Oh wise ones - the CD player on my PC behaves passing strangely

Bob-Dubery

This happens with my Mecer desktop machine EVERYTIME I play a music CD - not when playing DVDs.

I hit play and the CD will start playing. It then pauses after 13 to 15 seconds for about a second. At about 56 to 59 seconds there is another pause - this may be a little shorter.

This happens irrespective of the software I am using to play the CD. It behaves like this with VLC, with Winamp, with M$ Media Player, CD Rider ... it always does this with music CDs. Never with a DVD. It does this when a CD has been inserted into the drawer. If I simply restart a CD that is already in the drawer then I do not get these pauses.

Any ideas?

Operating system is XP. The machine has an AMD processor.

Riaan-Combrink

Sorry, Bob - no idea.

I hope you don't consider it a hijack - but whilst thinking-caps are tuned in this direction ?

My desktop simply cuts to a white and blue screen every time I load any disc (CD-ROM, music CD, etc) - and I have to reboot. Very weird.

Someone help Bob & I out!

inflames

Hi Bob & Riaan,

Ok this can be one of 2 things:

1. Sound Card Drivers
2. CD ROM Drive

I doubt that it would be drivers. So to get that out of the way try and update the drivers.
Also see if there is any conflicting sound drivers.

CD ROM drive: how old is the drive? I had the same thing happening to me and after replacing the CD ROM everything was fine.
Is this a IDE or SATA CD ROM Drive?

Bob-Dubery

inflames wrote:
CD ROM drive: how old is the drive? I had the same thing happening to me and after replacing the CD ROM everything was fine.
Is this a IDE or SATA CD ROM Drive?

IDE. There's no audio connection to the sound card. Just an IDE connection to the on-board controller.

Ah... about 3 years old now I think.

Could it be some kind of buffering issue? As it pauses you can hear the motor spinning up or speeding up.

There are two IDE channels. I've tried moving it from one channel to another. That makes no difference.

DVDs play fine - no pausing.

Heath

It is a buffering problem , i cant remember off hand where to adjust it , will look this weekend . Basically your buffer is to long , it needs to be shortened . This wont effect dvd playing , only digital audio from the cd player .

inflames

Bob are you running windows 98, 2000, XP or Vista?

I doubt that it could be buffering, since windows will set this up correctly by default.
Does this happen with all your audio cd's?

AlanRatcliffe

inflames wrote: Bob are you running windows 98, 2000, XP or Vista?

X-rated Bob wrote: Operating system is XP. The machine has an AMD processor.

inflames wrote: Does this happen with all your audio cd's?

X-rated Bob wrote: it always does this with music CDs. Never with a DVD.

Bob-Dubery

inflames wrote: Bob are you running windows 98, 2000, XP or Vista?

I doubt that it could be buffering, since windows will set this up correctly by default.
Does this happen with all your audio cd's?

XP. And ALL audio CDs.

Thanks for all the help guys.

Renesongs

At R300 a pop is easier to replace a CD/DVD writer than try to diagnose it. I just kicked my one to the curb today it was under a year old. My experience with optical drivers is that they have a short lifespan and every Nth one is a dud just waiting to let you down. ☹ I've seen the same scenario as you describe with a Creative labs CD Rom. The most likely diagnosis is the controller card attached to the drive has popped one of it's components and would probably cost more to replace that to toss.

FenderBender

@Bob: Have you tried cleaning the optics? I have had a few players with the same problem and cleaning did the trick.

Bob-Dubery

Graeme Parfett wrote: @Bob: Have you tried cleaning the optics? I have had a few players with the same problem and cleaning did the trick.

I thought about that, but I am reluctant to crack the unit open. Generally when I do that I put it together and find I have bits left over - which is worrying :-[

This is where you tell me to not be daft, there's a little kit available that does the job.

RobK

maybe a lens cleaner cd? Has little brushes that clean the lens while it's spinning