Hi all,

I have a Sony CRX-140E CD/RW (8/4/32x) which has served me faithfully for a number of years. It's been used both as a CD burner and the main CD drive.

However, this morning when I turned on the computer, the CD refused to load my new Norah Jones CD (first time, so I thought it might have been the CD), but when I tried some of my other CDs none of them worked, and all of the CDs gave off clickety sounds every so often as the CD drive tried to read them. Nothing happened.... (except for the LED indicator staying on until I removed the CD).

Did the usual trouble-shooting routines (Google didn't turn up much at all, no sudden device conflicts, no SW/HW installations last night etc.) and nothing wrong. The CD-RW runs on a W2K machine.

Anyone have any clue as to what's going on? Is it on its way out?
TIA to anyone who can help.

PS Would appreciate a quick response, particularly if it is dying - I can nip out to my supplier and grab a replacement, but it's a Saturday over here! (and they close in a few hours)

If it is dying... CD-RWs are cheap now... because it sounds like it is getting close to the end for it... happened with a 6X CD-ROM I had. Had it for years... but it started making this clicking noise and one day stopped working all together.

I had the same problem - didn't bother with it and bought a newer, better one. 8x is pretty slow for a cdburner nowadays ;)

I heard they got 48X ones now... ;)

They've got 52x ones too ;)

lol.. good taste in music BC.. norah jones rocks!

THe same thing happened to me a couple years ago with a regular CD drive. Being a person who will open up stuff and work on it, I found that the gearing for the laser was loose and after re-securing the gearing it worked fine and has been working since.

Either way to be on the safe side, you sould look into getting a replacement anyway. Just in case ;)

Originally posted by akash
8x is pretty slow for a cdburner nowadays ;) Nonsense! I think I can manage to wait 10 minutes to burn a CD.

Why wait 10 when it can be done in 2?

Just get a new one. Compgeeks have a nice refurbed Yamaha 20X for $45. No software with it, but you've got that. Although I have had problems with old software (adaptec) not working with new CDRWs and had to update/get new to work a faster burner.
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CRW2200-DO-R

(edited because the cats are having a fight about who gets to sit on top of the monitor and one of them fell off and landed on the space bar.)

Originally posted by akash
Why wait 10 when it can be done in 2? 10 minutes if quick enough for me. No use wasting money on things I don't need.

You can get a brand new LiteOn LTR-52246S 52x/24x/52x for $50.

Why waste money on a 20x Yamaha that's refurbed?

Well folks, I cleaned the head and it didn't work, and after a bit of yakking with some others we decided it really was dying. RIP dearest burner... :(

I nipped down to my supplier and grabbed an LG 48/24/48/16 DVD/CD-RW combo, which one of my friends has (and recommends), and popped it in. W2K picked it up straight away, BIOS didn't need to change, and I'm a happy camper again.

Thanks for the thoughts :)

P.S. Xcalibur, I've been meaning to get Norah for a while but never got around to it.... Had to wait until my local store was discounting ;)

Originally posted by akash
Why wait 10 when it can be done in 2?

Sound quality.

Originally posted by akash
8x is pretty slow for a cdburner nowadays ;)
I was pretty psched to find out my laptop's CD Burner was 24x as my desktop's is 4x! -is that slow? ;) :D Yes, it takes me 20+ minutes to burn a CD, though I don't burn all that many CD's so it ain't a biggie.

I'm of the age of records where I'm just happy that 1) there are CDs at all, and 2) that I can burn them. I still find that neat, but I'm guessing the young'uns just find that errr... normal.

I still recall the controversies about recordable cassette tapes, heh. *feels old*

Originally posted by Fiber
You can get a brand new LiteOn LTR-52246S 52x/24x/52x for $50.

Why waste money on a 20x Yamaha that's refurbed?

i swear by liteon... they've always lasted for a number of years with me and are always being sold at a great price. I couldnt imagine paying 40 bucks for any type of refurbished cd/cdr/cdrw. Not to mention may companies buy liteon licenses and cobrand burners with thier name on it.

Heard good things about Liteon burners. You happen to know if they make a DVD burner? I can't find any info here..