CD drive woes

[Techy Geek]

Hi,
The CD drives on both my laptop and desktop have suddenly failed on me. They still work, as I can hear them spinning and I haven't noticed any odd noises. The connections are good, I took them both apart to have a look (bit risky on a laptop???). But I cannot understand what is happening, I think its a case that my computer simply won't recognise them, sometimes they work (for a short time) and sometimes they don't.
Can anyone suggest what the problem may be, and how I would go about fixing it?
thanks in advance

 

[aaron12345]

Do you have p3 toshiba sattelites by any chance? My family had two of them, and both of them a cd drives failing, exact same thing as you subscribed. I googled and it's a known problem.

 

[here_is_gone]

my CD drive on my desktop failed, apparently cause of cat hair getting inside the computer...except mine wouldnt open or anything. i guess you could check the drivers? try updating them or something (start>my computer [right click] properties > hardware > device manager) theres also a troubleshooter for the drive (i think).

 

[UK31337]

Do they just not work with any CD in the drive at all?

Weird, sounds like something's gone phut if neither of them work.

 

[Techy Geek]

No they are not p3 toshiba sattelites, I simply cannot believe that they have both died, but yet they still sometimes work, I cannot understand it, is it something to do with ms not recognising the drives, has anyone heard of this??

The troubleshooter is rubbish, I know the contacts and power supplies are good for them both, and I can't seem to be able to update the drivers, I'm told its practically impossible to find drivers for my laptop CD drive, and I cant seem to find any for the desktop either. humph