[joelisa]

I have a Gateway laptop and my CD/DVD rom will not open. When I open it manually and put a dvd in it, it will not play. I click on start, then my computer, then my dvd drive (E) and nothing there. I do not know how to correct this problem. Can somebody help me?

[AuroraDizon]

Start by checking to see if your drivers are correctly installed. What operating system are you on? On xp go to your my computer right click go down to properties click on the hardware tab and then go to device manager. See if your drive shows up, or if anything shows up as a yellow question mark or exclamation mark.

[Rommel]

Hi Joelisa,
I don't know if this helps but I used a program, I think INCD, something like that. This program allows you to use a cd like a floppy. You can drag to it copy/paste etc.
Anyway, in time when I went to you these disc my drive would do what yours is doing. Lock up.

I'd manually open then close it but it would do nothing until I rebooted.

Needless to say I stopped messin' with that feature, infact removed it.

Are you still locked up after rebooting?

My issue was program related.

Check device manager and see if it shows any yellow symbols indicating a problem as the previous poster said.

[coastie65]

Hi, How old is the laptop ? Second, have you tried both CD and DVD media and if so, is this the case with both ? coastie

[joelisa]

I have checked the drivers, the device manager states they are working properly. Also I have not installled new drivers. The laptop is 4 years old. Operating System is XP

[coastie65]

Is this the case with both CD & DVD media ?

[joelisa]

Laptop is 4 years old. Yes I have tried both CD and DVD's. Also when a cd is put in the drive and close it normally you can hear it spin up, then I get a poop up window asking me what I want to do play, copy etc. Niether of these does not happen any more.

[coastie65]

Hi, You could go toWalMart or some such place and get a disc drive cleaner. It looks like a typical CD and try it. It that doesn't help, then it is entirely possible the thing died. I had the CD portion of the one in here go out and it is less than 3 years old ( does get a lot of use ). The DVD worked fine. This is entirely possible as they work on different wave lengths. The only solution was to replace the optical drive. coastie

[smax013]

joelisa said:

Laptop is 4 years old. Yes I have tried both CD and DVD's. Also when a cd is put in the drive and close it normally you can hear it spin up, then I get a poop up window asking me what I want to do play, copy etc. Niether of these does not happen any more.

If you can no longer hear it spin up, then it sounds like either the drive is dead or the power cable has become disconnected. With a laptop, it is harder to "open it up" and check on the connections. The fact that it will not open also kind of sounds like it is dead/out of power.

What is the brand and model of the computer? It is possible that it might be easy to replace the drive.

[joelisa]

It is a Gateway model # 7422GX.. That would be great if I could replace it. Could you explain how and where to get a replacement. Thanks.

[coastie65]

Like looking for hen's teeth. Not sure this is it but may be. It was all I could find after an extensive search. www.shopping.com/xPO-Gateway-GATEWAY-M275-LAPTOP-DVD-CDRW-COMBO-DRIVE-5502866 coastie

[rgreen4]

One thing that you said early on is to me a key clue. You said "it wouldn't open", not it wouldn't run. Then you mentioned that you opened it manually. Now there are two ways of opening the optical drives, one is to hit the button and the drive opens. It it will not open it is caused by one of two things:
a) the electrical connection to the drive is not functioning, either the computer power to the drive, or a connection within the drive
b) a blockage internally, such as a stuck CD or DVD. In this case the drive will attempt to open and hang and will make noise. I do not believe this is the case as you opened the drive manually.
Manually opening the drive usually involves sticking a small pin such as a paper clip into a small hole and releasing the lock. At this point the slide will come out a little so it can be grasped and pulled open manually. If this is what you had to do, and the laptop was powered on, the drive is basically dead.
You now have two choices. You can take the laptop to a computer repair center locally (I do not recommend one inside a Big Box store) and have them look at it and see about the price of replacing the drive. This model Gateway had two different CD/DVD drives, the device manager should tell you which one you have.

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

Or you can purchase an external CD/DVD and plug it in via USB. This is not as convenient as having an built in one, but is cheaper. Here is an example. You will need to check out other offerings on Newegg and then make your decision. This is not the cheapest nor the most expensive, but it does have favorable reveiws. External DVD

[coastie65]

Hey rg, I think what he mean't was when he put in a disc and went to my computer, nothing showed on D. When he right clicked on D and then clicked on open, still nothing. At least that was my take although i may be wrong.

[smax013]

coastie65 said:

Hey rg, I think what he mean't was when he put in a disc and went to my computer, nothing showed on D. When he right clicked on D and then clicked on open, still nothing. At least that was my take although i may be wrong.

I interpreted it the same as [~22087]...that the drive itself would not open. And then when he did finally get it to open "manually" and put in a disk, it did not spin up and would not mount in Windoze (which is kind of what you said). But, from the description, it sounds like a dead drive to me (or a loose connection on the drive).

[joelisa]

You guys are right, I open the drive by inserting a very small screw driver in the hole and manually open the drive. Then when I put eiether a dvd or cd in and close the drive, the drive does not spin up like it used to. The window that used to open up on my screen asking me what I want to , is no longer there. I then click start , my computer and the drive, and there is nothing there either. I agree either the connection came loose or it is dead. I have tried to get to it by removing all the screws on the bottom of the laptop, but it would not come apart so I could check the connection. Is there a trick to get it apart, so I can check the connection or replace the drive. Also I checked on purchasing a new drive what I have seen they run about $180.00 on up.Is this normal? Thanks again for all your help...

[smax013]

I was hoping the brand and model number would lead to instructions on how to replace the drive, but I could find nothing.

Thus, it might be that your best option would be to have Gateway service it, unless you are willing to risk trashing it by doing it yourself (not too many people are...I have cracked my MacBook Pro twice to upgrade the hard drive, which is technically not "user upgradeable", but could have dealth with the optical drive while I was in there), which would be done blindly since there are no instructions.

Or just get an external optical drive as [~22087] suggested.

[rgreen4]

That is about average for the specialized thin format DVD drives that are used in laptops. They are more expensive because they are thinnner, lighter and more compact than the normal desktop drives. In addition they have to be individually designed to fit with the laptop case in which they are to be installed. In the case of a desktop, the design is fairly basic and hasn't changed much in the last decade.