Hi:
I have a Compaq Presario running Windows XP. The machine is about three years old. My CD drive will not recognize a new CD for burning after I have worked on a DVD, even with rebooting. I have to load and play a CD (it can be anything, books, pics, MP3's) remove it and then it will recognize the blank CD. I have to go through the same procedure to switch back to a DVD. Any ideas? Thank you, Dee.

At another forum I received this advice: "Go into device manager and see if the burner is listed properly. If it is, then check this here to see if you need to flash your drive."

My Response: In the device manager it's listed as: DVD/CD-ROM drives and then: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GCA-4080N - and so I have no idea how to tell if this is a correct listing and I have never heard of "flashing a drive" do I need to get expert help. I tried to write my CD again and even though the drive has now switched from DVD to CD, when I try to write to it, I still get the message to load a CD in the drive.

Response: no u will not need expert help its not very hard to flash ur drive, make sure there is no cd's in it, get the flashing utility if needed and the updated flash for the drive. You will want to run the PC in safe mode when you do it. Get all the updates and save them, don't run them. Print out any instructions you may need, like how to boot in safe mode and how to update your firmware. Its not hard, so don't worry

Although I have had many different computers, I can't afford to mess this up and so if this is what I need to do, I really need step by step instructions. Any opinions in here?

Is there any way to know if this is really what I need to do.

I used to use the nick name: DaZed and ConfuZed (when Vic20's were the PC of the moment!)- and I think I should go back to that.

I dont really have a solution for you, but I had the exact same problem.....with my compaq presario. But after a while, it would no longer work, and I had problems getting it to do nothing but open for me, much less reading a cd or dvd.

After just getting past the fact that it wasnt ever going to work again, I took out the entire cdrw console and simply cleaned everything off, made sure it could still open correctly...nothing too extravagent, just trying to figure out what was wrong with it.
A simple reinstall of the device after a bit of trial and error which I never could find anything wrong with it and it has worked fine since then.

If nothing else, its worth a shot, its easy and simple and you dont have to do any crazy tactics that threaten to harm your computer.

...and a word of advice...this among MANY other things are a problem I have had with only compaq. If you are ever planning to purchase a new computer, i would stray away from this brand.

Check your UDMA/PIO settings under your IDE channel in the Device Manager.

If set to DMA if available change it to PIO and see if that makes a difference..

I miss my Toshiba and the local guys that worked on it and with me. This compaq has to be sent away for a week at a time to the closest city (100 miles away). Lucky for me, I also think my extended warranty just ran out.