I was given an older PC with a CD-Rom and a separate CD-RW drive. Previous
owner said the CD drive only worked intermittently. Upon bootup, the CD-RW
light is steady at first but blinks when Windows has finished loading. In
this state, neither the CD nor the CD-RW drive is listed in device manager.
Even expanding the Atapi controller list, I get nothing about either drive.
The CD-Rom door opens, but the CD-RW does not.
It used to be that a couple of reboots would resolve the problem. But only
as long as the computer stayed on.
I put a bad CD in the CD drive and it caused Explorer to hang. Now, I can't
get either drive to work/be recognized by the system. As far as I can tell,
the CD-Rom is listed in the BIOS, but not the CD-RW. However, I'm no expert
in going into the BIOS. Neither drive is listed under Disk Management.
Reading this forum, I found a script from kelleys-korner that seemed to fix
the problem. But then I tried the CD again, not realizing it was no good,
Media Player froze, error reporting wouldn't complete, and I had to reboot.
Now the light is blinking and the script does not fix the problem any more.
Maybe it was a coincidence.
I also read the Microsoft kb article about the upper and lower filters. I
don't have this data type in the relevant registry key.
I also tried a patch at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm. No luck.

Please help! I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others.
There's obviously power to both drives. I could live without the CR-RW, but
when it doesn't work, neither does the CD-ROM. Thanks for any help.

In news:5EEC3D64-8ECD-49E9-B11A-(E-Mail Removed),
Peggy had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> I was given an older PC with a CD-Rom and a separate CD-RW drive.
> Previous
> owner said the CD drive only worked intermittently. Upon bootup, the CD-RW
> light is steady at first but blinks when Windows has finished loading. In
> this state, neither the CD nor the CD-RW drive is listed in device
> manager.
> Even expanding the Atapi controller list, I get nothing about either
> drive.
> The CD-Rom door opens, but the CD-RW does not.
> It used to be that a couple of reboots would resolve the problem. But only
> as long as the computer stayed on.
> I put a bad CD in the CD drive and it caused Explorer to hang. Now, I
> can't
> get either drive to work/be recognized by the system. As far as I can
> tell,
> the CD-Rom is listed in the BIOS, but not the CD-RW. However, I'm no
> expert
> in going into the BIOS. Neither drive is listed under Disk Management.
> Reading this forum, I found a script from kelleys-korner that seemed to
> fix
> the problem. But then I tried the CD again, not realizing it was no good,
> Media Player froze, error reporting wouldn't complete, and I had to
> reboot.
> Now the light is blinking and the script does not fix the problem any
> more.
> Maybe it was a coincidence.
> I also read the Microsoft kb article about the upper and lower filters. I
> don't have this data type in the relevant registry key.
> I also tried a patch at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm. No luck.
>
> Please help! I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others.
> There's obviously power to both drives. I could live without the CR-RW,
> but
> when it doesn't work, neither does the CD-ROM. Thanks for any help.

Toss everything away - data wise - and add it back slowly.

What you PROBABLY are going to need/want to do is reformat the PC.

Still no luck? Check the cables themselves. Power, etc...

Somehow, a while back, I pointed towards Doug Knox's script and added the
upperfilter/lowerfilter tweak you've mentioned. I got slammed. *grins* It
was fun though. Since then I've poked at all the odd things to do with
optical disks I can think of, give those a try or - if you've already done
them - let us know what more you've done.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
solution is its own
reward." - Sherlock Holmes

Peggy

Disconnect the IDE cable from both optical drives.. reboot the system..
shutdown again, reconnect the IDE cables.. your drives will show again..

Re. the bad CD, try using it in a different PC.. make a note of which file
or folder is causing grief.. attempt to copy off everything other than the
bad file/folder, then throw it out..

Re. 'older PC', the optical drives may no longer be at their best.. I will
take flak for this, but I do not think that optical drives have a long life
generally.. even if they are not used much, there seems to be a tendency for
them to degrade over time.. four years is a good life.. and yes, I know
there are still some 1x speed drives our there strutting their stuff..

General advice.. if you buy a Plasma TV with in-built DVD drive, the TV will
outlast the drive by a considerable margin..


