G
Guest
This post contains a very detailed description of my troubleshooting steps
and admittedly is a little long. I wanted to be thorough so apologies right
up front, OK?
Here's an interesting situation. Have a Toshiba SD-R5372 combo drive on a
ABit
MB with an Athlon 64 with XP Pro, all up-to-date. Working fine up to about
6-8 weeks ago when it started to fail to recognize any CD R/Ws. I can't
recall what I might have done or installed prior to noticing the failure.
Insert a fresh out-of-the-package blank or a pre-recorded CD R/W (either made
from this drive or my other one on machine B), and the activity light winks
about 25-30 times then stays solid and only goes out when I eject the disk.
The drive is connected using the last IDE connector on the cable and it is
optioned as Master - all set up on the Primary IDE channel (channel 1). In
Windows, the drive is totally blocked - it just won't find the CD R/W disk.
I can't see any files on a CD R/W disk (even though I know they're there),
can't double click on it to get it to open. I can right click on the drive
in Explorer and get the context menu to eject the disk. And if I try to copy
some files, XP will create the temp file(s), throw up the "You have files to
be written to the CD" bubble but on execution the Windows CD Writing Wizard
on the second panel will say "There is no disk in the drive" and if I try to
erase CD R/W (using Nero CD/DVD Speed), the disk is not ready, the drive is
not home so the program grays out all functions.
I really worked hard trying to fix this! I'be looked all over the 'Net for an
answer. First thing: Figured it's probably bad media (originally used Sony
which have had no failures up to now), so I bought a stack of Maxells and
then later Verbatims - still no go. Strangely it will read and write DVD +/-
R/Ws labelled from HP and Verbatim plus it will read and write to a variety
CD-Rs, both blanks, music-homebrewed and commercially prep'd. No CD R/Ws
though. I realize there are two lasers involved. I cleaned the CD laser with
a CD cleaning disk from Staples - no help. I'm reasonably sure the disk was
spun because it's in a different position when I unload it. I tried a brand
new IDE cable that came with the MB - no help. I left the case open all day
thinking it was heat - no help. The ASUS branded power supply should be fine
- it's rated at 550 W and again the combo drive works with all other media.
I tried connecting it as the Master on the Secondary IDE channel - no help.
It is the only IDE drive in the system thanks to SATA. The next step was to
purchase a completely new and completely different brand of combo DRIVE
(Thank you Mr. Staples)!!! And now get this - After XP found new hardware and
installed new drivers and reported everything was cool... same exact problem
with that. Put the Toshiba back in. Uninstalled the Toshiba in Dev Mgr -
rebooted and XP did find and locate and successfully set up the
drivers as expected. Still it doesn't work with CD R/Ws. I've completely
uninstalled my Nero 7.0 suite and I've also used the Nero cleaning tool - no
help (Note: I left Nero CD/DVD Speed installed as the Nero cleaning tool
didn't touch it). I've uninstalled Alcohol 120 which also then zapped the
virtual drive crud - no help. ASPIchk shows no ASPI layer. Flashed the
Toshiba firmware to the latest firmware set (TU56) - no help. (Are you
noticing a pattern here...?) In the XP service
console the IMAPI Service is automatically started - the IDE channels are all
set to DMA mode. I updated the VIA chipset drivers using their latest
Hyperion 4-in-1 IDE driver software - no change. Here's another experiment:
I rebooted and as the POST goes through I insert a CD R/W disk and the drive
winks but the activity light stays lit even before Windows XP presents the
desktop. There's something wrong at a very low level here...
Now here's my next question: CD R/Ws use packet writing to apply and work
with data. OK, is it at all possible that somehow I've lost or corrupted the
native xP packet writing "module" in the operating system? Where do I go to
check that and/or repair that in case it's broken? You can't install Roxio's
Adaptec Direct CD packet writing software - Windows reports that will cause
instability and won't permit it to load. I took Nero off so InCD isn't
present. I also removed Daemon Tools and CDBurnerXPro as I've tried to
whittle this down to just Windows only. But I believe if my reading of some
materials is correct that Windows has a Roxio based process for packet
writing that is hard-coded/imbedded in it. Did I mistakenly turn it off??
Is it possible in all this confusion that I've zapped this internal burning
driver software that came with Windows? Again, I'd like to know if there's
any procedure I can use to check out the validity of Windows' basic native
packet writing software used for instance for simple copy opeations in
Windows Explorer. I'm thinking that the computer needs to have that module
up and running in order to work with a CD R/W disk - it can't find it, so the
disk and drive never coordinate with the chipset (?). The drive light stays
on and the drive stays locked and fails because the drive (and the software
that's supposed to be there) isn't ready.
