Suddenly stopped reading cds but reads dvds

Hi mikey7420 ,


The drive name itself is the clue to know whether it can burn dvds or not.

• In your case it's a CD-RW (read and write or rewritable) and DVD-ROM (Read only memory and not read and write or rewritable as in the case of CD)
• Perhaps the one who told you did not understand your question properly , and understood it , in the sense that it can read CDs as well as DVDs , as far as Dvd-ROM drives are concerned many shopkeepers who are especially new working in the shop just make a guess and answer our question which could lead to this misunderstanding or incorrect information being passed on.
• So the next time you buy a DVD drive which should have a read and write functionality as well , then look up for a CD_RW,DVD-RW drive.
• Also remember that DVD-RW drive can by default read and write CDs as well , but it's not true for CD drives..
• So usually a DVD-RW drive can read and write Cds as well as DVDs but a CD-RW drive can either read or read and write a DVD depending on whether it's a DVD-ROM or DVD-RW.

Hope this helps.

a different laser is used to read CDs than is used to read DVDs. The laser for you CD reader has most likely gone out of alignment. It's time for a drive replacement.

It is a DVD ROM drive which stands for DVD Read Only Memory. In other words, this drive is meant to only PLAY DVDs and CDs but NOT save data to them.

To burn CDs you need a CD burner. Burners are of 3 types:

CD writer only burns and reads CDs.

Combo drive reads CDs and DVDs but only burns CDs.

Super drive burns and reads from CDs and DVDs.

As you go higher in functionality, the price also increases. Check your needs before you plan to buy one. Also compare prices of all the drives. Note: burn-able media costs are separate.

well look for cds that are thicker and sturdier. some low cost CDRs are too thin and/or soft that they cant handle the heat generated by the cd drive.

DVDs demand a much higher precision to read a disk than do CDs and when they go down the tubes, the DVD is the first place it will show up. You can try using a cleaning disk but this is often not successful.

DVD/CD-RW combo drives are capable of reading the DVD's but cannot burn so try playing a DVD with some content on it also Download VLCPLAYER 
from :http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
if you don't have a DVD player already on your system. As far as CDs are concerned it can both read and write to CDs

A Combo drive is a type of optical drive that combines CD-R/CD-RW recording capability with the ability to read (but not write) DVD media

Lite-on SOHC-5236V is a dvd/cd-rw combo drive so it can read and write CDs and read DVDs (but cannot burn DVDs)
to check the details of this product please click here

What is the make and model of your DVD/CD RWdrive?
Check to specification of your drive.
Some combo drives can only burn CDs only and read DVDs & CDs.

if you are good at opening then open the combo drive and clean the lens once by using some lens cleaner solution and then refit it it should work ...

if you still persist the problem then think that the life of the combo drive is getting down and the time to purchase new one is getting nearer ..

after some days your combo drive will fail to read the cds but it will read occasionally for some days after that it will not read anything that s because the lens is becoming weaker ...

at the cost of replacing the lens you can purchase the new dvd writer ...

but also try cleaning the lens with some lens cleaner solution after that it may work for some days ..

the only problem with the combo drive is the lens will be weaker than the normal dvd writer or cd writer so after some days of usage it fails to detect dvds followed by it fails in detecting of cds too ...

thank you

rate my solution

I had something similar to this happen to my desktop. I read somewhere that are are 2 laser in the drive. One to read dvds and other to read cds. Your dvd laser may be fried.