nickshanks1

Thank you - I'll bear that in mind. Have I bought the same thing? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LCS3AGK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00097CE30?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Thought so - neither have I Are Azo discs meant to be good?

Hey! Thank you for the help. I bought some new CD-RWs and DVD-RWs from a guy on eBay (probably cheap junk) but works fine on my old Dell Latitude and two old ThinkPads so I guess its the drive, or at least that the drive is so old it can't read recordable discs. I can also confirm that I can read my old Verbatim CD-Rs on those three laptops listed above. I'm unsure how much use its gotten as I bought the dock (which contains the drive) second-hand. Took the dock apart and can see the drive is from April 2001 so yeah it's pretty old. Since buying and using the dock successfully in 2015, it has just been sitting in a draw (in a laptop bag) so it just baffles me that it could degrade when not even in use. The drive uses a 50-pin JAE connector (see attached, correct me if I'm wrong) so I need to find one that uses a similar interface to that while also being as new (little use and 20+ years old) as possible. I have found similar drives on eBay being sold pretty cheap: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125007241647 (2502, Jan 2002) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115709049106 (2502, Dec 2001) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303271710360 (2612, Jun 2003) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/356248995373 (2502, Jan 2001) They look like pretty good options but do you know of any good slim laptop drives that use this 50-pin JAE interface? In the meantime, I've ordered an external USB CD/DVD drive as well as some Verbatim DataLife 52x CD-Rs and Verbatim Super Azo CD-Rs.

The reason I don’t think the drive is failed is because it has read a couple of old imations as mentioned but also still reads CD-ROMs fine! I should try with a DVD-ROM. But the fact it’s a media problem also doesn’t sit well with me because when I bought the dock for the Portege I also bought some Verbatim CD-Rs and got these to work fine, I installed Windows 2000. But now those discs don’t work at all. Could it be the burner I’m using? So again, media or drive problem?

Having the most annoying issue... I have a Portege 7020CT with the 10/100 Network Dock II. Specs for the dock can be found here: https://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Toshiba/ … cifications.pdf (scroll down a bit). The specs clearly state, the dock PA3007U, can support CD-R & CD-RW. I have burned several CD-RWs and CD-Rs using ImgBurn, MagicISO (Mode 1 & Mode 2/XA), with and without finalizing the disc and also using Windows XP's default burning capabilities using Explorer on a ThinkPad T41. None of these discs will read in the old Portege! However, I have Flight Simulator 98 and Microsoft Golf on CD-ROMs. Those read fine. I wrote some notes for myself years ago that says 'mode 2 burning on magiciso did work once out of two tries. what i have found to work is really using windows to create a MASTERED cd/dvd, then writing files to it.' Would the speed at which I write the CD affect the laptop that tries to read it? For example, 52x capable CD-R, I write to it at 10x... would this necessarily stop the laptop from reading it? Would doing 4x help? The drive model is a Toshiba SD-C2402. Manual here: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/567771/Tosh … -Rom-Drive.html So as mentioned, CD-ROMs read absolutely fine. Tried several. I managed to get a couple of old imation DVD-Rs to read (they were burned 15+ years ago). Whenever I insert a DVD-R or DVD+RW, the drive sounds like it tries to read it but ImgBurn reports that it can't read TOC. When a CD goes in it doesn't even try to read it, it's almost as if the laser thinks nothing is in the drive. Why could this be? Media or drive problem?