Using a cd drive alone as a cd player

[GeekieNick101]

Hey Everybody,

Is it possible to use just a cd drive by itself to use it as a cd player and if so how?

 

[SNGX1275]

Probably. If you have a headphone jack on the front of it I bet all you need is a 12V source for the motor and a 5V source for the electronics.

 

[GeekieNick101]

Thanks for the help, but we tried that with a cd drive with a front headphone jack and it did not work, it read the cd but did not begin to play it or anything, is there any way to tell the cd drive to play the cd?

Thanks

 

[SNGX1275]

I actually googled a bit for this, and the general consensus was it should work. I guess you could try connecting the wires that used to go from it to the sound card back in the Win9x days. Probably if you cut the other end off that you could wire that to a female headphone jack (buy at radio shack) and see if that works.

 

[Nodsu]

Older CD-ROM drives used to have two buttons on the front panel to let you play audio tracks. Newer ones only have the eject button and you have to use software to play CDs.