operaghost on 23/11/2009 at 16:01
My laptop recently started having problems reading discs. It's been saying the disc is blank. Different types of media, blu ray, dvd and cd are affected. Before all it took was a reboot and it would work fine, but lately rebooting after the optical drive goes down takes ages and ends up giving me the 'Last Known Good' option. I got a copy of Windows 7, but I have to deal with the drive issue before I can install it. What should I try? I've ran a virus and adware scan, and ran chkdsk. The drive works off and on, it works perfectly but if it hangs it won't read anything after that unless I mess with 'Last Known Good' and chkdsk but those don't always fix it.
Ulukai on 23/11/2009 at 20:07
You could clutch at some straws and use a cotton bud dipped in alcohol to clean the lens of the drive, if it's easily accessible (chances are it is, as you're using a laptop and usually the whole thing pops out including the lens).
If that doesn't help, sounds like the drive is physically on its way out.
In my experience, CD/DVD drives are not the most robust or reliable of things. Chances are it's knackered. Take it back, if it's still under warranty.
