Hi guys,

 

I've got a DVD-RW/CD-RW unit (Sony) fitted in my tower case which has been behaving beautifully for about 4 months. Played a DVD yesterday (which was fine) and now it is acting up! :headvswal When playing an audio CD it has a loud ticking noise through the track. The tick is equally spaced (if that makes sense) and doesn't vary in frequency or loudness. It's really annoying! I've looked at the unit but can't see anything obviously wrong. It does this with every audio CD I try to play so it isn't the CD it self. Any ideas (a) what the problem is, (b) how to resolve it or © should I buy a new one? Incidentally, it hasn't affected software installation ...

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

Dan

do you have another, cd rom in use in the tower, ,, am guessing the noise your hearing is coming through the speakers???,, or is from the cdrom itself?? need more input , input,, ,,lolif you do have another cd rom installed ,try a disk on that one , if same problem then its a soundcard issue, ps dont throw it away , allways try installing updated driver for it first, or reinstall driver for it

do you have another, cd rom in use in the tower, ,, am guessing the noise your hearing is coming through the speakers???,, or is from the cdrom itself?? need more input , input,, ,,lolif you do have another cd rom installed ,try a disk on that one , if same problem then its a soundcard issue, ps dont throw it away , allways try installing updated driver for it first, or reinstall driver for it

 

 

Thanks for the advise Paul! The clicking noise comes through the speakers and no, I have no other CDROM in the tower at this moment. Someone else suggested that the DVD I put in it (which was Finding Nemo for a 4 year old btw) could have copied some software onto the PC preventing any "protected" CD's from playing normally. I'll be running a full spyware scan later this morning. However, it does this with every CD (new and 10 years old when they didn't have protection on them) so it could well be the sound drivers. I've got a MB integrated sound card on my Asus A8V deluxe board so might try reinstalling the drivers and see what happens.

 

Thanks again!

 

Danny

Thanks for the advise Paul! The clicking noise comes through the speakers and no, I have no other CDROM in the tower at this moment. Someone else suggested that the DVD I put in it (which was Finding Nemo for a 4 year old btw) could have copied some software onto the PC preventing any "protected" CD's from playing normally. I'll be running a full spyware scan later this morning. However, it does this with every CD (new and 10 years old when they didn't have protection on them) so it could well be the sound drivers. I've got a MB integrated sound card on my Asus A8V deluxe board so might try reinstalling the drivers and see what happens.

 

Thanks again!

 

Danny

 

Does the drive have a headphone socket on the front Danny? If so, it will be worth eliminating the soundcard and isolating the drive by running headphones directly...

 

HTH

 

Steve :)

Does the drive have a headphone socket on the front Danny? If so, it will be worth eliminating the soundcard and isolating the drive by running headphones directly...

 

HTH

 

Steve :)

 

I'm afraid not Steve - no socket on the front ...

 

Thanks for thinking of it though ;)

 

Dan

usual problem with any type of cd player is a dirty lens especially if you hear a ticking noise which is usually the laser skipping try a cd lens cleaner in there but i will say in my experiance it's not always just a dirty lens but it only costs arond £23 for a new dvd writer from pc world component shop these days atb kev

Ok - update:

 

I have run McAfee Spyware Remover (running latest signature file) and it came up with absolutely nothing, ie I have a clean system

 

Played several mp3's off my HDD and they were fine so this should rule out a problem with the sound card and/or drivers.

 

Next step will be to try a lens cleaner kit as suggested by Kev - thanks for that mate! I don't expect it to be a dirty lens as the kit is only a few month old and was fine until two days ago but it's worth a go.

 

Failing any of the above I'll probably buy a new unit and see if that sorts the problem.

 

Thanks again for all your feedback!

 

Dan

This is getting more and more peculiar ...

 

Just "cleaned" the lens using a CD Lens Cleaning Kit ............ didn't make a difference (as expected).

 

However, I've just ripped the latest Starsailor CD Single (In the Crossfire) to MP3 format and played it off the HDD and .... the quality is perfect! Play back the audio CD and I get the ticking noise again! :headvswal

 

This is baffling to say the least ... guess I'll go out and buy a new DVD-RW then :rolleyes:

 

Dan

Sounds like your pc is extracting the audio digitaly fine however not from the analog out. in your controlpanel theres an opton to make windows use digital insted, try that.

try changing the ide cable ,,

Sounds like your pc is extracting the audio digitaly fine however not from the analog out. in your controlpanel theres an opton to make windows use digital insted, try that.

 

Ok - have looked through the control panel and found the "sound and audio devices". Had a look through every propperty, etc but can't see a "digital vs audio" setting to alter. Can you point me in the right direction if I'm looking in the wrong place please? BTW I'm running Win XP SP2.

 

My next step is to reinstall the driver for the DVD-RW and see what happens. Then change the IDE cable, then buy a new unit.

 

I can't really understand what has happened ... all is fine, play a DVD from Blockbusters and I end up with this ... :confused:

 

Incedentally, whilst looking through the control panel I came across a DVD Regions setting (currently set to Region 2). What I found disconcerting is that according to the text I've got 4 region changes left to make before the system is locked into the last chosen region. Aparently not even reinstalling Windows will change it! Just out of curiosity, is there a way around this?

 

Cheers!

 

Dan

Another possibility is to check the sony website for a firmware update, as sometimes the control software on the device screws up. It's easy enough to do, most just have a program which you run, then reboot computer and voilla! Also do you have a cable directly from the drive onto the motherboard / soundcard (not the ribbon IDE cable, its a 4 wire cable, small plugs on each end)? This is usually the best way for making it work forplaying CDs

to set drive to digital go to my computer right click select properties then go into hardware then into device manager from device manager select the dvd drive right click goto properties then under the properties tab you will see a slider bar for cd player volume and a check box just below for digital audo atb kev

i have a nec drive,the weird thing with mine is it just stopped reading cd's,whilethe dvd' work fine,luckily i have an externalcd drive.....do dvd's still work?

to set drive to digital go to my computer right click select properties then go into hardware then into device manager from device manager select the dvd drive right click goto properties then under the properties tab you will see a slider bar for cd player volume and a check box just below for digital audo atb kev

 

Hi Kev,

 

You were definitely on to something there ...

 

Just had a look at this particular setting in the Device Manager and found it to be enabled for digital playback. Decided to disable it, rebooted the PC and voila! no more ticking noise! However, the sound is a heck of a lot less rich and I've lost any surround sound/3D equaliser settings ...

 

I have to assume that the digital playback setting has been enabled since the installation several months back as I've always been able to enjoy rich 3D sound with full equaliser settings and presets. What could cause this to now go pearshaped? Any further thoughts?

 

ATB

 

Danny