CD/DVD player problem

Fanny Cradock

howdy all,
i bought a cheap 128 mp3 player a few days ago (€28) and i was looking forward to downloading some of my (legal) music onto it.

i have a problem though! when i try to play any cds on my comp they skip (kind of like when you bash your cd player/walkman). its a second hand comp and i was always aware of this "fault" with the cd/dvd player, but i figured (stupidly) when i ripped music onto my hard drive it would magically be fine. unfortunatly, the music on my hard drive skips and so my mp3 also skips. the strange this is that when i run games from cd there are no problems (maybe a bit of slowdown - could be my slow comp though).

i've checked for the usuall driver updates via the device manager (i dont have any cds/disks for this so not much i can do there i guess) and checked for any conflicts which could cause problems, but there's nothing that i can see.

if its any help myspecs are:
p3 733 mhz with 384ram
cd/dvd player is: lite-on LTN4835 48x max


can anyone help?

jor el

Get a new CD/DVD drive? Sounds like your's is a bit fubar. You should be able to get a bog standard CD drive for about €15 or €20. Writers are even cheep these days.

Fanny Cradock

i think thats the best option. the only problem is that im so f00kin poor

sceptre

You could try getting a lens cleaner for the drive but given that drives are so cheap these days, it might be as easy to assume it's the drive and just get a new one. If you could borrow a cleaner, I'd do that.

Fanny Cradock

dont think i actually know anyone who has one.

i looked on komplett and saw some bog standard cd writers for around €25 + €10 for delivery. better than the pile o' ****e i have now.

thanks guys

jayneemac

you could check to see if the cd/dvd drive is the Master Device & which IDE it is on (pref the only device on the secondary channel).

I had a similar problem a few years ago with a new comp from Gateway, tried everything to fix it e.g new bus drivers, software updates etc....but i was completely stumped & so were Gateway.
couple of yrs later when i stripped the machine i discovered that the Gateway MUPPET who built it put a ZIP drive as Master & the CDROM as Slave on the Secondary IDE Channel, hence the constant skipping of cds :eek:

Fanny Cradock

thanks jayneemac
i would do that if i knew how - lol

i think at this stage i'll forgo the expense and just buy a cd/rw.

i have a couple of questions for all you tech minded people out there:

of these two which would you go for??

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122619&cks=SPK

or

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=304304&cks=SPK
they look pretty much the same to me.

and this is the important one, will they both operate on my computer???
here's the specs:

System Model
dell OptiPlex GX110

Processor
733 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board
Board: Dell Computer Corporation OptiPlex GX110
BIOS: Dell Computer Corporation A05 09/18/2000

Memory Modules
384 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'DIMM_A' has 128 MB
Slot 'DIMM_B' has 256 Mb

probably gave too much info here, but not sure what's relative


thanks in advance