CD Writer Cannot be accessed

[mharan]

Hello experts,

My computer is Pentium II and OS is Windows 98.

I have one cd rom and one cd writer drives. Recently I took out my CD writer out of my computer, then I put (installed) it back.
Now I cannot be able to access the drive. It says "The device is not ready." >> Retry or Cancel.

I checked the properties of the CDROM from Device Manager, and it says "The device is working properly." So what is wrong with my drive? What can I do now?

[AllGamer]

Check your IDE cable
check the Power
Uninstall Easy CD
Uninstall Direct CD
Install NERO

www.nero.com

install the latest ASPI drivers
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/drivers_by_product.html?sess=no&cat=/Product/ASPI-4.70

MAKE SURE it can at least Read normal CD roms :t

[iowaboy]

check to make sure it is set up right. set to either master or slave, depending on wheather the cdrom is master or slave.
if you have a cdrom cleaner handy use it to see if maybe you picked up a speck of dust or dirt on the lens. if it can not read a regular cd then nothing will help by updating the software. you may need to pick up a new cd burner or have a tech take it apart an do a manual clean. but if it needs to be manually cleaned it would be cheaper to pick up a new burner.

[mharan]

Thank you AllGamer and iowaboy for your responds.

My CD Burner is set to slave.
The IDE cable and the power cable are ok.
I uninstalled Easy CD and Direct CD.
I also installed Nero. I also updated the latest version of ASPI driver.
Nothing helped.
The normal CD rom in the computer works fine.

Iowaboy said the lense might be dirty. But the day before I took out the CD burner, I used it to make an audio CD from Easy CD creator.

So please give me some other ideas to work my CD burner back.

Thank you in advanced folks.

[AllGamer]

Does your CDRW work if you install it on another computer?

[mharan]

I did not try to install into another computer. I have only one computer. I tried to connect the IDE cable to CDWR as master, and it did not work either. It gave the same error message.
Do you think I could have damaged the CDWR when I took it out?
If so I can try to install it into my friend's computer.
Before I do that, is there any other test I can do? If not let me know and I will try the next step.
Thank you.

[Tick]

Your CD-RW has nothing to do with the "Brand" of software! Its a compatibilty issue on if your dirve is "Supported" or not! I would suggest making sure your "Brand" CD-RW is supported by the "Brand" of software you choose to use! Personal preference on which "Brand" of software manufacturer you choose to use is based on personal preference as in AG's soulution!

Personally I have used "NERO" and it blows coasters! I currenty run a bootleg copy of Ez Cd Creator 5 and it works flawlesly. IMO!

Tick

[iowaboy]

have you tried to use a regular cd in the cdrw to see if it works or not? if it doesn't work either then that tells you that either there is dirt or dust on the laser or the drive has bit the dust. software will not make the cdrw see even a regular cd (music or data cd). you could try it in another computer such as a friends to see if it works then. just tipping the drive a little or even moving it around can cause either the drive to get dirty ot go bad.

[mharan]

Thank you folks for your help.

I will try to install it into my friend's computer and will see.
I think the CDWR might be damaged. I had a hard time pulling out the CDWR from the socket earlier. This might caused all the problem.

I really appreciate you all for your support. Thank you again.
See you later.

[iowaboy]

you might also try a new ide cable. if it was hard to pull out of the cdrw drive then there is a good chance the cable may be damaged. also you may be on the right tract. the connecters on the drive may have broken away from the board.

[Terminator]

Another thing to check is that none of the pins on your CD-RW are'nt bent. Also If you pulled the drive your bios might have reset your IDE/CD drives to only show one CD drive and your bios hasn't automatically reset the CD-RW. Go into bios and check that the bios actually knows it's there. The fact that it says 'drive not ready' makes me think the bios does see it though otherwise it wouldn't show up at all. Try another cable with just the CD-RW and if that doesn't work then.....errrrrrr....think it might be time to go shopping..Aslo as mentioned, clean the heads.

T

:t