New User Question re laptop CD drive

[Remedy]

We have been cruising the Caribbean on our sailboat for the last three years so not up to date on the latest technology (understatement).

We have found some tracks on our CD's don't play properly from the laptop drive so consequently they don't convert to MP3 correctly. Example: All you need is love - Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour. It's not the CD as it plays correctly on our Kenwood stereo/CD player.

We have tried cleaning, downloading new drivers, etc. We have two drives: DVD and CD/R/W that give same results.

Any info on this would be appreciated. We have a Dell Latitude laptop running Windows 2000 Professional.

Thanks

[LtData]

Re: New User Question re laptop CD drive

Define "play properly". Does it play, but skip? Is it not detected? Do you know if the CD possibly has copy-protection.

[Remedy]

Re: New User Question re laptop CD drive

By "not playing properly" I mean certain tracks don't seem to play. Or if they do play they don't seem to play at the proper volume. Don't think it has to do with copy protection as it happens when just playing from the laptop drive.

By "track" I mean there are multiple tracks on the recording: vocals may be on one, certain instruments on another, etc. On "All you need is love" certain of the the vocal tracks don't play at the proper volume. I am assuming this is a deficiency in our CD drive but wonder if there is something we can do about it!

[LtData]

Re: New User Question re laptop CD drive

It sounds like mabye the CD drive can't keep either a steady stream of data or cannot keep the CD spun up at the right speed. 3 years sounds about right for a CD Drive to die. Does the CD play fine on other computers?
Note that copy-protection would not affect stereo CD players.

Also, if you do need a new CD Drive, you can get an external one. However, if your laptop is 3 years old, it probably does not have the newer USB 2.0 spec but the older USB 1.1 spec. Therefore, your CD drive would be limited to 4x.