My cd rom drive will not recognize any cds or dvds. When I put a disc into the drive it will tell me to insert a blank disc into the drive. I have tried over ten different discs (including the one that came with my computer) and none of them worked. I have tried cleaning it with canned air, a plain paper towel, and a plain Q tip. Nothing has worked. I also bought a lense cleaning disc, but my cd rom won't even recognize that either. I also tried uninstalling/reinstalling my cd rom drive, but that did nothing either. Here is some important information about my laptop and cd rom drive..... * I have a Gateway laptop. The model is M-6823 a. *I have an Optiarc DVD RW CD rom drive, and it is an AD-7563A ATA Device (I think that's the model number for the cd rom drive.) Thanks for everyones' help:)

What I mean by the cd rom drive not recognizing discs is I will insert a disc into the cd rom drive and the drive says that the the cd rom drive is empty. I guess that means it's not detecting the disc. I've even tried it with a brand new dvd and the cd rom drive didn't detect that there was a dvd in there. I had to go into the computer section, click on the E drive, and a message came up... Please insert a disc into drive E. What I mean by the cd rom drive not recognizing discs is I will insert a disc into the cd rom drive and the drive says that the the cd rom drive is empty. I guess that means it's not detecting the disc. I've even tried it with a brand new dvd and the cd rom drive didn't detect that there was a dvd in there. I had to go into the computer section, click on the E drive, and a message came up... Please insert a disc into drive E.

I've heard of similar problems and I have had one myself. Did you try to play a dvd? If that works but nothing else, you most likely will have to replace the drive.
I've heard of similar problems and I have had one myself. Did you try to play a dvd? If that works but nothing else, you most likely will have to replace the drive.