Cd player getting picky

The only cd's my player will run are the data cd's that I make. It won't play any audio cd's. It won't even play the cd's I use to reformat. The player appears to try to read the disks but nothing, it just sits.

Usually when I open MyComputer the disk name is shown where the drive letter for the player is. Not anymore. The system freezes when I try to open the drive to view the files.

It works fine for my data cd's, but none other. Have I lost some codecs or something that is preventing operation? If so, where can I go to replace them.

Note: I don't have a windows cd. This is a hp computer which has 7 disks to preform the reformat/install. And these disks won't run, even when system is restarted.

Help greatly appreciated.

 

Seems to be most probably a hardware problem. Either your cd lens is out of alignment or is weak & failing. Try cleaning it by CD cleaner disk. If this fails, replace it.

Good luck

 

I tried cleaning it. No go. Same. Guess I'll try replacing it. *sigh*

Thanks for the bad news.

 

Hello John, long time no see.

You live in a pretty little town, main street impressed the heck out of me

I was there for a wedding two years ago.

 

Hi Charles. Yep, been a while. Haven't had much trouble until recently.

This little town impressed me several years ago so I moved here. Main street is only getting better. Hope you were able to spend some time here during your visit. Lots to see and lots to enjoy.

 

Got a new cd player. Need help getting other one out. I took the sides off the computer and took out the four screws holding it in place. I tried to take it out the back but all those wires were in the way. I got my wire snips and was just about to clip the wires out of the way when it dawned on me I might be able to go out the front with it.

Why are so many wires in there anyway? Theres not that many pieces in there. Big ol box filled with wires. They use wires for space fillers nowadays?

Anyway, I tried to go out the front like i mentioned before but this dang nabbed computer has a locked door or something in the way. It's just a piece of hard plastic. I started to get the blowtorch and take care of it but then I thought that since its plastic I might just burn the darn thing up. Take care of them wires for sure but everything else too. So then I thinks to meself, maybe a hammer and chisel is all I need. But then I remembered that I mostly hit my finger instead of the chisel so I'm hoping I don't have to go that route.

Any of you people have an idea how I can get this thing out of my computer so I can put the other one in?

Oh yeah, this is a hp pavillion 335w. Whatever all that means. I just want to get the dang thing working again. Or I could wait til the wife gets home from work and let her hold the chisel. Better her fingers than mine. hehehe.

 

Hi John,

Are you sure of the model #?

Can't get a hit on hp pavilion 335w on google or on this hardware documentation site: http://fileshare.eshop.bg/index.php?what=search

How old is the system?

 

a335w, sorry

 

Hi John,

Can't find a schematic for your desktop.

I have a HP laptop and a Dell desktop. For the desktop, Dell did include in the manual a schematic on how to replace the drives - cd players, HD's, floppy. But this is an old desktop, and Dell may not do that anymore either.

 

Hi Charles,

I searched the hp site and luckily I found a manual in pdf format and downloaded it. I don't know what they were thinking when they built this case. Anyway, I'll give it a go and see what happens.

I have a cdrw/dvd drive that I'm hoping to use to replace this cd drive with. I removed it from the other comp and noticed it had an audio cable attached to it where the cd drive did not. How much of a problem is this going to be? Will I be able to take the cable out of the other comp and use in this one or is there more to it than that?

Thanks for the help.

 

Hi dopey,

You don't need the audio cable nowadays. It was needed for playing an audio cd in Win95 days.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi John,
If it is a tower, try pulling firmly on the on the front panel. The front panel usually unclips.
HP's often have simple diagrams or arrows pointing towards clips, inside the case.

Is the power supply (PSU) held in by 4 bolts? Removing the bolts and taking the PSU out may take the cables out of the way (you may not need to disconnect the cables).

Matt

 

Hi rsinfo. You have me confused as to the audio cable. This cable is on the dvd player and not the cd player. I was wondering if I will need it when I put it in the hp computer. You mentioned that the audio cable was for the 95 days but this dvd player is only 2 years old. Why would it have an audio cable now? That computer was built in 05.

Hi Matt. I was looking over the manual earlier and it showed some clips on the inside front that I can press to unlock. To replace all I have to do is align it up and smack it a good one to resnap in place.

As far as the power supply goes, I think once I get the front panel off I'll have enough room to work with, although it is cramped in this small case.

Thanks guys.

 

You can forget about the audio cable. Its not needed nowadays either with cd or dvd.

 

Thanks rsinfo, that eases the pain so to speak.

Well lets see what happens....

 

Well that was certainly easy. Asking for help before jumping right in saves many a headache.

Surprisingly though I expected the Found New Hardware Wizard to appear but it never did. The dvd runs fine though. The hardest part was getting those small screws that hold the drive in place back in.

I do have one small problem which I should be able to take care of: The dvd drive is mounted at a slant. The back end sits lower than the front but that is the way the screws align. What I am going to try is to put it in the other expansion bay and see if it fits better. Hope so.

Anyway, I want to thank all of you for your help. If I had tried this without help I would probably be without a computer altogether. Until I retrieved it from the shop that is.

Thanks again everyone. I'm a darn tooting happy camper now!!!