dvddrive that won't play cd's

For some reason the dvd drive on my laptop has taken a distinct dislike to the CD format. This includes audio cds as well as CD roms. It simply refuses to recognise them even being in the drive - although it takes a fair amount of whiring before it does anything - exploring the disc in My Computer shows a blank. When I tried to burn something on to a cd it asked me to insert a disc even when there was one installed. DVDs, however, it seems to like as it happily reads them with no trouble. If anyone has the slightest idea of what's going on I'd really appreciate it. Is it more likely a hardware or a software problem?
Thanks in advance.
Regards.

I believe each DVD, CD, read and write mechanism uses a seperate laser, so it's probably a hardware fault - perhaps just dirt on the laser.

She's right

Personally myself I am able to open up the drive and 1) clean it, 2) Tweak the CD laser.


I'd not advise you do 2) yourself unless you know what you're doing!

Thanks for that. I tried cleaning the lens but that didn't make any difference but I'll have another look.
Regards.

buy a new one, it'll save time in the long run.

You need a Universal Aligment Tool (aka The Persuader).

Here, you can borrow mine...

I've got one of those - I thought it was a fly swatter.

Before that, I would check for Starforce drivers.

order to do things in:

check for new Drivers.

Move the object around, turn it on its side (assumeing it was designed to be able to be turned on it's side)

Clean.

New/pro-repair.