This is the kind of CD Drive I have in my computer:

Lite-On 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive

Okay, so the problem is, if you remember when I had that sound problem, it's connected to this.

When I 1st lost my sound that day, it happened when I put my Pink Floyd CD in my CD-RW Drive to Rip into the computer.

However, the computer started acting really weird, the Drive was making sounds like it was trying really hard to recognize the CD or something. Every 7 seconds or so, the computer would freeze for about 2 seconds, then unfreeze.

Okay, now...I put in a CD last night to see if it would work again. It did the same thing (except I still have my sound). I left it in the drive to see if it would get better, and after about 2 minutes of all this sound, and lagginess to the computer, it finally accepted the CD normally. I was able to listen to it normally and rip it to my computer as well.

But still, I had to wait 2 to 3 minutes for the CD to be accepted. I used a CD cleaner disc already and it didn't seem to help.

I imagine the problem can only get worse. I also use CD-R's to hold programs in, and when I try to use them, the computer won't let me, it gets too slow.

Help would be greatly appreciated

Hey San,

Have you only got one CD drive?
If you have another do you have the same issues with your PC when inserting disks into the other?

Do you have the same issues with all types of CD's?

These are my Drives:

Optical Drive One: NEC® ND-3520 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
Optical Drive Two: Lite-On 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive

The DVD Drive works fine.

Howdy San

It sounds to me like your CD drive (Lite-On Drive) is on its way out. If you have already used a disk cleaner and that hasn't helped then it could be a faulty drive.

The only other thing to try is to change the IDE cable that connects to that CD-ROM drive.

And how do I do that?

Too bad, this computer is new, just got it in June 2005, and I hear Alienware service departments are horrible. I guess it would be best for me to do it myself, but I would need to know what to do.

Even though it is new I guess we better check the basics.

To change the cable you need to do the following:

• Power off your PC and remove the power cable.
• Open the case by removing the screws at the back of the case
• Remove the cover

There should be a grey cable connecting to your hard drive and cd-rom drives. Actually your hard drive may have a little black cable connecting to it (SATA) - let us know how everything is connected.

Have a look for a grey cable, as I say it should be connecting to your CD-ROM / DVD drives.

If the cable connects to both CD-ROM and DVD then you can unplug it from your DVD drive and only have it connected to your CDROM. At least then we can test to make sure there are no conflicts.

Power up your PC and test the CDROM drive.

If there are two grey (IDE cables) then you could try swap them around so that the CDROM is running on a different IDE cable.

Hope this helps.