Ok, I have a 2002 Gateway laptop model M465, running XP with SP 2. It has been a trouble free computer until as of late. I currently have 2 issues, I do not think they are related however.

Problem #1: The fan is constantly running. My house is air conditioned, it is cool in the computer room, and the laptop does not feel hot. The computer seems to be working fine and is not running slow. Not sure what the deal is here....

Problem #2: I am unable to burn any CD's with my computer. I have a CD RW and DVD ROM drive, I am able to play DVD's with no problem, however I am not able to listen to music CD's.

Other than these 2 issues, the computer works fine. Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated. Also, since I have moved, a good friend of mine whom was able to help fix things on my old computer is now 300 miles away. If I have to have someone fix this thing, where should I go? I figure Best Buy would be able to do it and they are close by, any other recommendations would be nice.

Thanks in advance!

 

Your fan was always running. As its aged it wears out and gets louder (and then you notice it). Suck it up, or tear your laptop apart and replace the fan for a nice new quiet one. Is it worth the expense? Prolly not. Turn up the TV/Music.

That makes no sense to me. Your saying you cannot read CDs period, but DVDs are fine? And to boot you cannot burn a disc? Why? Any software errors? How did you come to this conclusion?

 

CD and DVD are different lasers. Quite possible to have one work and the other broke. Probably time to replace, although you might try one of the cleaners they have to see if it is just dirt.

If you have never cleaned out the laptop, you may have an accumulation of dust that i making the processor run warm. Might try blowing it out to see if you gt anything out of it.

 

I have never cleaned the CD/DVD drive, that might be an avenue to check out. Sine you say they are different lasers, that makes sense that the DVD would work and the CD does not.

 

Ummm, yeah, guess i'll "suck it up"

I am saying I can NOT read or burn CD's (music, data or pictures) I AM able to read and play DVD's.

I came to this conclusion by trying to burn a music CD through wmp and Nero with no success. I tried to play an existing CD that works fine in my home CD player and the CD did not play on my computer. I put a DVD in the computer and it played fine.

No software errors, everything is up to date and clean.

 

And I guess my final question is; how difficult is it to install a CD/DVD drive into a laptop? Is this something you can do at home, any special tools involved, or am I better off letting a pro do it?

 

Before condemning the drive, open the tray and use a can of air and a very soft brush to clean the little lenses.

Many laptops are very easy to replace the drives in - you eject the whole drive from the bay and slide a replacement in. Exact replacements are NOT cheap, to adapt a universal slim drive you have to remove the old one from the caddy and put a new one in.

 

Quite often they are set up to just pop out or are easily removable so you can use different periphials. If it came with an owners manual, check there. If you do not have one go to www.gateway.com and their support section. Using the serial number on the laptop in the support section, you can find documentation, drivers etc for your particular machine. Gateway in the past has ben very good with documentation and other support items.