this time period do not read or initialize easily on any of my CD roms.

Hmm. This is disc two of the Rhino edition of Elvis Costello's "Armed Forces" from 2002.

[lv70smusic]

Just got home and checked in Nero. To change the speed at which a drive copies data from a cd, under the Recorder menu select Copy Disc; then go to the Copy Options page tab and select the desired setting from the Read Speed drop down menu.

That depends on what software you are using to try to copy the disc. I'm not at a computer that has any such software on it so I cannot provide a specific example, but in Nero I think it's a setting for drive preferences that allows you to specify your own maximum speed at which Nero will use the drive to try to copy data from a disc.

[Grant]

Hmm. This is disc two of the Rhino edition of Elvis Costello's "Armed Forces" from 2002. Yup!:agree:

[The Keymaster]

Yup!:agree:

You've had the same problem with that disc?!?

I had someone take it to work and copy it for me and it turned out fine. But he has a brand new drive that can play and burn a lot of different types of discs.

[Grant]

You've had the same problem with that disc?!?

I had someone take it to work and copy it for me and it turned out fine. But he has a brand new drive that can play and burn a lot of different types of discs. I don't have that disc, but if it's Rhino, thay probably why, as I also have older drives.

I do most of my ripping with a LiteOn, one of three we have around here, since my old one just died. If the LiteOns can't rip a CD, the Yamaha F1 usually can. If the Yamaha can't, I use my wife's six-month-old Dell laptop with it's generic DVD burner. That sucker will rip anything!

[tps]

I had a disc a while back, I think it was an MCA "budget line" Mamas & Papas disc, that my Plextor PX230A would not even recognize as a valid disc. However the Teac DVD drive in the computer had no problems with it. Also, it played fine on my Sampo DVD player. I did look for pinholes; none were apparent, nor did there appear to be any other visible problems. I'm sure I could have found a reason had I continued to investigate, but all I wanted to do was get the disc ripped, so I quit after I got a successful EAC secure rip in the Teac DVD.

I've had a few discs where a single track won't rip in the Plextor CDRW, but will rip OK in the Teac DVD. I have one disc (Paul Winter / Canyon) that won't rip in anything, but it has a crack in it. I managed to get it "lined up" good enough to get most of the tracks off, but there are a couple stubborn tracks that have thus far refused to rip. Maybe I'll see a cheap used copy somewhere so I can get the remaining tracks...

[Thesmellofvinyl]

I plug in a new CD/DVD drive and get a message saying the computer found new hardware then a message saying it could not install because something is corrupted or missing. Prompted to click on a balloon for a troubleshoot guide but none came up.

Any ideas?