My drive just died.

There were some symptoms for while. It wasn't successfully writing CD-Rs for a few days. Now it won't even read Cd disks. I assume it's time to get a new one, but just wondering is there any first line of attack, like a cleaner that might fix it?

You can use it like a coffee cup holder.

Depends on the amount of dust inside, some can be taken apart with care and brushed out - but replacements are not expensive and easily fitted, DIY.

laptop or desktop ? you could try using some alcohol (>90%) on a swab to clean the laser lens but other than that just get a new drive they are cheap.

Not worth mucking around with it for the price of a new burner being under 2000 Baht.

If for a desktop, a new CD/DVD burner is only 800 baht (Samsung, LG, Asus) so not worth it spending to much time trying to fix.

Thanks for the suggestions. Its a desktop. I didn't bother with the dusting idea but I did find a potential fix on windows help for my situation. It suggested trying to uninstall the device driver and then reinstall it on reboot. It reinstalled the device and driver but then still the same symptoms (wouldn't read disks at all or even recognize empty ones). So got a new LG for 780 baht. Case closed.