"Peggy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:5EEC3D64-8ECD-49E9-B11A-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I was given an older PC with a CD-Rom and a separate CD-RW drive. Previous
> owner said the CD drive only worked intermittently. Upon bootup, the CD-RW
> light is steady at first but blinks when Windows has finished loading. In
> this state, neither the CD nor the CD-RW drive is listed in device
> manager.
> Even expanding the Atapi controller list, I get nothing about either
> drive.
> The CD-Rom door opens, but the CD-RW does not.
> It used to be that a couple of reboots would resolve the problem. But only
> as long as the computer stayed on.
> I put a bad CD in the CD drive and it caused Explorer to hang. Now, I
> can't
> get either drive to work/be recognized by the system. As far as I can
> tell,
> the CD-Rom is listed in the BIOS, but not the CD-RW. However, I'm no
> expert
> in going into the BIOS. Neither drive is listed under Disk Management.
> Reading this forum, I found a script from kelleys-korner that seemed to
> fix
> the problem. But then I tried the CD again, not realizing it was no good,
> Media Player froze, error reporting wouldn't complete, and I had to
> reboot.
> Now the light is blinking and the script does not fix the problem any
> more.
> Maybe it was a coincidence.
> I also read the Microsoft kb article about the upper and lower filters. I
> don't have this data type in the relevant registry key.
> I also tried a patch at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm. No luck.
>
> Please help! I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others.
> There's obviously power to both drives. I could live without the CR-RW,
> but
> when it doesn't work, neither does the CD-ROM. Thanks for any help.

"Galen" wrote:

> In news:5EEC3D64-8ECD-49E9-B11A-(E-Mail Removed),
> Peggy had this to say:
>
> My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
>
> > I was given an older PC with a CD-Rom and a separate CD-RW drive.
> > Previous
> > owner said the CD drive only worked intermittently. Upon bootup, the CD-RW
> > light is steady at first but blinks when Windows has finished loading. In
> > this state, neither the CD nor the CD-RW drive is listed in device
> > manager.
> > Even expanding the Atapi controller list, I get nothing about either
> > drive.
> > The CD-Rom door opens, but the CD-RW does not.
> > It used to be that a couple of reboots would resolve the problem. But only
> > as long as the computer stayed on.
> > I put a bad CD in the CD drive and it caused Explorer to hang. Now, I
> > can't
> > get either drive to work/be recognized by the system. As far as I can
> > tell,
> > the CD-Rom is listed in the BIOS, but not the CD-RW. However, I'm no
> > expert
> > in going into the BIOS. Neither drive is listed under Disk Management.
> > Reading this forum, I found a script from kelleys-korner that seemed to
> > fix
> > the problem. But then I tried the CD again, not realizing it was no good,
> > Media Player froze, error reporting wouldn't complete, and I had to
> > reboot.
> > Now the light is blinking and the script does not fix the problem any
> > more.
> > Maybe it was a coincidence.
> > I also read the Microsoft kb article about the upper and lower filters. I
> > don't have this data type in the relevant registry key.
> > I also tried a patch at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm. No luck.
> >
> > Please help! I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others.
> > There's obviously power to both drives. I could live without the CR-RW,
> > but
> > when it doesn't work, neither does the CD-ROM. Thanks for any help.
>
> Toss everything away - data wise - and add it back slowly.
>
> What you PROBABLY are going to need/want to do is reformat the PC.
>
> Still no luck? Check the cables themselves. Power, etc...
>
> Somehow, a while back, I pointed towards Doug Knox's script and added the
> upperfilter/lowerfilter tweak you've mentioned. I got slammed. *grins* It
> was fun though. Since then I've poked at all the odd things to do with
> optical disks I can think of, give those a try or - if you've already done
> them - let us know what more you've done.
>
> --
> Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
> http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

Thanks for your help. I'm reluctant to reformat for one reason: When I got
the PC, it was already doing this. I reformatted to get rid of 2 side-by-side
Win2K installations, and did a clean install of XP. Yet the problem
persists. I would hate to go through all that again (especially with no way
to back up my stuff to CD!) and still have the same problem. Looks like I
have to open up the case. The intermittancy and the fact that a bad CD seems
to have knocked it out seemed to point to a software problem, but I've
exhausted all the software solutions I've seen.

Those tweaks you posted seem to work for a lot of people, judging by the
posts I've read around the Net.

Thanks. I will have to do this, loath though I am to go into the computer's
innards, and doing further damage. Your point about the age of the drives is
well-taken, however, this seems to have been going on for a long time for the
prievous owner as well. What gets me is for half an hour everything was fine
- I was even able to burn a CD using the inbuilt XP wizard. I may junk the
bad cd anyway, for fear of messing up another computer. Thanks again.

"Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User" wrote:

> Peggy
>
> Disconnect the IDE cable from both optical drives.. reboot the system..
> shutdown again, reconnect the IDE cables.. your drives will show again..
>
> Re. the bad CD, try using it in a different PC.. make a note of which file
> or folder is causing grief.. attempt to copy off everything other than the
> bad file/folder, then throw it out..
>
> Re. 'older PC', the optical drives may no longer be at their best.. I will
> take flak for this, but I do not think that optical drives have a long life
> generally.. even if they are not used much, there seems to be a tendency for
> them to degrade over time.. four years is a good life.. and yes, I know
> there are still some 1x speed drives our there strutting their stuff..
>
> General advice.. if you buy a Plasma TV with in-built DVD drive, the TV will
> outlast the drive by a considerable margin..
>
>
> "Peggy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:5EEC3D64-8ECD-49E9-B11A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I was given an older PC with a CD-Rom and a separate CD-RW drive. Previous
> > owner said the CD drive only worked intermittently. Upon bootup, the CD-RW
> > light is steady at first but blinks when Windows has finished loading. In
> > this state, neither the CD nor the CD-RW drive is listed in device
> > manager.
> > Even expanding the Atapi controller list, I get nothing about either
> > drive.
> > The CD-Rom door opens, but the CD-RW does not.
> > It used to be that a couple of reboots would resolve the problem. But only
> > as long as the computer stayed on.
> > I put a bad CD in the CD drive and it caused Explorer to hang. Now, I
> > can't
> > get either drive to work/be recognized by the system. As far as I can
> > tell,
> > the CD-Rom is listed in the BIOS, but not the CD-RW. However, I'm no
> > expert
> > in going into the BIOS. Neither drive is listed under Disk Management.
> > Reading this forum, I found a script from kelleys-korner that seemed to
> > fix
> > the problem. But then I tried the CD again, not realizing it was no good,
> > Media Player froze, error reporting wouldn't complete, and I had to
> > reboot.
> > Now the light is blinking and the script does not fix the problem any
> > more.
> > Maybe it was a coincidence.
> > I also read the Microsoft kb article about the upper and lower filters. I
> > don't have this data type in the relevant registry key.
> > I also tried a patch at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm. No luck.
> >
> > Please help! I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others.
> > There's obviously power to both drives. I could live without the CR-RW,
> > but
> > when it doesn't work, neither does the CD-ROM. Thanks for any help.
>
>

In news:5284CB9E-EA58-489F-B634-(E-Mail Removed),
Peggy had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> "Galen" wrote:
>
>> In news:5EEC3D64-8ECD-49E9-B11A-(E-Mail Removed),
>> Peggy had this to say:
>>
>> My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
>>
>>> I was given an older PC with a CD-Rom and a separate CD-RW drive.
>>> Previous
>>> owner said the CD drive only worked intermittently. Upon bootup, the
>>> CD-RW
>>> light is steady at first but blinks when Windows has finished loading.
>>> In
>>> this state, neither the CD nor the CD-RW drive is listed in device
>>> manager.
>>> Even expanding the Atapi controller list, I get nothing about either
>>> drive.
>>> The CD-Rom door opens, but the CD-RW does not.
>>> It used to be that a couple of reboots would resolve the problem. But
>>> only
>>> as long as the computer stayed on.
>>> I put a bad CD in the CD drive and it caused Explorer to hang. Now, I
>>> can't
>>> get either drive to work/be recognized by the system. As far as I can
>>> tell,
>>> the CD-Rom is listed in the BIOS, but not the CD-RW. However, I'm no
>>> expert
>>> in going into the BIOS. Neither drive is listed under Disk Management.
>>> Reading this forum, I found a script from kelleys-korner that seemed to
>>> fix
>>> the problem. But then I tried the CD again, not realizing it was no
>>> good,
>>> Media Player froze, error reporting wouldn't complete, and I had to
>>> reboot.
>>> Now the light is blinking and the script does not fix the problem any
>>> more.
>>> Maybe it was a coincidence.
>>> I also read the Microsoft kb article about the upper and lower filters.
>>> I
>>> don't have this data type in the relevant registry key.
>>> I also tried a patch at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm. No luck.
>>>
>>> Please help! I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others.
>>> There's obviously power to both drives. I could live without the CR-RW,
>>> but
>>> when it doesn't work, neither does the CD-ROM. Thanks for any help.
>>
>> Toss everything away - data wise - and add it back slowly.
>>
>> What you PROBABLY are going to need/want to do is reformat the PC.
>>
>> Still no luck? Check the cables themselves. Power, etc...
>>
>> Somehow, a while back, I pointed towards Doug Knox's script and added the
>> upperfilter/lowerfilter tweak you've mentioned. I got slammed. *grins* It
>> was fun though. Since then I've poked at all the odd things to do with
>> optical disks I can think of, give those a try or - if you've already
>> done
>> them - let us know what more you've done.
>>
>> --
>> Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
>> http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/
>
> Thanks for your help. I'm reluctant to reformat for one reason: When I got
> the PC, it was already doing this. I reformatted to get rid of 2
> side-by-side
> Win2K installations, and did a clean install of XP. Yet the problem
> persists. I would hate to go through all that again (especially with no
> way
> to back up my stuff to CD!) and still have the same problem. Looks like I
> have to open up the case. The intermittancy and the fact that a bad CD
> seems
> to have knocked it out seemed to point to a software problem, but I've
> exhausted all the software solutions I've seen.
>
> Those tweaks you posted seem to work for a lot of people, judging by the
> posts I've read around the Net.

