Problems with Audio CD's

skeedo · 22 Jul 2010

I have recently purchased my first ever PC :) which is a Packard Bell ixtreme M5741 with Windows 7 and an Intel I3 processor and have been pretty happy with it although I have encountered a strange glitch and was wondering if anyone can help?

I have been transferring my CD collection to digital files using Windows Media Player which has generally worked well. However a couple of times when I have put a CD in the drive, the PC doesn't recognise there is a CD in the drive.

Normally when I put a CD in the drive it automatically starts playing but this does not happen. When I select the drive on my computer it advise no CD is in the drive although there is.

I Have an external CD drive which I plug in but have the same problem - although I can access the folder when using the external drive but does not allow me to play the tracks. It Has only happened with a couple of CDs and most have been fine but it is frustrating as I wouldn't expect this to happen with a brand new PC.

Previously I was using an old laptop along with the external drive to rip and burn Cd's and the strange thing is the Cd's that aren't being recognised on my new PC are recognised when using the laptop which uses windows XP.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas what might be causing this.

P.S. The Cd's that aren't being recognised are original Cd's not copies.

zigzag3143 · 22 Jul 2010

skeedo said:

I have recently purchased my first ever PC :) which is a Packard Bell ixtreme M5741 with Windows 7 and an Intel I3 processor and have been pretty happy with it although I have encountered a strange glitch and was wondering if anyone can help?

I have been transferring my CD collection to digital files using Windows Media Player which has generally worked well. However a couple of times when I have put a CD in the drive, the PC doesn't recognise there is a CD in the drive.

Normally when I put a CD in the drive it automatically starts playing but this does not happen. When I select the drive on my computer it advise no CD is in the drive although there is.

I Have an external CD drive which I plug in but have the same problem - although I can access the folder when using the external drive but does not allow me to play the tracks. It Has only happened with a couple of CDs and most have been fine but it is frustrating as I wouldn't expect this to happen with a brand new PC.

Previously I was using an old laptop along with the external drive to rip and burn Cd's and the strange thing is the Cd's that aren't being recognised on my new PC are recognised when using the laptop which uses windows XP.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas what might be causing this.

P.S. The Cd's that aren't being recognised are original Cd's not copies.

Any optical drive can and will deteriorate over time. You may alrady has dust on the sensor which wouold and does prevent the drive from knowing there is a cd in it.

Keeping it clean minimizes this but doesnt eliminate it. thats why you should not do back ups to dvd media.

Its normal. A good cleaning sometimes helps.

Pusspa · 23 Jul 2010

is it possible that win7 has a more up to date DRM setup that is refusing you access to your cd's? I have seen that some cd's will not play on my pc because of some stupid protection that only allows it to be played on an actual cd player.

skeedo · 23 Jul 2010

Thanx for the advice. I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to computers so not really sure what the DRM setup it is. However it does appear to be quite random the Cd's that are not recognised.

I was ripping a double CD compilation and the PC recognised and ripped the first CD in the compilation but not the second one???? I thought it may have been to do with how the Cd's had been recorded but this would seem to refute this
Could a virus have affected the software and caused this random non-recognition of Cd's?
I
'Ive only had the PC a week and being a bit of a novice not sure what to do.......Wondering if i should return it to the store for them to sort out. Apart from this problem I've been happy with the PC.

Pusspa · 23 Jul 2010

DRM is digital rights management, but from your second post, regarding one cd in a double cd set successfully ripping maybe you have got a faulty drive. I would most certainly consider availing myself of the warranty if it dosent leave you without a computer for an extended period of time, or cost you some kind of shipping, inspection fee.

skeedo · 23 Jul 2010

Thanx For Your Help i'll investigate that.

Cheers

Borg 386 · 23 Jul 2010

I had the same problem on XP for some odd reason, when I popped in the older CD's/CDR's they could not be recognized by Win or the player.

Don't ask me how or why this worked, but the solution I found by accident was:

I had to launch my CD Burning software (Nero) and click on the CD Properties or CD Info to display what was on the CD.

Once I did this, the CD was once again recognized by the system with the complete files.

I have no idea if this is because maybe the CD's were burnt in a slightly diff format on the older sys or what was going on. I did use Nero on the older system too...maybe that has something to do with it?

You could try that with the CD's and see if it works

Borg 386 · 23 Jul 2010

I also found this:

Cannot play or purchase DRM protected media files

If you have a Windows 7 computer that came with the operating system preinstalled using image based technology, you might find that not only are you unable to play DRM protected files, but you can't even purchase new ones. KB article 976590 tells you how to use the ResetDRM tool to fix the problem, but note that it will delete any existing DRM licenses so it should only be used as a last resort when all DRM playback is non-functional.

You cannot play a Windows Media DRM protected file or a Zune DRM protected file on a computer that is preconfigured with Windows 7

skeedo · 23 Jul 2010

Thanks for your help Borg 386