Warner Music CD's sound is distorted on Dell Windows 7 computer

I have this exact same problem, had my HP Pavilion stolen with all my ripped (perfectly well with Vista) CD's on, and yes...didn't have a back up. I now have a newer HP Pavilion (Wimdows 7) and am in the process of ripping my collection again, most CD's fine but have just come across....yep some WB ones at the mo, 2003 and 2008-all distorted, older ones seem fine (at the mo). However I have seemed to (accidentally) solved the problem. I stopped the automatic rip and then just played all the songs at randon, only for a few seconds, kept closing WMP and opening again from different icons..eg, my computer etc, and after about 5 mins, the CD plays fine, then I simply start the rip. I was about to try the external optical drive theory, but don't really need to, maybe I will if I have too many CD's that won't play, as this messing around to get it to work is a waste of time.....I am only into the first 5% of my collection, I will let you all know how I get on.

Hope this helps y'all!!! 

3 hours later

just got to one that wouldn't settle down (Elektra/WB) so plugged in my external liteon optical drive, worked first time. Pain in the ____ i know, but if you have one (another drive) is easier than sending laptop back. Seems to be some pathetic copywrite attempt, stupid if you cant't even listen to CD's if your PC is your home entertainment hub!!!!!

Good news is....I can rip 2 CD's at a time now!!!!!

HP Pavillion HP CDDVDW TS-L633N

Just a couple of months old.

Checked re: updating driver, and it says the driver is updated.

Checked CD from Reprise (Warner), and it buzzes like AM radio below power lines

Tried the CD on my home player and no problem.

Tried listening to the CD on both Windows music player and iTunes, and both had the same buzzing problem.

You misread the forum: Everything points to optical drives with defective firmware, which can't be changed by MS.

An external drive of a different brand on the same Windows 7 laptop plays the same distorted CD fine.

1. Post the brand and model of your optical drive in this thread for reference. You can find it on either:

    - Control Panel|Device Manager|DVD/CD-ROM drives, or

    - All Programs|Accessories|System Tools|System Information|Components|CD-ROM

2. Check on both the laptop and optical drive manufacturers web sites that there is no available BIOS or firmware updates available for your system. If that's the case, download and install the latest versions.
3. Burn a copy of your CD and check that the copy also plays distorted on your laptop and fine on someone else's.
4. Return your laptop together with the copy of your CD to the laptop manufacturer, or just the CD if they ask.

    Ask them to play the CD after they replace the drive with a different brand or model as a sanity check.

Most people returned their laptops without sending the CD for verification and got the same problem back.

OEMs should have some sort of components black list to avoid these known issues... :(

Window 7 has a lot to answer for!Ihad a new PB (AMD Turion ii x2 M500) laptop for christmas with windows 7.

I had a old compaq 10 years old previous,with no problems playing or downloading discs.

Now trying to download CD Paolo Nutini - These Streets (Atlantic) and BA Robertson The Platinum Collection(Warner) i have a distored sound on normal playback on laptop and within itunes and pod. I have also tried various other disc which were fine on old lap top and have problems with them on new.

Surely microsoft should be seriously looking into a fix for this problem as there seems to be no real answers on forum.

When reading the forum everthing points to windows 7.

So come on microsoft we all pay hundreds of pounds for your products please find us a fix!!!!