the dvd/cd writer drive on my pc has been acting up recently. some of it's strange behaviour is as follows:

- it all started with it not opening on the first try when clicking eject. it would be the 3rd or 4th.

- then it turned into the 13th or 14th UNLESS i had a disk in there, when it would still be 3rd or 4th.

- then it wouldn't open at all unless i had a disk in there. i had to pry it open once, i learned from that lesson & always kept a disk in there.

- more recently it seemed to always stay open & not want to close!

- then in the last week or so it will not burn onto dvds via nero, because it kept stating the dvd inside wasn't blank. i then burnt a music cd, after a few attempts because that also said it wasn't blank, but eventually worked. THEN the dvd burnt fine.

- the above happens a lot. i have to burn dvd, then cd, then dvd then cd.

- now it won't open, or burn, or read correctly & i just took the disk out of the drive & it won't fricken open. so i've finally realised this might be a fault & needs fixing...

any ideas what the hell could be wrong?!

Hey retrocircles,

As with all mechanical devices, these things will start to fail eventually. You describe more than one problem with the drive there. A problem reading CD's can be caused by a dirty or worn lens. A cleaning CD can sometimes resolve this problem. The problem with the drive tray is that is could be out of alignment. This can sometimes be caused by forcing the tray to retract by pushing it in too hard instead of using the button. A dirty/worn lens can also prevent the tray from opening, if it has not identified a new CD. These problems are likely to cost more to fix than it would to replace the drive itself. I seriously recommend replacing, as you won't be able to resolve anything more than a dirty lens yourself.

ok cool - thanks for your help!
do you know where i can find a replacement drive? i'm not really sure where to look... (i'm based in the uk)

If it's a PC (as apposed to a laptop), then you can pritty much buy them from anywhere. Remove the drive first - open up your PC. There is normally 4 screws holding it in place (sometimes holders depending on the PC), and 2 plugs. 1 is a 4 pin power connector. The other will either be IDE (ATA Ribbon cable) or SATA (red cable).



For the purposes of making the swap as simple as possible, try to make sure that your replacement drive matches the connections you have on your current drive (IDE/SATA).

You can buy them online (for example e-bay, just look for internal DVD Writer / RAM). However you can also buy them from your local computer shop, or from Comet, Currys, Dixons, anywhere like that for around £30-£40.

EDIT: Marked as Answered.