CD/DVD Drive not working?

[victor tango]

Been having problems with this for a while but it's really :mad: now.

I bought a new Flight Sim £50, Tried to load disc one of 8. cd drive, just chuntered on with nothing on the screen until I had enough, tried to eject, no it wasn't having that !! In the end had to re boot.

Now I've got a duff drive and £50 worth of stuff I cant use.
Went to internet, downloaded microsoft fix it app.
Ran it and it said unable fix problem due reading the drive !!!
Well if they cant do it what chance do I stand ?:confused:

So chaps here I am in the last chance saloon, Hoping as usual for your kind and much appreciated assistance.
I will pay around 40 zillion pounds (all in pizza vouchers) :rolleyes:

[Keef]

If the drive itself is duff, just replace it.

In a normal desktop PC, pretty much any drive will do. In a laptop, you need the one for that model, but eBay is your friend. £6 to £10 will get you a variety of desktop options.

You can also get external USB ones - handy as portable devices if you use several computers.

[victor tango]

Thank you Keef....I m on to amazon ordering as we speak!!

[ExXB]

There are cleaning disks, that have a small brush that cleans the lens. It worked on my DVD recorder. Cost a few bucks.

[Blues&twos]

I'm guessing you've checked all the electrical connections to the original drive?

When you say that your downloaded application was unable to fix because it couldn't 'read the drive', what do you mean?

Can the DVD drive successfully read any other 'known good' discs (music/data/video)?

Can you see the DVD drive in Windows Explorer?

All helps with a diagnosis, apologies if you've tried all this already and have confirmed the DVD drive is faulty (of course, if it is, Keef and ExXB have offered two possible solutions).

[The Flying Pram]

I had to forego the DVD drive on my new laptop in order to have Win7 on an SSD. I successfully re-installed the O/S after a major screw-up, by using an external USB DVD drive.

[jimtherev]

...or do I understand that you couldn't eject your expensive new CD and it's still stuck in the drive?
There's usually a tiny hole for a paperclip at the front of the drive to help you eject manually - tried that?