Hope this makes sense. Anyway, I'd like some thoughts on this. Really miss
not having this particular functionality. Thanks one and all!
and admittedly is a little long. I wanted to be thorough so apologies right
up front, OK?
Here's an interesting situation. Have a Toshiba SD-R5372 combo drive on a
ABit
MB with an Athlon 64 with XP Pro, all up-to-date. Working fine up to about
6-8 weeks ago when it started to fail to recognize any CD R/Ws. I can't
recall what I might have done or installed prior to noticing the failure.
Insert a fresh out-of-the-package blank or a pre-recorded CD R/W (either made
from this drive or my other one on machine B), and the activity light winks
about 25-30 times then stays solid and only goes out when I eject the disk.
The drive is connected using the last IDE connector on the cable and it is
optioned as Master - all set up on the Primary IDE channel (channel 1). In
Windows, the drive is totally blocked - it just won't find the CD R/W disk.
I can't see any files on a CD R/W disk (even though I know they're there),
can't double click on it to get it to open. I can right click on the drive
in Explorer and get the context menu to eject the disk. And if I try to copy
some files, XP will create the temp file(s), throw up the "You have files to
be written to the CD" bubble but on execution the Windows CD Writing Wizard
on the second panel will say "There is no disk in the drive" and if I try to
erase CD R/W (using Nero CD/DVD Speed), the disk is not ready, the drive is
not home so the program grays out all functions.
I really worked hard trying to fix this! I'be looked all over the 'Net for an
answer. First thing: Figured it's probably bad media (originally used Sony
which have had no failures up to now), so I bought a stack of Maxells and
then later Verbatims - still no go. Strangely it will read and write DVD +/-
R/Ws labelled from HP and Verbatim plus it will read and write to a variety
CD-Rs, both blanks, music-homebrewed and commercially prep'd. No CD R/Ws
though. I realize there are two lasers involved. I cleaned the CD laser with
a CD cleaning disk from Staples - no help. I'm reasonably sure the disk was
spun because it's in a different position when I unload it. I tried a brand
new IDE cable that came with the MB - no help. I left the case open all day
thinking it was heat - no help. The ASUS branded power supply should be fine
- it's rated at 550 W and again the combo drive works with all other media.
I tried connecting it as the Master on the Secondary IDE channel - no help.
It is the only IDE drive in the system thanks to SATA. The next step was to
purchase a completely new and completely different brand of combo DRIVE
(Thank you Mr. Staples)!!! And now get this - After XP found new hardware and
installed new drivers and reported everything was cool... same exact problem
with that. Put the Toshiba back in. Uninstalled the Toshiba in Dev Mgr -
rebooted and XP did find and locate and successfully set up the
drivers as expected. Still it doesn't work with CD R/Ws. I've completely
uninstalled my Nero 7.0 suite and I've also used the Nero cleaning tool - no
help (Note: I left Nero CD/DVD Speed installed as the Nero cleaning tool
didn't touch it). I've uninstalled Alcohol 120 which also then zapped the
virtual drive crud - no help. ASPIchk shows no ASPI layer. Flashed the
Toshiba firmware to the latest firmware set (TU56) - no help. (Are you
noticing a pattern here...?) In the XP service
console the IMAPI Service is automatically started - the IDE channels are all
set to DMA mode. I updated the VIA chipset drivers using their latest
Hyperion 4-in-1 IDE driver software - no change. Here's another experiment:
I rebooted and as the POST goes through I insert a CD R/W disk and the drive
winks but the activity light stays lit even before Windows XP presents the
desktop. There's something wrong at a very low level here...
Now here's my next question: CD R/Ws use packet writing to apply and work
with data. OK, is it at all possible that somehow I've lost or corrupted the
native xP packet writing "module" in the operating system? Where do I go to
check that and/or repair that in case it's broken? You can't install Roxio's
Adaptec Direct CD packet writing software - Windows reports that will cause
instability and won't permit it to load. I took Nero off so InCD isn't
present. I also removed Daemon Tools and CDBurnerXPro as I've tried to
whittle this down to just Windows only. But I believe if my reading of some
materials is correct that Windows has a Roxio based process for packet
writing that is hard-coded/imbedded in it. Did I mistakenly turn it off??
Is it possible in all this confusion that I've zapped this internal burning
driver software that came with Windows? Again, I'd like to know if there's
any procedure I can use to check out the validity of Windows' basic native
packet writing software used for instance for simple copy opeations in
Windows Explorer. I'm thinking that the computer needs to have that module
up and running in order to work with a CD R/W disk - it can't find it, so the
disk and drive never coordinate with the chipset (?). The drive light stays
on and the drive stays locked and fails because the drive (and the software
that's supposed to be there) isn't ready.
Hope this makes sense. Anyway, I'd like some thoughts on this. Really miss
not having this particular functionality. Thanks one and all!