cd writes, no read

Hi, was asked to look at a friends laptop (HP) pavilion 4560, the cd burner will burn to disk, but then you cannot read what is there. If I go to my computer/cd drive/properties everything appears to be correct. If I click on Explore then sometimes it will show files there. othertimes it says no disc in drive. If I insert a program disc of some sort, it will appear to read but do nothing. If I go to my computer/cd drive/double clik nothing happens.
I thought the read head was dirty so got a cleaner and used it NO change. anything you can sugest will be appreciated.
maybe it is time to replace as it is about 7 years old.

 

It may be kaput, I would try running a firmware update though. HP should have "updates" for your drive. Look at the downloads they have available for that drive.

Are optical drives dispensable nowadays? I have CD drives running in my computers that are 9 years old and they "run CDs" (and I expect them to run a few more years).

Disposable hardware?

Edit: I will make a note of the manufacturer of my "long-lived" hardware and include that in my next buying decision. Things tend to wear-out though. Quality, I expect, lasts longer, although defects happen.

Matt

 

Thanks

Thank you for the reply's. Tried to get update for cd burner from HP and they have nothing aviaiable for that drive.
Also tried running a microsoft recovery disk at bootup and it was not found. I guess the drive is toast. may try and replace it, see if i can learn anything.

again thanks for the replys