Lately, My computer has been not recognizing my CDR. The light on it keeps blinking on and off and I can't open it to get the cd out. After I do a restore, it's OK. Then later on the same thing happens and I have to restore again. Does keeping a CD in the drive when not using it hurt something? (kids do that alot)

hello keeping a cd in like music or a game should not hert it.a recovery cd left in on a reboot could cause problems. you might want to run a virus scan set for all files and folders,comperessed files and huristic scanning. allso try an on line virus scan like house calls anti virus its free. and run ad-ware you can get ad-ware anti spy ware removel program for free at www.download.com run these things to help elimanate problems and post back with the resaults. and please give us your system spects.like posted at top of forum. have a nice day

I have seen a problem almost like you are having. With some brands of CD-RW and the Microsoft updated version of Windows Media player, if you leave a blank CD or a Music CD in the CR-RW drive when you power up, it can hang the drive and sometimes hang the system. You can not remove the CD. I found that this did not occur with the version of Windows Media Player that come with ME, but causes a problem after the Windows Update for Media Player is installed. I even tested this with a different brand of CR-RW and it did not have a problem. Sometimes the IDE bus would get hung and I would loose access to the CD drives, with an error showing in Device Manager for the IDE controller(s). I would have to disconnect the CD-RW drive, Remove the IDE controller in Device Manager and reinstall its drivers. As my system board uses VIA chips, I later downloaded their latest 4in1Via drivers and installed them, and have not had any more problems. It must have been some sort of IDE bus hang with this combination. So if you have the VIA chip set try VIA Tech and download the latest drivers and see if it helps.

Well, I thought I'd try a scan disk first - so I did that. It found some errors, it fixed them, then I re-booted. Now, it doesn't recognize my CD-R at all, not even after a system restore. Any other ideas? I'll probably call Gateway when I have some time.

I had a similar problem and it was simply that the internal power cable into the back of the CD unit was a bit loose and needed a good whack with a hammer to complete the connection. You never know ...

Hi sometime ago I had just that problem & to this day I don't know why? probably no help to you but your problem will probably disappear as mysteriously as it occurred good luck