Laptop Not reading CD's

[EvianBaby]

Due to the fact I'm barely capable of opening my eyes today I'm going to be fairly useless in providing info here but my Dads laptop is not reading any CD's he's putting in it. I tried a couple of disks and they whirl around for a second then nothing happens. I looked in 'Computer' and it's not registering there is anything in the disk drive.

I think he's using Windows 7 on a Compaq Presario CQ56.

Any ideas what the problem might be before I have to shoot him to stop him asking me what's wrong with it.

[sunny-dave]

Sorry to say it, but 'has he tried turning it off and on again' - that's a complete shut down (not 'sleep' or 'hibernate') and then restart after a few minutes pause.

May be physical problem - try cleaning (VERY GENTLY) with a cotton-bud the laser lens if you can see it.

May be a software/driver issue - the easy way out is to get windows to repair itself by re-installing - but this is boring and time consuming.

I'm not an expert on '7' - perhaps chuck or chris may have a quicker fix.

[EvianBaby]

Hhmmm, he's done the turning off and on thing. Maybe give the cleaning lens a whirl. I really don't fancy trying to reinstall anything.

Despite my standard answer of "I don't know, Dad", he keeps asking. And I still don't know.

[SlackAlice]

I had this a while ago on my pc and found this of help

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116

It works for me, but you might wait until some of the other pc experts offer their opinion.