Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

CD not being read

0 helpful
5 replies

by abanerji

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I have a 4 years' old Compaq PC with OEM CD-Rom, and have recently got a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. So far, no problem.

I have been burning Sony CD-Rs through Nero (mostly data back-ups, and some music), and can access the files either from the old CD-Rom or from the new combo drive. Even other CDs (e.g., third party music, or from books) open in either drive.

I have just bought Sprint CD-Rs, and after burning data files find the CD is opening in the combo drive, but not in the old CD-Rom. In fact, the old CD-Rom is not recognising this CD.

What can be wrong please?
Thanks,

5 replies

by cmiller5400

It sounds like the old CD-ROM drive is not compatible with the Sprint CD-R's. Sometimes the older drives laser is not able to read the newer media because of the reflectivity of the dye being used to simulate the pits and lands. I have ran across this before where certain drives were not able to read certain brands of CD-R media.

by hal 9000

While not as common now this was a very common problem when CDR first came out Kodak was a good example they worked great provided you used the Kodak media but wouldn't work with any other media and when Kodak stopped making media all the drives had to be ditched.

The main reason for this is the color of the laser and how it interacts with the Dye on the blank media. It's all about wavelengths of the color of the light produced and how it isn't reflected back onto the reading part of the CD Drive. You can try a different type of Media to use or look for a different dye type and you'll most likely cure your problem. This information is on the inner ring of the Blank Disk but you might have to look hard to read it as sometimes it printed very lightly.

But even from the same maker different dye lots can work differently in the same drive the trick here is to look at the color of the Data Surface and buy blanks of a similar color and you shouldn't have any problems.

Col

This discussion is closed to new replies.