G3 Plays DVDs but refuses to play CDs

Hey guys, got a strange error here.

I have a ruby 450MHZ iMac G3 with a slot loading DVD drive.

Very recently it stopped playing Audio CDs, as far as I can see they aren't mounted. When I press the eject on my keyboard nothing happens, the discs aren't in finder or the desktop.

I end up having to use a paperclip to get the manual eject button.

Today I got a little sick of the iMac (Wishing I had bought a 1.25or soGHZ eMac. I opened the iMac up and poked my nose around, after being blasted with the scent of the early 2000s (Yummy!) I noticed nothing seem wrong with the IDE cable and considering the cable also conects the hardrive I think i'd know if it wasn't working.

I was looking up DVD drives on ebay when I had the idea of trying a DVD video in the mac, it booted up, no problem, mounted on the desktop, finder, played and then ejected - all perfect no problem.

This is in OS X 3.9 Panther

So my Audio CDs aren't working but my DVD videos are, could this be something I isntalled? Whats going on? I'm not sure what I should be doing to even look into thsi problem further.

Thanks very much in advance, any help is welcome (Even if you're telling me how good your eMac is, haha)

I'm pretty sure that drives that read both CDs and DVDs use two separate heads. So, it's possible that the CD head is just faulty and you may need a new drive. Being that the system is fairly old now, this wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Oh thats interesting, I always thought of it as an all in one thing

Thats super keen, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, it sure is an old piece of kit

Before I buy a new one (It'll cost me like £35 for a DVD drive) i'll wait for more replies, just to be sure before I have to spend money.