I have a HP Notebook Pavilion N5475. It is used sparingly. I basically use it for on the road when we go out of town on trips with kids for sports and sometimes to work. So its not over used.
At times the Dvd/Cd-R drive appears in my computer and sometimes it does not. When it does appear it does not always read disc that is put into drive though. Done the update driver,un-install/re-install process. When drive does appear and I check properties it reads "device is working properly" I came across this board looking for answers. I found similar topics but not exact. I tried using compressed air and cleaning the laser from a similar topic and wow, that worked for now. But I think there is more too it. Sounds to me like there might be a loose connection inside not sure.

Does anyone have any advice or have experienced anything like this??

I would appreciate it,

Thanks,

Tony

Laptop CD/RW drives are much more subject to shock than desktop drives. It may just be going bad. It is possible that it may be loose too. There are usually screws on the bottom of the laptop that hold the CD drive in place. These screws might be inside the hard drive bay, battery or even in the memory bays