[RyanK23]

Is there a way you can tell if your CD-RW is burnt out other than putting it in another computer? Mine still plays DVDs but it stopped reading all CDs like 2 months ago...Device Manager says its ok, and I re-installed hardware and drivers

Slimtype COMBO LSC-24082K CD-RW/DVD ROM
Gaeway M520 NOTEBOOK

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Combo drives really are two drives in one because CD and DVD use different wavelength lasers and need different numerical aperture lenses to focus the beam. If DVDs read but not CDs, then either the CD read head has become damaged or it is just dirty. Get yourself a CD/DVD head cleaner from any good record shop (and most of the bad ones, too) and give it a good scrub( or 2 to 5 times). If that does not help then the cd read head is probably damaged and you need to replace the drive.

SRX660

[SRX660]

Combo drives really are two drives in one because CD and DVD use different wavelength lasers and need different numerical aperture lenses to focus the beam. If DVDs read but not CDs, then either the CD read head has become damaged or it is just dirty. Get yourself a CD/DVD head cleaner from any good record shop (and most of the bad ones, too) and give it a good scrub( or 2 to 5 times). If that does not help then the cd read head is probably damaged and you need to replace the drive.

SRX660

[RyanK23]

The computer is also saying "Primary Hard drive Status BAD, Backup and Replace...Press F1 to continue" and runs extremely slow. Could this be a software problem that might be fixed if I formatted and started fresh or does this mean the hardware is physically bad? Of course I cannot reinstall without a working CD-ROM so I am wondering if it would even be worth it to replace...computer also shuts off after 15 minutes when I am playing counterstrike but will stay running when I do anything else...should I just chuck this thing? Warranty just expired and I just finished paying it off :-( Plz help!!

Gateway M520 Notebook
2.8 GHz Celeron
736MB RAM
Slimtype COMBO LSC-24082K CD-RW/DVD ROM

[SRX660]

Another problem you may be having is that your laptop has reverted to PIO mode which can cause a great slowdown of the computer. Here's the article on it. You will have to decide for yourself if this is your problem.

http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

SRX660

[RyanK23]

That looks like it might be the problem...I do remember the burner started timing out once in a while while burning then all of a sudden it just stopped working. That's also when my hard drive problems started...The drive will still play DVDs though would this be possible if the laptop reverted to PIO mode?

[RyanK23]

Well both ports areon DMA and I ran the utility still no luck...guess both drives are bad its just weird how they would go out at the sme time...guess im gonna have to replace them each unless anyone has any ore suggestions

[RyanK23]

UPDATE - Fixed cdrw drive by dissassembling and cleading the drive, got all the dust out and used alcohol and a q-tip on the lens...Hard drive is still bad and computer overheats when gaming...Do you think the overheating could be a result of my bad hard drive? The heat isn't coming from the hard drive but is it possible that the processor is being overworked trying to process data from the bad hard drive at gaming speeds?

[SRX660]

It's really doubtful that the HD is causing the cpu to get hot. It's more likely that gaming is just cpu intensive enough to heat it up. Now the term overheating to me means you cpu is running 60° or hotter all the time you are gaming. Download speedfan or CPU-Z and use them to check your temps while windows is running. If you cpu is running hot i would suggest getting a zalman or thermotake heatsink to replace the stock original heatsink. It can lower you temps by up to 10 ° easily and also keep the temps from rising up to the higher range. If your HD was really bad you would be getting errors. Just because the game is writing to the HD a lot does not mean it is bad. This is more that you need more memory to slow the system from accessing to and from the page file.

Heres a good cpu heatsink if you need one.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835118115

SRX660

[RyanK23]

Well I do get a error from S.M.A.R.T. whenever I start the computer - "Primary drive Status BAD - Backup and replace" It never overheated while gaming until I started getting this error and my computer has been running much slower...but like I said, the heat isn't coming from the hard drive. I used to play games for hours with no problems at all. Ever since I got this S.M.A.R.T. error it lasts maybe 10 minutes then shuts off and it feels hot afterwards in the upper left corner. I should have anough memory 736 RAM...Either way my hard drive is bad im just worried this problem won't go away after I replace it

[RyanK23]

Ok, that issue is solved...It was my bad hard drive shutting down after gaming. Replaced hard drive, and installed everything from scratch...now im having problems burning CDs .......I have Windows SP2, WMP11, updated the firmware, tried like 7 burning programs...No burn. I can read CDs and DVDs but when I try to burn I get "Write Protection" errors. I switched from Imitation discs to Office Depot disks now I don't get that particular error but it starts the process and never stops or gives me an unknown error, depending on the software. Drive and IDE controllers uninstalled and re-installed...Ive done all the registry edits and system restores....nothing...I burned fine with those "write protected" imitation disks using Nero on my other Hard drive...but I don't have Nero on this one...does the software make that much of a difference? Any ideas? Thanks!