Only way to eliminate whether it's the cable or the drive is by replacing one or the other. It's highly likely that your drive is toast though. Normally cables last forever because there's no moving parts. Drives can be touchy because of the whole mechanical 10,000 rpm thingy.
I had an LG cd-drive about 2 years ago. It was three months old and running fine. Turned the computer off overnight and when I fired it up in the morning it wouldn't read anything. Just sat there blinking it's light and attempting to read whilst stuttering as you've described. I spent a few hours tinkering but got nowhere. Replaced it and all was sweet again. I couldn't understand why as all my discs are in perfect unmarked condition.
If you suspect the drive, pull it out, open it's case and give the laser a clean. Also remove any obvious dust bunnies and foreign matter from inside the casing especially the area where the laser travels. This occasionally works. More often the cause is that the laser is worn, misaligned or not tracking properly. There's no easy fixes for those problems though.
I had an LG cd-drive about 2 years ago. It was three months old and running fine. Turned the computer off overnight and when I fired it up in the morning it wouldn't read anything. Just sat there blinking it's light and attempting to read whilst stuttering as you've described. I spent a few hours tinkering but got nowhere. Replaced it and all was sweet again. I couldn't understand why as all my discs are in perfect unmarked condition.
If you suspect the drive, pull it out, open it's case and give the laser a clean. Also remove any obvious dust bunnies and foreign matter from inside the casing especially the area where the laser travels. This occasionally works. More often the cause is that the laser is worn, misaligned or not tracking properly. There's no easy fixes for those problems though.