CD-ROM drive hanging after CD-ROM is inserted

John Pelz · Post by **John Pelz** » 8 Sep 2004 3:41 pm

I have lately started to have a problem with my computer's CD-ROM drive: the CD-ROM hangs after I insert certain CD-ROMs into the drive. The drive spins up as it starts to read the CD-ROM, but then it just hangs. Usually the whole system freezes and I have to re-start the computer. In such instances, even Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't restart the computer: I have to use the restart button on the computer itself. It seems that this glitch happens only when specific CD-ROMs are inserted: other CD-ROMs work just fine. This problem is really annoying, as, for the time being, I'm not able to use the offending CD-ROMs.

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? Thanks in advance for <u>any</u> help.

Will Holtz · Post by **Will Holtz** » 8 Sep 2004 8:41 pm

I'm curious if the "autorun" feature of windows is trying to run a program from the disk, but it is somehow failing. You can temporarily disable autorun by holding down the shift key from when you insert the CD into the drive until it spins up.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 9 Sep 2004 3:53 am

Very common problem on my machine too. I'm no computer guy, but I have a feeling it's some kind of mismatch between the specs of the burner on which the CDR was made, and the specs of the drive you're trying to play it on. Often my machine won't play CDRs that I've recorded on the same machine (albeit with an aftermarket burner installed, which is newer than the player drive).
Sorry I have no solution to suggest, just empathy.

John Pelz · Post by **John Pelz** » 9 Sep 2004 10:27 am

Jim -- thanks for the empathy.

Will -- thanks for the SHIFT-key tip; I'll give that a try.

I did mess around with the offending CD-ROMs a bit last night, and did get one of them to work after I turned off some programs running in the background. I really don't know much about computers (just enough to get myself in trouble

), but I'm getting the impression that these may simply be 2 separate conflict-issues bet. the CD-ROMs & programs running in the background. These CD-ROMs used to work A-OK, so maybe the problem is with programs that I have since installed & which run in the background??? I'm still open to any further suggestions...

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 9 Sep 2004 11:27 am

You might try rebooting your computer and then making this the first thing you do after rebooting... ("poor man's suggestion" offered in the absence of anyone else's expert advice)

Will Holtz · Post by **Will Holtz** » 9 Sep 2004 12:24 pm

Have you ever run a spyware removal tool on your computer? I recommending doing so about once a month. Lots of web sites, spam, and software packages try to play tricks to install software you don't want. These programs often display ads, report the websites you visit to an advertising company, or send out spam. Additional, they cause a performance hit and can cause system unstability.

My favorite free tool for spyware removal is Spybot S&D.