The problem I’m having is that the CD drive is only sporadically reading CDs now. It shows up in device manager as working properly. But when I put a CD in, it spins the CD for like 3 seconds, then just stops/”gives up”. And then I have to eject and re-insert the disc usually 20 times or more before it’ll finally read the CD properly.
Did some previous Googling on this. People suggested the laser lens might be dirty. I tried multiple brands of CD laser lens cleaning discs (the ones with the little brushes on the underside of the disc). I don’t think that solved the problem…the drive wouldn’t even read the CD cleaning disc! (It finally read it after 23-something retries.) The drive still had problems reading CDs after putting the CD cleaning CD in it.
I’m now faced with the possibility that I simply have a failed CD-ROM drive. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Try re-seating the data cable a few times.