CD-ROM doesnt work - come test your knowledge

[newbie~wan]

Heres a problem for you all to test your troubleshooting knowledge on.

Scenario:
My roommates computer has two CD drives, one ROM and one RW. The other day, his ROM quit working for no apparent reason (no new software or hardware installed). However, it WILL still play music CD's, but that's it. If you put in any other type of cd and attempt to "run" from start menu it says

"unable to read drive, drive not ready"

or something to that effect (cant check, at work right now).

I know this is pretty general so far, so if you all can, please give me a fairly exhaustive list of things to try. Maybe then we can get down to more specifics.

Note: I ran the wizard that searches for best driver, it says best already currently in use.

[vass0922]

The RW works fine?
Have you tried the ROM in a different machine? Same CD's work in the RW?

Kind of simple questions, but should still be asked http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[newbie~wan]

I am at work so I cant check anything right now. I am sorry for posting without knowing more info, I'll get back to you all later with more info.

By the way, as that it is not my system, I dont know how old the cd-rw is. Is it possible that it is not functional as a cd-rom? Or do all writers have read capability also?

[Azza]

Are the speakers plugged into the front of the cd-rom when you play music. Not 100% sure but I think your cd-rom only needs power to play audio cd's from the speaker port at the front of the rom. Check your ide cable, it may have come out slightly!!

[newbie~wan]

no, the speakers are not plugged into the front of the cd-rom.

And while I will take you suggestion and check if the ide cable came loose, isn't this VERY, VERY, VERY unlikely?

Like I said, it does at least play music cds. Is an IDE connection not necessary to play cds?
I don't know. I do know that the cd-rom also has connection to the sound card, would that be enough to play music?

i JUST realised this should probably be in data storage

[This message has been edited by newbie~wan (edited 08-15-2001).]

[Jonty]

This is only a stab in the dark but is the Disconnect box checked when you go into Device Manager and highlight the CDROM drive, click on properties and then click on the settings tab? This should be checked I believe.

[lynchmob]

Windows may have burped.And there is a fix where you check the registry for "noide"I will let someone who has done this explain the procedure.Or try these Google links (http://www.google.com/search?q=noide&sa=Google+Search&cat=gwd%2FTop&hl=%28null%29) if you want to try yourself.
Also try cleaning the drive and use different data cds to see if that works.HTH
lynch

[Timbob505]

I'm gonna tack on to lynchmob and say go clean that sucker...get one of those cd-rom cleaners and let it do its thing. Hopefully, that's what is needed. Good luck, let us know what you do!

Timbob

[NUBlackshirts]

If you have a WIN98 boot disk, you can see if the drive will read cd's at a dos prompt. Good way to test if it's a Windows problem or not.