Driver or Hardware problem? CDRW drive

[lisah]

Is there a way to tell if my problem with my cd drive is actually the hardware or a problem with the driver software? It's not reading any cd's so I have to use my dvd drive to read them. [It obviously won't write either.]

I hope I posed that question so it's understandable. I'm not very good with computer terminology.

If this has been addressed elsewhere, then let me know where to go for the answer. I couldn't find one.

Thanks!

[dodecahedron]

1st of all, is this a CD-ROM drive or a CD-RW drive?

try uninstalling the drive in the Device Manager, and then rebooting. maybe that will help.
for instructions on how to use the Device Manager, read the FAQ.

what OS are you running?
specs of your computer?

[lisah]

CD-RW

I have a Compaq with Windows ME 4.90.3000, Pent III w/ 127mb RAM

Other than that I'm not sure what else you might be looking for, so you'd have to help me find it on my computer.


Symptoms:
The drive will open, but when cd is inserted [such as a music cd] the drive behaves like it's searching for something [yellow light stays on, and it clicks for a while, then goes out but nothing happens]. [media player]

Data cd does the same. When Word is opened and drive E is selected I get the following message:

"Selected disk drive is not in use. Check to make sure disk is inserted."


I hope this helps.

[dodecahedron]

well, i want you to find the Device Manager.
i'm not familiar with WinME, but i belive it's very similar to Win98.
read this FAQ:
How to enable DMA in Windows 98 (with pictures)



now, click on CD-ROM (as per the instructions in the FAQ).
what kind of CD-RW drive is it?

make sure DMA is enabled (as in the instructions. you might need to reboot).

if that doesn't help, you can try selecting the drive and removing it (like in the instructions, but choose the Remove option instead of Properties).
then reboot.

[lisah]

This is what I found under device manager:

Philips CDD 4801 CD-R/RW

I opened the Properties and 'Enable digital CD audio for this CD ROM device' is checked.

In Settings... 'Disconnect', 'Auto insert notification', and 'DMA' are the only things checked. Nothing under 'Reserved Drive Letters' are checked. 'Current drive letter assignment' is E.

Under Driver the message shown is 'No driver files are required or have been loaded for this device. To update the drivers for this device, click update driver.'

----

I did remove it then powered down then powered back up. I looked in the Device Driver and everything was the same after that, so it must have reloaded the software. But it still won't read anything placed in the drive. Neither music nor data CD's.

[dodecahedron]

what burning software do you use?
what burning software do you/did you have installed on this computer?

while i appreciate that this might be difficult for you, the best thing to do at this point is to remove the drive from your computer, install it in another computer and see if it works there.
if not, the drive is probably faulty. if it works fine, it must be some kind of driver or software problem in your computer.

can you get help from a computer-savvy friend?

[dodecahedron]

why don't you please click on this link
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/files/NeroInfoTool_227.zip

save the file to your hard drive, then double click on the zip file to extract its contents.
then run (double click) the InfoTool.exe file.
click on the ASPI tab.
there should be a scroll-down menu in the box ASPI installation. what options does it give?
if there are any, what is written at the bottom of the InfoTool screen for each of them? (it should say either "ASPI is installed and working properly" in green, or some error message in yellow i think)

[lisah]

what burning software do you use? Adaptec is what we have on our computer now

what burning software do you/did you have installed on this computer? We had both Adaptec and INCD prior.

no, I don't have any friends who are computer savvy, or another computer to check it out. maybe I should contact a pro?

I'll try that link. Thanks a lot for your help, btw.

[lisah]

ASPI

System ASPI is installed and working properly


Nero ASPI (not installed)

[dodecahedron]

welcome.

Adaptec and INCD

now that sounds bad.

i'm assuming that by Adaptec you mean: Easy CD Creator. right?
which version?

now Easy CD Creator often comes with DirectCD. InCD is from Ahead software.
and DirectCD and InCD don't live well toghether. having them both on your system is very bad news.

so can you be more specific:
which of Ahead's products do you or did you have on this computer: Nero and/or InCD? which are currently installed?
which of Roxio's (Adaptec) products do you or did you have on this computer: Easy CD Creator and/or DirectCD? which are currently installed?

[lisah]

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. We had uninstalled INCD after doing a factory restore on our computer and then installed Adaptec to replace it (Easy CD Creator 4 and DirectCD 3 - that's what it says on the disk.).

