Disc drive not reading the discs

first things first.. if it's always freezing than it has some kind of internal damage. it could be as easy as replacing the hard drive or cd-rom, or maybe the disc your using is bad.

If you insert your Vista or Win7 disc into the DVD drive and boot form that, make sure that the BIOS is set to recognise the hard disc. The OS disc will do the rest. If it cannot find the hard disc, maybe the hard disc is faulty.
When you are successful, go to toshiba.com and download the latest drivers and firmware for the BIOS.
Hope that helps.

you need a new dvd drive. they aren't expensive and they're easy to replace

Download the image file from here:
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/
...burn it to disc and boot the computer with it.  That should give your friend the windows passwords.

Try running a cleaning disc in your drive as the laser might just be dusty. If that doesn't help then you will most likely need to replace the drive

You can get your driver from this link.
Just select your model.
I see there 2 model of Satelite L300
ST2501
ST3502

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/home.jsp?nav=Download

select your model and then operating systme then downlaod driver for cam.
Let me know if you need more assistanse .
Thanks.

OK... see if this:

Toshiba Satellite Pro C50 Laptop Optical DVD Drive Bezel Assembly K000888950 will work for you?
See eBay: 272402441049
$20 NEW ~ Including shipping from Denver.

The ONE thing that does bother me about this Auction is the word "BEZEL"... is it just the BEZEL without the actual drive? Please MESSAGE the seller and ask!

Final note: Be VERY careful about DVD Drives that are listed as "NEW" (other) ... MOST times that decodes to USED!

Anthony

Toshiba Satellite Pro C50 Laptop Optical DVD Drive Bezel Assembly...

This from Dell support should help.
Dell support

Please can you tell me what operating system you are using ie XP?

If you go to my computer can you see the disk drive listed ie pic of mine, notice I also have a external drive attached (x)

I suggest a firmware update from Toshiba. If this does not help then your laser in the drive is no longer capable of this task. Also just thought about it but make sure the media that you are burning to is the same as the drive + or - R's