[X4U] My Sony CD-RW CRX170E IS NOT RESPONDING.

[Jim Scott]

On Nov 29, 2005, at 9:06 AM, • Paul E. Miller • wrote:

>> First, thank you very, very much for starting a new thread that has
>> nothing to do with mathematics!
>>
>> Second, when was the last time you cleaned your CD drive? Your
>> problem may be caused by a piece of lint, a dust ball or something
>> similar that's blocking the laser. The best way to clean the laser
>> is to use one of those disks with a brush on it. Failing that, a
>> very short blast of compressed air aimed into the drive while the
>> tray is out may do the trick. Or it may be that the drive cable
>> isn't firmly seated.
>>
>> -- Jim
>
> First, you are welcome...I guess...;-]
> Second, thank you for the advise, I'll get right to blasting the
> thing with compressed air...but, only a short blast as you
> indicated...Again, thanks for the reply.
> --

One other thought. One trick that's worked for me in situations like  
yours (after trying the cleaning bits) is to shut down, make sure the  
drive cable is firmly in place, then do a cuda reset, then do a PRAM  
reset (with at least 3 chime cycles) when rebooting. This forces the  
logic board to reset itself, and then to discover anew the various  
components of the system. You'll have to reset various things like  
clock settings, etc., but it will tell you for sure whether or not  
your CD drive is even talking to the logic board and the rest of the  
system. If, upon doing all this, the drive still doesn't work,  
consider replacing it. Sometimes the drive belt inside the CD breaks  
or otherwise fails to work. Sometimes the electronics die. Sometimes  
the laser read/write head gets out of adjustment.

I've had a few CD drives "die." I've replaced them, then put the  
"dead" drives in another machine and, voila!, they start working  
again. It sounds like magic, but I suspect one or more contacts got  
just enough corrosion on them to cause a "dead" drive. The moral:  
Keep tinkering until you're satisfied the drive is dead. One final  
test: put the suspect drive in another Mac, do a cuda reset and a  
PRAM reset and see if it works in the second machine.

-- Jim