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| Thread ID: 35219 | 2003-07-05 10:32:00 | CD Drive wont recognise a cd. | *Sparky* (311) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 157703 | 2003-07-05 10:32:00 | Howdy folks, I have a game on 4 cd's. When I put cd no 1 in the drive, the light flashes for a while but nothing happens. When I go to "Explore" my D Drive, there is nothing there. The drive reads cd's no 2,3 and 4 ok. When I put them in the drive, it asks if I would like to instal the game. Click yes and it asks for disc 1. Put in disk no 1 and nothing. I tried disk 1 in our students computer and away it went installing the game. It is an Atapi CD-R/RW 12x8x32 with Microsoft driver dated 1/7/01. Running XP Pro. Other cds dont cause probs. Any suggestions will be appreciated. |
*Sparky* (311) | ||
| 157704 | 2003-07-05 11:06:00 | CD lasers vary in alignment and power. There can be limits (of reflectivity of individual CD Media for instance) that can take you outside the limits that will operate (and therefore be able to even recognise the CD has data on it) While this shouldn't happen with original game CD's I guess there is nothing to say it never will. In truth though it could easily be your CD drive that is *just* outside the specs. There isn't much you can do really, apart from making sure the CD is very clean? |
godfather (25) | ||
| 157705 | 2003-07-05 13:19:00 | Updating the firmware sometimes helps. I had an older cd-rom drive that wouldn't read cds that had been burnt with multiple sessions. Update of the firmware fixed it :) You could find the manufacturer of the drive, and head along to their website. Look for an update for the drives firmware. Make sure you get the right firmware that matches your model number, or you will render your cd drive inoperable. |
PoWa (203) | ||
| 157706 | 2003-07-05 13:31:00 | CDRW drives seem to have a short life these days! I have a couple of 4x HP drives (when they cost $900) and they still work fine (but s l o w). However perusal of this forum suggests that modern fast drives often do not last well at all. I have had CD drives fail in stereos though, first they get fussy about playing CD-R, as to media type, then after a while will not play any CDR, then get fussy about original CD's then finally give up. Despite cleaning. Its a gradual process it seems |
godfather (25) | ||
| 157707 | 2003-07-05 14:33:00 | Really? Thats not good value for money! What brand of media do you use for music cd writing? There was an article in this months PCW, and it says you should try 1x write burning, for better accuracy. I use Imation cd-rs for stuff I want to keep. |
PoWa (203) | ||
| 157708 | 2003-07-05 14:43:00 | Thats not possible with the faster drives available now. A 40x drive will only record down to 8x, there simply is no 1x available, its an unsupported speed, unless you are using CDRW which are largely unsupported by stereos (a recent one here is compatable though). And CD lasers do wear out. I once had a "music on hold" system for a large company PABX that wore out 3 high quality audio CD players, you could only get 18 months out of them. (24/7) Fact of life. Cheaper stereo sets (<$400) often have cheaper components. You get what you pay for. Its probably the same with CD drives in PC's |
godfather (25) | ||
| 157709 | 2003-07-05 16:30:00 | I'm not exactly sure what you mean by firmware. After using Aida 32 and Sisoft Sandra, the only details I could get was that its an Atapi CD-R/RW 12x8x32 with driver version 5.1.2535.0 supplied by microsoft dated 1/7/01. Is firmware the same as drivers? |
*Sparky* (311) | ||
| 157710 | 2003-07-05 16:33:00 | PS. The drive read the cd after about the eighth time and started installing. But, the third disk had the same problem and I had to abort the instal. Disks 2 and 4 read ok. When I put in disk 1, you can hear the disk being moved around in the slot, but the whirring noise it makes when its reading doesn't start. | *Sparky* (311) | ||
| 157711 | 2003-07-05 21:42:00 | Atapi just means a CD interface and is not the brand of your CDRW per se. See here (www.ata-atapi.com) for more info. Is there a brand name on the outside of your CDRW tray? Firmware is software to update hardware. Its different to a driver which is used to communicate between hardware and an OS. |
parry (27) | ||
| 157712 | 2003-07-06 01:19:00 | I'm having a similar problem (see my post 'can't write to a CD'). I'm trying to burn some photos onto a CD but the drive isn't recognising there is a CD inserted. I thought it was the software, so I did as advised and downloaded a demo version of Nero, but nothing has changed - it comes up with a message saying the medium required is empty. I've done all the things I thought would help - disk cleanup, scandisk, defrag, updates, etc. but nothing has made any difference. I've tried inserting a CD I know has something on it, but all I get when I click on the CD drive is a list of the files I have waiting to be burned. If I delete these files, it just shows up nothing. Any advice? Should I be calling a repairman? Is it likely to be expensive? I've only used the CD drive for burning probably three or four times, so it's not exactly from overuse! |
write-click (2248) | ||
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