DVDs will play, but no other type of disk

[simonhill]

Hello

I have a DVD CD/RW combo. It is playing movie DVDs fine, but suddenly won't read other types of disks eg games or music cds or computer programs (even the Windows disk). This has just happened quite suddenly. Can anyone help? Any advice?

[teststrips]

from what I understand, dvd's use a blue laser to read the disk, while normal cd's use a red laser. If it's only reading dvd's, it's likely the red laser part of your CDrom is either dirty or malfunctioning.

Clean it first.. see if that makes a difference. Then check to see if it's under warranty. Other than that it's likely you won't be able to fix it... although you can get something to replace it for relativly cheap.. i'd bet for $50 or less if you shop around.,