How long does your average CD-ROM drive last? Mine

[Zealot]

I would suggest that you go to safe mode and check your device manager for an yellow !

If you are using the online Mcafee then you should not load another anti virus program. It, the online version of McAfee may be preventing it.

You could also try a cd-rom drive cleaning kit. Usually if they die they die. Intermitent may be just dirt.

Good luck

[chuckiechan]

One more thing to worry about...

I had Mc Afee during my last up grade and it would not work with my dma 66 IBM Hdd. I'm still waiting for tech supports reply....It was only last December.

Try Norton, it worked for me

regarding your CD rom. If it loads the rest of the things that you need, and plays music OK, it probably allright.
If you have DMA checked in your CD rom device manager, uncheck it.

Good luck, keep us posted!! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[shadow]

The cleaning kits they sell dont do squat usually. The best cleaning kit is a q-tip moistened with alcohol (not beer or rum but methyl hydrate) or even windex will do but not so much it drips everywhere. Be sure there's no power to the cdrom, get it so you can access the laser lens and very carefully wipe it a few times. It's on a very light spring so rub careful. The lens gets dirty from dust, smoke residue, etc. Give it a shot and dont forget about the cd's themselves, give em a cleaning and dont rub in circles, wipe across them. Have fun.

[kdlindsey]

Ah more questions, I am dying to learn all this stuff so I will keep on asking.

Okay why would I go to Device Mananger and look for a yellow ! I know that means that something isn't working.....are you talking about the CD-R....nope it is fine.....and yes it does load other disks and play music and yes cleaning it does help sometimes and I clean each and everyone of my cd's....i read somewhere that you could and when Big Game Hunter wouldn't play i had Cayne wipe it off and presto it played.....but the McAffe is a brand new disk.

I tried cleaning the drive and then reinstalling but it just chokes on certain cd's.....grrrrrr!

I have the Norton and it will barely even get itself up and running and if it does it wants to do the same thing, open several installation programs....i am really puzzled.

That is what my tech told me when i said i could load small things but had trouble with bigger programs so I bought a cleaner for $10....don't tell me it's a waste....lol!

What about canned air? I will try the Q-tip thingie but if it runs most all and not just the anti-virus....that is just too weird.

Thanks for the help guys....i will let you know if I get it.

[kdlindsey]

is 2+ years old and I have been having problems with it. I simply cannot install any anti-virus programs......no I am not infected, I have checked that out online.

The latest I tried to install was McAffe and it brings up the installation screen, times 4- meaning it brings up 4 identical installation screens.

After closing out all but one i installed it and then my computer boots, gets to the starting windows 95, then the blue cloud screen then stops, it isn't frozen, just stops loading.

I tried rebooting in safe mode, it does.

I tried rebooting in command prompt only, it does, you see the McAffe info come up that it has scanned your drive, then i get the c prompt and i type win......and nada, same thing. I had to uninstall it.....can't load Norton Anti-Virus either.

Is this cdrom just trash? It's a Cyberdrive and if it is what should I get to replace it?

[tkray]

Try a different driver?

[Dave_H]

I know that you said that you used the on-line scan for viruses and found nothing. But just for the heck of it, try booting with the emergency floppy disk that came with your Norton program.
Dave

[AdamP]

If you keep having problems with installing software the last resort is to do a clean install of Windows. If you reinstall Windows you will eliminate the possibility of a software or OS problem causing your trouble. It's a LOT of work to reintall everything but sometimes it's the best way!

[sns]

I have found my cdroms to last only about 2 years before they start playing up with some cd's that previously worked ok. they usually get to the point where I can only read the microsoft cd's for some reason then they finally give me blue screens. The longest lasting but slowest was my orig 2X on my 486 but then again it was slow, hardly any cd games existed and the ones that were on cd just installed onto the h/drive and u never needed the cd to actually play the game. The most use was music cds. I am amazed my 40X is still going with the caning it gets from cd games, music and all the instalations I do. I guess/hope the quality and technology is getting better. Is a couple of years it for cdroms or is it just my computer or quality of the local pwr supply?

[Billd]

Hi
I don't know if this will be any help. I had a Matsonic motherboard for an AMD chip with a bad L2 cache that wouldn't load programs with cache enabled. It also brought up multiple installations of AOL when I tried to install it. If you have an AMD chip try disableing the external cache. Good luck.
Billd

[jad1097]

I have an 6 year old 2X Nec cd-rom that still works fine. I never use it anymore though cause I don't use the 486 very often.