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Thread ID: 98514 2009-03-27 09:59:00 CD Drive Not Working blanco (11336) Press F1
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760062 2009-03-27 09:59:00 I have a friend who has been using a PC give to him 2 years ago
from his daughter, Running on XP SP2 with 40GB HDD, 128 RAM
and broadband connected. Because of his limited experience he
asked me to look it over and give it a system cleanup to improve
a sluggish performance, which I have done. He had never done a
defrag or rmoved any old, unwanted files, so his hard drive space
was chocablock with all kinds of rubbish which has now been
sorted and a lot of space made.
However, when I tried to install some updated software from his
CD ROM drive I found that the system would not recognise any discs
inserted, either data or audio. The disc symbol appears on screen
alongside the mouse cursor on disc insertion but everything hangs.
He has never used the drive, which is shown in My Computer. The
Device Manager shows it without any warning symbols and to be
working properly. The CD tray can be opened from My Computer,
which proves there is connection an communication.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the CD Rom in Device Manager but
this has not solved the problem. Could the Windows Generic driver
software be corrupted? or have you any other suggestion that may
solve the issue. He would be happy to pay for a new unit which I
would install as a DVD RW upgrade, but I would prefer before that
to ensure that this is not a system fault, otherwise we will be back
in square one.
I have installed the new software through a USB port successfully,
including good cleaning and defrag utilities . 		blanco (11336)
760063 2009-03-27 10:08:00 128 RAM Are you kidding !!!! thats prob most of the problem - the poor thing prob hasn't got the power to read the CD's correctly.

If you can, drop in another 512MB and see if things "perk up" If the system files have been damaged due to corruption they may simply not have enough grunt left.

To test this - put in the XP CD, see if the PC will boot from it - no need to load anything else, or at the moment reinstall - this is only testing the Drive to see if it can actually read the CD with no OS loading it up.

If it gets to the loading stage, and can read the CD OK then its software problems someplace. 		wainuitech (129)
760064 2009-03-27 12:16:00 Thanks, but this problem is not due to lack of RAM. The computer was
manufactured about 10 years ago and the CD drive would have worked
and should still operate with 128GB- you don't need any more than that
to run a CD ROM drive.
If I go ahead and replace this drive with DVD RW I would obviously upgrade
the RAM, probably to 1 GB. However, there is no point in proceeding down
this avenue until I prove that the drive is faulty or whether there is a system
problem. He can't find his XP Disc to boot from that and I have gone straight
from 98 SE to Vista in my computing - never had XP.
He is not currently in a position to afford a new PC, so I'm trying to help him
out to tide him over until he is able to.
The question remains:- System or CD Drive Faulty ? 		blanco (11336)
760065 2009-03-27 12:25:00 Put the cd in another system, see if it works. Then you'll know if its faulty or not

So its a normal cd-rom, not a cd writer?

Is anything else connected to it?? ie: To the same IDE connector on the mobo?? Or is it by itself?

Try changing the IDE cable, making sure the cable is connected the right way. Does the BIOS see the cd?

Run this (www.microsoft.com) 		Speedy Gonzales (78)
760066 2009-03-27 13:25:00 Thanks, Speedy.
Yes, basic CD Rom drive. I haven't looked inside his case yet but
assume it's on the same IDE as the Floppy drive (empty).
This is all old gear but still in use by millions who have not been able
to upgrade for financial or other reasons. I am using a dual core with
2GB RAM, 500GB HDD, a top graphics card and digital TV card.

I have downloaded your MS Autoplay fix and will give it a try when
I next visit his shack. Forgot to look at the BIOS !
Thanks again, Blanco 		blanco (11336)
760067 2009-03-27 13:35:00 By the way Speedy, don't you ever go to bed?
What medication are you on?
The time here is 1.35 pm. 		blanco (11336)
760068 2009-03-27 20:47:00 ?? Floppy isnt IDE (So it shouldnt be on the same IDE connection as the hdd)

That autofix may fix the autoplay on it (sometimes it can stuff up). Which is why nothing will load when you put something in it

Yup, I went to bed after that post :p 		Speedy Gonzales (78)
760069 2009-03-27 20:56:00 The reason I mentioned lack of RAM is Have a customers PC in the workshop right now - it's low on RAM, and would hardly run, even the DVD writer wouldn't read increased it, and the Drive worked perfectly . (and no I didn't bump any connections)

Have you tried booting from any other bootable CD since you dont have the XP - No real rocket science to see if its hardware or software - the only reason I said use the XP CD is because it was mentioned it had XP on it . Seen it happen hundreds of times with PC's with low power, the system gets corrupted and items dont work because theres not enough power to run them .

IF you dont have the XP CD then its going to be very hard to repair the system if you need files from the CD .

Edited: changing the drive or putting it in another PC to test may prove nothing as well - if there is some other hardware problem in the PC causing the drive not to read then changing it wont work .

Could be a faulty IDE cable, could be a fault in the motherboard IDE connector, could be a PSU problem .

Booting from a bootable cd of any type on the PC will tell you right away if its a hardware or software problem . I deal with these sorts of problems every single day in my own business . 		wainuitech (129)
760070 2009-03-27 21:04:00 O.K. Speedy, my mistake re the floppy (IDE). It's been a long time since
I looked inside a case. The CD ROM drive is the only device apart from
the floppy, so there will be 2 seperate ribbon cables connected to the
motherboard, with no master/slave configuration.
I will let you know how I get on after I take another look at the situation.
Thamks for your response.......................................... ......Blanco 		blanco (11336)
760071 2009-03-27 21:42:00 You could have one IDE cable with the hard drive as master and the CD as slave. Sweep (90)
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