However, before we had to do the factory restore we did have both on our PC. I only used INCD for my work and didn't use Adaptec, in fact I didn't even know we had Adaptec on our computer. My husband installed that. He used Adaptec for his college papers and he didn't know about INCD being on our PC. After doing the factory restore he told me to get rid of INCD. Which I did. But the CD/RW drive still won't work.

From what you wrote it sounds like we might have created a problem from using both types of software? Do you think that might have fried the CD/RW drive then? Using both types of software?

Btw, we had to do a factory restore because the computer kept locking up on us. What would happen is all of a sudden the computer would engage the CD/RW drive (as though it were looking for something in there) even though we weren't using it. Then the computer would lock up...even if I was only surfing the net. I'd have to power down and back up. Having exhausted all other possibilities we did the factory restore.

So, what do you think?

[lisah]

I just wanted to add that I just downloaded INCD reader software (read only) a couple of days ago so that I can access the information on the cd's I had made before. However, that is not the cause of the problem because we've been having this problem for at least a whole month, if not longer. I finally found this site in hopes of getting some things fixed.

We have other problems too. Such as no software for our compac IJ600 printer. And for some reason our pc won't install the software for our HPofficejet 4110 all-in-one printer (printer, fax, scanner, copier). It will only fax. I'm trying to fix each problem at a time though.

[dodecahedron]

well, this might indeed be the problem.

does the factory restore automatically install InCD on the computer?

what i can suggest is that you uninstall Easy CD Creator and DirectCD.

then clean the system from all traces of InCD. use the InCD-Clean Tool here:
http://www.nero.com/en/631938356212815.html

there's also a similar utility from Roxio, to clean all traces of their software from your computer, called Roxio Zap.
read this help page:
http://nh3.nohold.net/noHoldCust40/Prod ... sid=106566

if this link doesn't work, go to www.roxio.com , click the Support link in the middle of the page, then in the Knowledgebase search box enter "Roxio Zap". in the popup search results window you get, the 4th option is: "IN- Uninstall Easy CD Creator 4/5 using the RoxiZap Utility". click on that.

the direct link to roxio zap: http://softwareupdates.roxio.com/gm/sup ... oxizap.exe


after cleaning up, reinstall Easy CD Creator, but don't do a standard full install, if possible do a custom install and choose not to install DirectCD (i'm asuming you're not usingn DirectCD, but using Easy CD Creator, to burn your CDs).

[dodecahedron]

can you do a factory restore on your computer, without having it install InCD? if so, i recommend you do that before all the cleaing and reinstallation of Easy CD Creator i described above.

[lisah]

Doing another factory restore. Since I can't write to a cd, if I do a factory restore I'll lose all my data unless I copy it onto a floppy disk. And that would take a lot of diskettes. Is there a way or a place on D drive where I can save things and they wouldn't be lost? (also programs like my internet provider, my favorite sites, stuff like that.) Last time I did a restore I lost an awful lot of stuff.

Also, I think it automatically installed INCD when I did the factory restore.

[dodecahedron]

that's what i was afraid of.

do you mean you have both a C drive and a D drive?
are they 2 partitions of one actual hard drive in your computer?
even if so, i don't know if the restoration software would leave stuff on D intact or erase it. better not risk it...

why don't you do what i suggested then: clean the registry from remains of InCD with the InCD clean tool, and do a clean reinstall (uninstall, clean with Roxio Zap and re-install) of Easy CD Creator, without a 'factory restore'.

(and if the 'factory restore' does automatically install InCD on your computer, well then there's no point in doing it again anyway)

and we can hope it will help and solve your problem...
(i can't see that it will hurt to do this, even if it doesn't solve your CDRW problem)

[lisah]

okay, thanks for the advice. I'll try that tomorrow, I've got a lot to do today.

Thanks, again.

[dodecahedron]

you're welcome
let us know how things worked out.

[fil]

>Philips CDD 4801 CD-R/R.
This drive is very problematic and there are tons of complains about it, on the web.
I had one, wich died after less than a year of use. I believe its the sole cause of your problems, since the symptons you described are typical of dead drives.
Good luck.

[jmbrown12]

Did you install the Easy CD Creator and Direct CD updates available on the Roxio site? What is the version number that is installed? Your drive was first supported in version 4.05. I do not believe that this will help though since you said the drive does not read any discs, audio or data. I tend to agree with fil that you might have a hardware problem.