Explorer cannot read files on the CD drives

[Sharon]

I am fixing up an old P3 computer using XP Pro with great success so far. I
have one problem that I have been researching for a long time, and no
solution yet.
Hope someone can help.

I have two CD drives installed, one is a burner. They are recognized in the
bios and show up in My Computer. When I click to open or explore, I get a
blank page.

I can access these files in Management Console and they show up in Volumes
when I look at the properties. The strange part is that they will show up
by disc label in My Computer only after a reboot with the disc in the drive.
I have changed the registry to allow Automatic Insert Notification, but this
only works after a reboot also. I have uninstalled the drivers and let
Windows detect them and reinstall drivers.

I am pretty sure it is not the hardware, as it happens with both of them.
The burner starts spinning and the green led stays on as soon as I insert a
disc and does not turn off until I eject the disc. Not sure if that is
normal behavior.

When I do get them to work, all is OK. They recognize data, music,
pictures. One
more thing, I can open Media player and it will find the music CD and play
as normal. This make me think that they seem to need some kind of command
to operate. Is this possible?

Any ideas out there? I have been troubleshooting for days now, and can't
leave this alone. BTW, my main computer is set up exactly the same way with
no trouble.

Sorry for the cross posting, but I did not realize I was not in an XP group
when I posted the first time.

 

[Rich Barry]

Sharon, I would try relocating the drives. If you have them Master and
Slave on the
Secondary IDE channel then try one at a time. Or swap them around. Try a
different
IDE Ribbon Cable.

 

[RalfG]

If nothing is wrong then from your perspective the drives should just work,
without any remedial action on your part. Being older the drives could have
drifted out of alignment, or possibly the problem could be caused by dirt on
the optical components. With both doing the same thing, and especially if
they came out of a dusty or smoking environment, the latter seems more
likely so try cleaning the drives.