CD RW drive stopped working?

[c.w.browne]

Hi,

I'm having a bit trouble with my cd r/w drive. a while ago, i installed
serive pack 2 and it stopped working. i decided this may be something
to do with SP 2 and so rolled back and everything was fine. i then
decided to leave putting SP back on for a while and carry on as i was.
for a few months, everything was fine again.

however, i tried to use my cd r/w this morning, and it is displying the
same symptoms as it was before, namely that if i insert a blank cd and
then click on the dive in explorer, i get an "incorrect funtion" error
message, and trying a non windows programme to write something to a cd
seems to reult in the app that i am using telling me that i am not
using a cd writer.

i tehn followed the instructions in the troubleshooter and decided that
maybe uninstalling and reinstalling my hardware may do the trick.
having uninstalled it, i restarted my machine. the xp plug and play
thing did the job, but has reinstalled the RW drive as a CD ROM drive
(it now appears listed as a CD ROM drive in explorer, etc).

I am now loathe to go any further in case i cuase any more trouble. I'm
fairly sure its something elementary that im having trouble with but
cant figure it.

Any help with this would be most appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Chris Browne

 

[Rich Barry]

Depending on how old the cdrw drive is you could try a drive lens
cleaner. My experience with cdrw drive problems
is usually the drive going flaky and rarely anything to do with the OS
or WinXP. If you are using Roxio Easy CD Creator
or Nero make sure you have the latest updates for your specific
Version. You could try to update the firmware by going
to the Manufacturers website and looking for a newer version. And,
replace or swap the Ribbon ( Data ) Cable and try
the cdrw drive as Master by itself.

 

[c.w.browne]

Depending on how old the cdrw drive is you could try a drive lens

cleaner.

cheers for this. i thought it could be something like that - like the
write part has gone walkies so XP cant pick that bit up but can still
use the read bit OK so thats hat it thinks its got. but the last time
it happened i recinstalled XP and it worked OK, so that may have thrown
me off.

ill give this a go first (since its nice and easy), and then try the
other stuff.

thanks a lot,

chris