My cdrom wont spin up and light on front starts blinking on and off when computer is powered. Time to get a new cdrom? or is there something I can do. Took top off. Spinner rises when tray fully closed. Half-heartedly spins a CD when computer first starts but quickly stops trying. Computer says cdrom not available when I try to access it. Mechanicals inside are relatively clean although circuit board is dusty. All mechanical stuff turns/moves by hand.

see if you can borrow another one and see if that one works in your pc. if it does then toss yours and invest in another.

Ditto to guru. Sounds like the cdrom controllor has gone south, or the drive itself. Check the data cable connection before you trash it.

is it set up as slave ,on the harddrive cable most manufacturers support/techs say to set it up as slave and harddrive as master on same cable.

Hey cuz (w/b/n), I tried it both as a slave with hardrive and as an secondary master on with jumper set appropriately. Same results. Just bought a guarenteed good 40x on ebay so not worrying about it anymore.

Nod, in some cd roms if the light stays on it means that a cd is in the drive, in other it means that the cable is not right. make sure the cable is on right( the red mark on the cable has to match pin one)

Cable on right (test CDROM works fine) and light blinks whole time computer is on. Never 'no blink' and never 'constant blink'. Its also a regular blink, never faster, never slower.