I'd really check the cables. With it coming and going - and wanting to be
sure - I figured a clean install might be required BUT it seems you've
already done that and had no luck. With that info, as Mike says, the drive
is likely bad or the cables are.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
solution is its own
reward." - Sherlock Holmes

Reply at bottom

"Galen" wrote:


> I'd really check the cables. With it coming and going - and wanting to be
> sure - I figured a clean install might be required BUT it seems you've
> already done that and had no luck. With that info, as Mike says, the drive
> is likely bad or the cables are.
>
> --
> Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
> http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/
>
> "Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
> solution is its own
> reward." - Sherlock Holmes
>


Well, I got it working at least temporarily. While Googling the issue, I
found a post about re-enabling DMA. The gist was that 6 consecutive CD-Rom
errors will cause Windows to go to PIO instead of DMA. My bad CD caused at
least this many errors. Sure enough, in the BIOS, DMA for this channel was
"off," so I went into Device Manager and reselected it from the drop-down
list. It worked. Whether this is a long-term fix, I don't know, but at
least I've got 2 working drives for now. Thanks for all your help, and if you
have any thoughts based on what I just described, I would be interested.

In news:0A2C0240-870B-478D-9991-(E-Mail Removed),
Peggy had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> Reply at bottom
>
> "Galen" wrote:
>
>
>> I'd really check the cables. With it coming and going - and wanting to be
>> sure - I figured a clean install might be required BUT it seems you've
>> already done that and had no luck. With that info, as Mike says, the
>> drive
>> is likely bad or the cables are.
>>
>> --
>> Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
>> http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/
>>
>> "Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
>> solution is its own
>> reward." - Sherlock Holmes
>>
>
>
> Well, I got it working at least temporarily. While Googling the issue, I
> found a post about re-enabling DMA. The gist was that 6 consecutive
> CD-Rom
> errors will cause Windows to go to PIO instead of DMA. My bad CD caused
> at
> least this many errors. Sure enough, in the BIOS, DMA for this channel was
> "off," so I went into Device Manager and reselected it from the drop-down
> list. It worked. Whether this is a long-term fix, I don't know, but at
> least I've got 2 working drives for now. Thanks for all your help, and if
> you
> have any thoughts based on what I just described, I would be interested.

I haven't ever seen such - that's actually really interesting. Something new
for me to toss into my attic of tech stuff. I will have to make sure to
remember that. Much thanks for letting me know what fixed it. Whodathunkit?

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
solution is its own
reward." - Sherlock Holmes

"Galen" wrote:

> In news:0A2C0240-870B-478D-9991-(E-Mail Removed),
> Peggy had this to say:
>
> My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
>
> > Reply at bottom
> >
> > "Galen" wrote:
> >
> >
> >> I'd really check the cables. With it coming and going - and wanting to be
> >> sure - I figured a clean install might be required BUT it seems you've
> >> already done that and had no luck. With that info, as Mike says, the
> >> drive
> >> is likely bad or the cables are.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
> >> http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/
> >>
> >> "Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
> >> solution is its own
> >> reward." - Sherlock Holmes
> >>
> >
> >
> > Well, I got it working at least temporarily. While Googling the issue, I
> > found a post about re-enabling DMA. The gist was that 6 consecutive
> > CD-Rom
> > errors will cause Windows to go to PIO instead of DMA. My bad CD caused
> > at
> > least this many errors. Sure enough, in the BIOS, DMA for this channel was
> > "off," so I went into Device Manager and reselected it from the drop-down
> > list. It worked. Whether this is a long-term fix, I don't know, but at
> > least I've got 2 working drives for now. Thanks for all your help, and if
> > you
> > have any thoughts based on what I just described, I would be interested.
>
> I haven't ever seen such - that's actually really interesting. Something new
> for me to toss into my attic of tech stuff. I will have to make sure to
> remember that. Much thanks for letting me know what fixed it. Whodathunkit?
>
> --
> Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
> http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/
>
> "Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
> solution is its own
> reward." - Sherlock Holmes

Well, it didn't last. First time I had to reboot, the drives were gone again
even though "DMA if available" is checked in Device Manager. It looks like I
have to check the cable after all, as there is nothign else to try at this
point. Thanks again for your help.