My very finicky CD ROM drive

[Don Corleone]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if somebody can help with a problem I've been having for some time.

I'm not certain exactly why, or what brings it on, but from time to time, my computer stops reading anything on the CD ROM drives. I have a 50X CDR only that came with the PC. I also later installed an HP9900 combo CD-RW/DVD-R. Anyways, sometimes both drives read fine, sometimes one and not the other, sometimes the other and not the one and sometimes, like now, neither one work. Reboots don't seem to help, nor do power downs. It just seems to finally start working again on it's own. It's not a question of the hardware registry: both drives show up (as vacant, even with material in them) in the file explorer, and they show up as what they are... CD-R for D: and CD-RW/DVD-R for E: .

[Reenk Roink]

This could be a problem with the cleanliness of the optical drive lens.

Infact, I had my DVD-ROM basically die on me because of this. It simply won’t read my discs. At first, it could recognize brand new and immaculate discs, but not the scratchy, dirty ones, but after all, nothing.

Now I make sure all my discs are clean and scratch-free, before inserting them into an optical drive. You have to be meticulous about it, but it pays off...

[Xiahou]

Try unplugging your old drive for awhile and see if the new one behaves on it's own.

[caravel]

Are the drives both connected via the onboard IDE interface? If so how are the configured. Which is the master and which the slave device? Are the two CDROMs sharing the same IDE channel?

There are many possible reasons for this problem. It could be that one of the drives is overheating/malfunctioning. If they are both on the same cable this would cause both drives to lock up. You really do need to test the drives alone. If you cannot reproduce the fault, then it may be that the IDE interface itself is producing the fault. This could be either hardware related or driver related. For the drivers, chipset drivers may or may not be the answer.

Also it could be that your power supply cannot stretch to powering the two devices as well as everything else (unlikely).

[Don Corleone]

Thanks gents. I'll check it out when I get some free time this weekend and will let you know what I discover.