Disc drive question from the forum's resident technophobe.

dunbar

First off let me state that I know the square root of sod all about computers. I have a history of bodge-fixing the things to get them to do things the way I want them to. The last time I took my PC to an 'expert' to sort it out after it ground to halt it came back 'improved' and, to me, unusable. Luckily that one got stolen while I was in hospital so I bought a new one about a year ago - it's a black one, called 'Samsung'. If I squint, the pretty labels tell me that it's got Windows 7 with an intel core i5 (processor?).

My problem is that it has stopped reading my game discs - when I insert one it just makes whirring, scratchy sounds until I eject the disc. This a problem that has worsened with time, previously it would just obstinately refuse to read some discs but not others and then when I tried to uninstall Icewind Dale (because it was crashing the computer whenever I tried to run it) it wouldn't uninstall.

So my question is: If I buy one of those external CD drives that I've seen advertised on Amazon and just plug it into one of the numerous holes in my computer will this effectively bypass my existing disc drive, thereby eliminating all the problems associated with it? Or are the problems more likely to be embedded in the machine itself? And if an external drive is the answer, what should I look for or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks in advance for any advice, but please keep it idiot simple!

Heindrich

I am not expert, but it sounds like your DVD drive has broken down, although it might also be because your disks are old/scratched/dirty, so the first thing to do would be to inspect whichever disk is not working, and give it a gentle clean with a non-abrasive cloth. If it's already significantly scratched, I don't think there's much that can be done.

I assume you have a DVD drive, because if you bought your PC last year, it is pretty implausible that it came with a mere CD drive, which would not run modern DVDs.

If you establish that the fault is not with the disks, then yes, I think your internal disk drive is broken, and yes an external one should replace it.

It's actually not that difficult to replace an internal disk drive if you wished. I built my own PC for the first time this year, with no previous experience, just from watching Youtube videos. Once you've seen it done, all the inner workings of a PC gets de-mystified to a great extent.

Troodon80

Uninstalling (the original) Icewind Dale should not require a disc, so there might be some sort of embedded issue there. I would be hesitant in recommending you spend money without getting to the base of the issue. You said it started out with only some discs not being read? What is the condition of those discs?

dunbar

I've used a cleaning kit on all my discs and a cleaning disc in the machine itself - to no avail.

As for trying to get to the base of the issue, because I also have a more recent problem in that I can't create a new character in BG1EE (Steam) I ran a system restore from a date before the problem arose which a) didn't solve the BG1EE problem and b) wiped BG2EE (Steam) from my computer which I am now trying to get Steam to reload.

Thanks to both of you but I think my PC might be a bit stuffed and I'll have to take it to another 'expert' after all.

FinneousPJ

If only some discs exhibit this problem, the problem is unlikely to be with the drive itself.