PC will not read CD's on DVD drives

Hi mikey7420 ,


The drive name itself is the clue to know whether it can burn dvds or not.

• In your case it's a CD-RW (read and write or rewritable) and DVD-ROM (Read only memory and not read and write or rewritable as in the case of CD)
• Perhaps the one who told you did not understand your question properly , and understood it , in the sense that it can read CDs as well as DVDs , as far as Dvd-ROM drives are concerned many shopkeepers who are especially new working in the shop just make a guess and answer our question which could lead to this misunderstanding or incorrect information being passed on.
• So the next time you buy a DVD drive which should have a read and write functionality as well , then look up for a CD_RW,DVD-RW drive.
• Also remember that DVD-RW drive can by default read and write CDs as well , but it's not true for CD drives..
• So usually a DVD-RW drive can read and write Cds as well as DVDs but a CD-RW drive can either read or read and write a DVD depending on whether it's a DVD-ROM or DVD-RW.

Hope this helps.

CD-ROMs dont play dvd becuase they are not designed to read dvd.

If a dvd drive for your model is not available, you can buy an external usb dvd drive.
That should solve your problem

No it only has a CD read write and a DVD Rom player READ ONLY.

It sounds more like your burning laser went out. DVD and CD Roms use two seperate lasers. One for reading and one for writing. I would check with the manufacturer to see if it is still under warranty to have it replaced

Sounds like the drive could be going bad. The way the laser reads DVDs vs. CDs is different, that is why you are able to read one, not the other. I had this happen to me, except the opposite. It could read DVDs, not CDs. Had to buy a new one, and all is well.

use external dvd drives

I have the same problem!

It seems that what you have is a combo drive only :(
it only recognize DVD reading. no matter what driver you used. need to buy a dvd writer/ that said can write dvd.


Types of Optical Drives and CD/DVDs
Optical drive type Read from CD/DVD-ROM media Write to CDRW media Write to DVD ±RW/R media Write to DVD +R DL media Write label to LightScribe CD-RW Write to DVD-RAM media DVD-ROM Drive Yes No No No No No DVD and CD-RW Combo Drive Yes Yes No No No No DVD±RW/R and CD-RW Combo Drive with Double- Layer support Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes LightScribe DVD±RW/R and CD-RW Combo Drive with Double- Layer support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Blu-Ray Disc DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive with Double-Layer support Yes Yes* Yes Yes No Yes *Low speed (4X) and high speed (4-12X) are supported. UHS-RW (24X and 32X CD-RW) is not supported.

NOTE: Some of the optical drives listed may not be supported by your computer. The listed drives are not necessarily all of the supported optical drives.

Read on your optical drive. If it burns CD's it reads CD-RW. In order to burn DVD's it needs ro read DVD-RW. If it reads DVD-ROM it will only read DVD's not burn them.

A good external burner is Plextor. You can get one at Walmart, or you can check Ebay and find an internal to replace the one in your machine. They are fairly easy to replace, and you won't have a bulky external to carry around.

you might have to update your dvd driver. Go to my computer and then properties,then disk manager. Look for the DVD driver and then update it...You might also update your windows..Hope this helps...