Computer locks up when trying to play audio CD's

[LaserLisa]

We have a Pakcard Bell that freezes any time you try to play audio CD's. You can browse to the CD, but as soon as you double click the computer freezes. Sound card and CD-Rom drive are fine. Thanks.

 

[pctechnician]

Does it lock up when trying to play any other type of CD Media (i.e install CD)?

Try just dropping in the CD and let autorun do it's thing.

Make sure you have autorun enabled.

also make sure your CD isn't just jacked up.

 

[LaserLisa]

Thanks for your response.

It only locks up on audio cd's.

Autorun is enabled.

We have tried other CD's to make sure it's not just a problem with one CD.

Any other ideas??

 

[rockerfellerz]

Which program is selected to open and run the audio cd's? If the drive works fine otherwise then I would suspect this program is corrupted in some way. Try uninstalling it and use something different to play the cd. If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ

 

[carrr]

I know this is a long shot, but try an "older" cd (i.e. one cut before cd copy protection became vogue). A lot of the newer cds have this protection in place and simply won't play well through a lot of pc cd drives.

 

[MrFusion]

Does the cd rom drive have a play button on the front? If it does try putting in the cd, put in some headphones in the headphone jack on the cd rom, press play. If it works, then your drive is ok and can play the cd, you might want to check your system properties/cd properties and check if enable digital playback for cds is checked and swap it (if it is checked uncheck it, if not check it).

What os are you running? How old is that machine?

 

[Bobg1]

If you have a packard bell, its got to be getting quite old
May be time for something new.

 

[BuckeyeComputers]

When you say locked up how long have you let it set and during this time is there any cdrom activity?(light flashing spinning noise) and as suggested before what program is suppose to open and play .cda's?

 

[Squeezbox]

I'm not certain why someone would think that not having auto-insert enabled would cause their CD rom to lock-up, I have usually found things to be the other way around, with one exception: Enhanced audio CDs (with built in Animated menus utilizing shockwave) can sometimes unknowingly cause computers to freeze as they load up on your system, a complete bear if you don't know what's happening.

I recently have had an issue with CD rom lock-up utilizng Winamp and an audio CD. Winamp relentlously was reactivating it's Gracenote cddb extension. This is an extension that allows Winamp to look-up CD information at the CDDB site. I did not want Winamp to do this as it is not my regular CD player. When the Winamp-Gracenote extension becomes active an abort button is also available. Unfortunately when I hit mine, this software locked up my computer, which makes me wonder if this problem is making it's rounds (there are a lot of people that use Winamp at least for mp3.) The reason I mention this is that the final result was that my Mitsumi CD burner hardware was destroyed by the incident. When I opened it up to inspect the internal hardware I found evidence that the Oak chip and another nearby chip had experienced some severe overheating. The CD burner was still recognized but apparently it has now lapsed into a permanent coma. (For the technically obsessive I tried reinstalling the firmware and adjusting the servo and optic lens, to now avail. The CD burner was fried.)
I had no recognizable trojans or viruses on my system, but eventually came to the conclusion that Winamp had been altered or damaged, whether by some foreign software entity or simple 'ravages of time. It had been on my system through an awful lot of re-installations. Also I note that I do trade some files, and recently I have encountered frequent evidence of attempts to plant trojans or other simular devices on my system. Completely deleting the Winamop directory (Skins and plug-ins too!) and re-installing the newest version of Winamp which deals with a recently encountered 'vulnerability to hackers' not only gave me the option to NOT INSTALL THE GRACENOTE option (hallejuah!) but appears to have halted this lock-up syndrome on my system.
I utilize all the latest IE6-sp1 and updates on a Win98 system.