what are some signs of a cd-rom going dead in a desk top?

Umm.. It doesn't work anymore... is usually the a good sign.
Disc goes in, light comes on, but the computer fails to read the disc.

Do people still have cd-rom drives?

Sorry about the smart ass reply... but that is the short of it. Usually, they either work, or they don't work, and they are usually pretty reliable.

Big D

If it's broken they are cheap to replace. You can get a DVD burner for less tha $50

this one when you turn the computer on the green light does not flash when booting and when you press the button to open the tray it does not open. after rebooting the computer the green light stayed on the whole time while booting. my sister is talking about putting a cd-r in it. right now she is using my old compaq which has a dvd rom and a cd-r rom.

Replace the CD-ROM drive. It is getting power and acting up even before the system comes up. It is cheap and easy to do.

You can upgrade to a DVD +/- RW for cheap. It reads and burns all popular formats of media.

i believe i have on old cd-r floating around in my computer part mess. also might try and upgrade the mother board and add some ram.

I throw cd-r drives away.

Take $40 and go buy a decent dvd burner at bestbuy or some other computer place...

True dat.. Picked myself of a 20X Light Scribe DVD Burner new on ebay for less than $30.00 Works fantastic and blazing fast.

oh, just be sure you get the correct kind, SATA vs IDE.

Big D