CD-Burner dissapeared!

[Rotten Deadite]

Okay, this looks like a forum where questions actually get answered, so...

I'm up late last night (I'll not say what I was doing), when I got a message from Win2K telling me I'd removed my CD-ROM improperly. It was similar to the one you get when you yank out a PCMCIA card from a laptop, which is nuts because this isn't a laptop we're talking about.

Anyway, I tried ejecting the CD I'd just burnt not ten minutes prior, and the drive wouldn't eject the CD. I tried rebooting (full power-off), and BIOS wouldn't detect the CD burner. It's status light didn't even light up.

I'm hoping that my power supply's going bad. The pessimist in me says my CD burner (brand new as of Christmas) is dead.

Here's some relevant system specs if it makes a difference to anybody:
Plextor 24/10/40a CDRW
Asus A7V (most recent bios)
Windows 2000 sp2

If it rings any bells, I'm using the standard microsoft drivers for my Via 4-in-1 devices, 'cause the newer ones don't work worth a ****.

Okay, thanks ahead of time if you give this any thought!

[Holodoc]

i had an old sony dvd rom having almost same trouble.
sometimes windows thought, there was no cd in there, some-
times it told me, that there was no device!

well, i'd update the CDRW's firmware and check the
ribbon cables and jumper settings.

you have to deactivate UDMA for this PlexWriter in the
mobo's BIOS!!! doesn't work with UDMA!!

i hope you can fix it!

[Rotten Deadite]

Originally posted by Holodoc
i had an old sony dvd rom having almost same trouble.
sometimes windows thought, there was no cd in there, some-
times it told me, that there was no device!Yeah, but did it tell you the drive was removed? That's the one that's really puzzling me. It seems to denote a failure somewhere in the hardware...
well, i'd update the CDRW's firmware and check the
ribbon cables and jumper settings.Ah HAH! I hadn't thought of a firmware update for some reason. The jumper settings are really odd on that drive, as well. I might start another post on that one altogether.
you have to deactivate UDMA for this PlexWriter in the
mobo's BIOS!!! doesn't work with UDMA!!That's a thought. I don't think I have UDMA enabled, but I'm at work now, so I can't check :rolleyes:

Thanks for the suggestions. Anyone else have something to add? I'd like to have a good lengthy list of things to try before I go home today :)

[Rotten Deadite]

Because my CDRW isn't being recognized in BIOS, I can't install any firmware upgrades.

I've pretty much decided it's either the CDRW's hardware that's screwed, or my power supply's not behaving itself. I've lost one CDROM on this machine already, recently, and I'd just assumed it was because it was a crappy CDROM (and it was).

While I'm at it, anybody know how to disable UDMA on an Asus A7V?

[cavill]

hi
my dad had a very similar problem to yours, he has
Plextor 24/10/40a CDRW
creative dvd
abit mobo kt7 raid

after i installed the plextor it seemed to work fine but a few days later it couldnt be found in device manager , he couldnt burn to it similar problems you are having.

the solution was to put the hardrive on ide 1 with the dvd as slave, then put the plextor on ide 2 as the master (if you look at the back of the plextor at the jumper settings make sure the pins on the right are covered this sets it to master)

try it,it may solve your problem

[Comage]

Okay, to disable UDMA on your CD-ROM, go to BIOS, first page, go to the Primary/Secondary Master/Slave location where your IDE device is. Manually select the device (don't use "Auto"), and set the UDMA support to ON/OFF, and the PIO Mode.

For me, I set the UDMA to off, and PIO to 4. I realised that this was the best setting for my IDE devices (using a Teac 40x and a Sony 140E 8/4/32 burner). This setting makes my drives faster than if they were in PIO 4, UDMA mode 2. How about that? :D

Btw, try moving your writer to another IDE location. Switch it around to confirm whether it's a IDE controller problem or a problem with the writer.

Hope it helps. :)