Problems with CD/DVD drive

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Ok, so I'm having this issue with my CD/DVD drive, and it's pissing me off to the point where I'm about to lose my s**t and start throwing things.

I have this one game disc that I use for a game on my computer. The disc is required in order to play the game, although I am sure there is a no-disc hack somewhere, but for right now the problem I'm having is that my computer dual-boots Windows 7 and Ubuntu, and the game is installed on my Windows partition. Anytime I switch over to Ubuntu, if I switch back and try to run the game disc in Windows for the game, the optical drive on my laptop refuses to read the disc. Not for lack of trying, however, because I can hear the damn drive working from two rooms away as it tries to read the disc, it spins it and moves the lens head in every conceivable combination with no effect. The noise is f*****g annoying, and it keeps doing it until I give up and hit the button to remove the disc from the slot. I try to re-boot the computer while the disc is running, it takes ten times the usual amount of time to shut down, then even more time to restart, and all this time the disc drive is making the same f*****g noise as it's trying to read the disc. What's worse, everything on my computer runs slower while the drive is working.

It's an intermittent problem, but it seems to be triggered by booting the Ubuntu OS and then booting Windows and trying to play the game. The first few times I played the game, including the initial installation, I was able to coax it to work after ejecting it out of the drive 3-4 times and rebooting it once or twice. Once I can get it to read, it will usually be okay unless I try and remove the disc or boot Ubuntu.

This is really pissing me off. I can get a no-cd hack for this game since it's a bit older and I've already installed the entire thing. My problem is that this is either a disc or a drive problem, and if it's the latter it's going to be a royal pain in the ass to try and play games off of disc ever again. I get most of my games from Steam nowadays, and in fact the game I've purchased is already available on Steam, I just chose to get the disc because I saw it at the store for half the price that Steam has it listed for.

I am not a computer geek, so all I can suggest is the obvious--just run the game from Windows, without booting into Ubuntu. Other wise you will keep having this problem. As for the drive running crazy and slowing the session down, try going into the Ubuntu menus--System/Administration/Sys Monitor. Once you are in Sys Monitor click the Processes tab and see what's going crazy. You may find that the game is still running as "uninterrupted" even though you have officially turned it off. If it is still showing as running after you have turned it off, highlight it in the Sys Monitor list, then click the END PROCESS button in the lower right corner. A box will pop up to ask CANCEL or END PROCESS. click END PROCESS in the pop up box. That will force the game to shut off.

If it's not the game freaking out, it may be your browser, so you may have to END PROCESS on that to fix your problem.

I have an old version of Linux Ubuntu on an old PC. I also have an old version of the Firefox browser. The browser often freaks out and starts running like a nut, and everything goes slower and slower until the browser hangs. When I used to try to reboot, or do a complete shut down, and then a fresh boot, it would not fix the problem, but would be even worse, and the whole OS would be running super slow and unusable until the next day. For some reason it would work okay the following day. I kept checking out different things on the menus to find a way to either completely fix things, or to at least get a way to work around the problem. No fix, but I finally found out after checking the Sys Monitor that my browser was still showing as being on in the list box there after I would shut it down, and I could hear it's manic sounds, too. I also found that if I shut it down in the Sys Monitor, I could still use the PC, and even restart the browser, and it would be running normal again, until the next freak out. Now I always turn on Sys Monitor before I turn on Firefox, so I can quickly get into it to fix it, when the browser freaks and slows everything down.

I know that both my Ubuntu and Firefox badly need updating, but I have only a dial-up connection, and I plan on switching to a refurbed Windows 7 PC soon, so I am using this work around until then.

I hope this helps, and maybe someone else here can offer other options.

Sounds like a driver error, that dual boot business is likely causing it to use the wrong drivers. So motor goes haywire etc.

Make sure you update or remove/reinstall the right drivers for it on both os. I was going to suggest trying a different drive but I see its a laptop.. so not as easy then. :S


Alternative: rip the disk .iso file to the computer and run it using a program called Daemon tools. Virtual drive, no disk, no drivers, no noise.

Nevermind guys, found the problem. It's not my drive at all, although it could be exacerbating an already present error.

The problem is the game data itself. The game I am trying to play is Star Wars: Empire at War Gold Edition, and after an extensive Google search I've found a LOT of people having the same problem with the game, so much so that the disc manufacturer has issued a recall because of the faulty discs. Theoretically, I can mail the disc back to them and they will send me a new and supposedly functional copy, but I honestly don't have the time, so I'm downloading a torrent of it. I know it's ripping off the developers but I don't care, as far as I'm concerned the developers ripped ME off by selling me a faulty disc. If I paid money for a useless game disc, then the developers can deal with me pirating one copy of the game for my own personal use, since I technically paid for it anyway. Plus I can circumvent all that stupid DRM software that slows everything down. It's not like I intend to disseminate it illegally, I just want what I paid for, and I don't care where I get it from.