cd-rom problems...

[Bob The Great]

I have a 52X Delta Cd-rom, 40X Liteon Cd-Rom, and a 12X AOpen DVD. All the sudden they've stopped running certain programs. Demo's seem to work find, as do a few games. But at least two games (Episode:1 Racer, and Jedi Knight) don't work. What happens is the screen goes black. The Cd-rom (or DVD) spins up. But no lights flash, and nothing happens except the little hour glass spins. Finnaly I'm forced to reboot (usuing a hard reboot). Any ideas?

P-3 600Mhz EB
192Mbs PC-100 Mem
8.2 GB Seagate HD
12X AOpen DVD
52X Delta CD
40X Liteon CD
BCM/GVC GT693VA Mobo
Creative Labs OEM GeForce DDR
250 Watt power supply

Thanks!

[GroundZero3]

dirty cd or scratches?

Jason

[This message has been edited by GroundZero3 (edited 04-24-2001).]

[Bob The Great]

I thought about that to, and the CD's do have a few scratches. But they worked just weeks ago, and I'm really carefull with CD's. The only reason these are scratched is episode:I Racer is used, and I lent Jedi Knight to a friend for a little while.

It could be that though. It's just kinda weird that it would happen all the sudden to two CD's. Also they install fine, and I can look at the contents ok.

Could it have something to do with my video card, windows, or drivers?

BTW: I use windows 98 2nd edition

[This message has been edited by Bob The Great (edited 04-24-2001).]

[djurom]

When you insert your CD does autorun start or does it only spins up leaving windows idle like before?
This hourglass will spin forever until it gets some data from CD-ROM. It could be that your CD-ROM is dirty (laser lens) or his beam is not so strong so data is not readable.

[GroundZero3]

yeah i was at compusa last night and that popped into my head. what if he needed the lens cleaned

Jason

[QCTECH1]

first of all you have 3 very lousy cdroms. All 3 of those CDROM have very poorly made laser assemblies. Your best bet would be to clean the lens with a cotton swap and some Isoprophl Alcohol. If that doesn't work take the entire unit apart and clean the inside of the unit. If you are still having problems you might want to try re-adjusting the laser assembly,

[Bob The Great]

I know only have two of the drives in my pc. The 12X AOpen DVD, and the 52X Delta CD rom. I'm not sure they are dirty. Since all three of them stopped reading those piticular cd-roms at the same time. I'm not even sure if it's cd-rom related. It might be some windows thing. Or as you said before scratched cd's.

In reply to Djurom: Yes the autoplay does work, and I even installed Jedi Knight with no problems. But neither game runs (so far only those two games, both LucasArts).

In reply to QCTECH1: If it is a misalignd laser or something. I'll take the DVD back. It's still under warrenty, and I don't feel like messing with that stuff!

Thanks for the replies! Any other ideas?

[fxcapt]

I recommend using a laser lens cleaner on your drive. The good ones are around $25 bucks and they cure lots of cd problems!

[djurom]

Well, only thing I can think of right now is to backup your partition with norton ghost or something that makes an image of your partition, format, reinstall windows, try those CDs, if they work you know the problem. If not restore your previous partition and all will go on the same.
Or you can try to plug it in in some other PC (friends, sisters,...).

[Bob The Great]

If the problem gets worse I'll do that. I just cleaned it, and the problem persists. What I'll do is go to gamecopyworld, and see if they have any no cd cracks for the games.

Thanks!