I need some help. I just bought this HP Pavilion a week ago. The TSSTcorp CD-R/RW was working fine one day. The next day it didn't. I can hear it run at windows startup. When I insert a CD, the light flashes but nothing happens. The CD-R is listed in My Computer and windows explorer. When I click on it, nothing comes up. Device manager reports no problems. What I've done so far: Searched here, went into setup and chose "load optimal settings", I restored the system to the previous day when the CDR worked, Uninstalled thru device manager let windows reinstall on bootup, have uninstalled and reinstalled drivers. None of this has worked. I'm not getting any error messages. I'm stumped. Any other ideas I can try?? Thanks for any help.

If you have the Windows XP CD, just try booting from the CD (not from Windows)... If it does boot then you will know that the problem is not your CD Drive... If it does not boot then the problem could be the drive. Take Care and Good Luck, Nick My PC never Crashes nor does it have Bugs - It just develops random Features at times.

I didn't get any CD with this machine.

Hm... I'd contact HP, not just regarding your problem, but the fact that they didn't give you a Windows CD... that's *really* not right. In fact, I *think* it might be illegal, but don't quote me on that. BTW, sorry for being of no help, but I felt compelled to comment on your lack of the Windows CD.

OK, Here are your Options gregster... 1) Try Cleaning the Lens of your CD Drive by using a CD Lens Cleaner (u get it in most stores) and then try using the CD Drive. 2) Try Borrowing some Bootable CD from any of your Friends (a bootable CD may be any Windows CD or a DOS CD too) The Reason why we are trying a Bootable CD is because ur XP is detecting the Drive, so we need to make sure if the problem is with the lens in the drive or with the Operating System... Let us know what happens, Take Care and Good Luck, Nick. My PC never Crashes nor does it have Bugs - It just develops random Features at times.

Ok. Is a win98SE CD bootable? It's the full install SE. I tried booting with it. The CDR started and ran for about 5 seconds and then WinXP loaded as normal. I changed the boot sequence and the same thing. The CDR (TSSTcorp) is listed in the boot menu. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe it's a loose connection. The CDR starts to go and the lights flash. Would I really have to clean the lens? This PC has only been out of the box for a week and has only had one audio CD in it. Any more ideas? Thank you for your help so far.

Based on your discription it seems like you did the right thing, and if the CDR lights blinked while you tried booting from the Win98SE CD that indicated that it tried to read it and since Windows Xp started loading even after you changed the Boot Sequence that indicates that it could not read the drive... So, here is what you have to do... 1) Try Cleaning the Lens (May Work) 2) Since its a new system (Out of Box), contact Hardware Manufacturer as it should be under warranty and get the drive replaced, as it does not seem like a loose connection problem, but still worth a try to reseat the cables. Let us know what happens. Take Care and Good Luck, Nick. My PC never Crashes nor does it have Bugs - It just develops random Features at times.