CD rom suddenly wont write? :((

[elliott]

hi guys i often use my cdrom to daul boot and noticed that it no longer loads when i start my computer up with a iso in it. and when i put a cd rom in to burn, it gives me an error after it tells me i can burn about it not being able to mount... i used this cd rom yesterday, and it still reads in my bios so something tells me this may be a settings issue, do you think me just updating could have caused it seeing it worked fine yesterday? im really worried because i use the cd rom a lot. reinstall drivers somehow or does it sound like it broke? it still tries to burn, i see it listed in biso and in my os.... scared here any advice?

"Failed to unmount 'blank CD-rom disc" drive cannot be used for burning."

[Scott(0)]

Hi Elliott

To test if it's a "settings" issue I suggest booting the computer from a live USB drive with LL and from the live environment test whether you can read/write to a CD.

If this test works then it's probably a "settings" issue. If it doesn't work then the CD drive is probably broken. As for the BIOS, it could still be listed there but be broken for reading and writing CDs.

Hope that helps.

~Scott

[Dookus]

CD/DVD or CD/DVD/BD have the tendency to loose the ability to burn and read  CD's first the unit stops burning them and sometime later it may stop reading while the other formats continue to work, I keep an old CD only drive handy.

I don't know of any BIOS settings that could cause a problem to a drive like this.

There has been a virus that could update the BIOS and cause this behaviour, it even infected mac users, though I have not heard of this in Linux.

Use Unetbootin to make bootable Flash drives.

If you have a desktop a replacement drive is cheap, or use an external USB adapter to see if the  drive works, open the case and check all connections, also, with the machine powered down and unplugged from the wall, if a laptop remove the battery and press the on button for 30 seconds.

[elliott]

restarting did not fix the problem but turning the computer off did. damn you guys are good. sorry i did not try before posting, i always thought a restart would be the same as shutdown. just a panic post because i use my cd rom a lot. thanks again you guys.

[Scott(0)]

8) Good to know it's working again and thanks for posting the solution.  ~Scott

[Dookus]

Good to hear, a reboot will retain a bad BIOS load (it does happen) this is why it's always good to shut a unit off and pull all power sources then press the on button to clear any residual memory before doing anything to drastic.