I hope someone can help....CD-RW not seeing anything

[Guest]

System specs: XP Pro, 1.3 GHz, 384 RAM, IDE drive control.
I recently lost all read or write ability to my CD-RW. It was working
normally until after a defrag of my HD and a scan from BitDefender. Now,
when I insert any CD (game, program, etc.), the read indicator on the drive
blinks as if it were going to autorun then nothing. I go to "my computer",
and the drive is indicated, however, without reconizing contents on the disk.
Clicking on the drive gives a msg box of "please a disk in drive "E".
Device Manager shows the correct drive info and it says the devise is working
properly. I select "update driver" or "roll back drivers" and the wizard
cannot find any. Trouble Shooter didn't help. I followed the info in a post
to uninstall the devise and restart, now it shows the drive to be only CD ROM
at "my computer". I tryed a replacement CD drive (had a used one from a
different computer) and had the same results. System Restore had no results
as well. I have a bad feeling that during the Bitdefender scan that a virus
was found in the drivers base and my settings for the files found bad are
(1)disinfected, (2)move to quarantine, (3)deleted, where most of the found
'bugs' could not be cleaned and ultimately deleted.
Also, I cannot update Windows due to a virus found in IE6, I honestly feel
that my settings in Local Policies are not allowing many things to happen for
there are other programs and software updates not installing correctly. I
tryed a Windows reinstall (Update) and that didn't seem to change any
settings in Local or Group settings.
What really scares me is that without the ability to read disks, I cannot
reformat, which is what I do once every year or so anyway. But unless
someone has a solution to my failing system I am at a dead point and out of
resources....please help. THANK YOU in advance.

 

[Richard Urban]

Boot from a Windows XP retail CD. If the drive does not see the CD you have
hardware problems. When booting from the CD it does not matter what is
happening while in the operating system. If you can boot that way you CAN
format/wipe the drive and install a clean version of Windows XP (probably
your best bet at this point considering the amount of problems you are
experiencing)!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[NotMe]

Before anything else, I suggest that you run a cleaning disk.
If it still doesn't read, go to other steps suggested.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your input. I installed a used CD drive and received the same
results; that was one of my first steps at trying to repair this old comp. I
suppose that too could have a dirty head; at this point I am willing to try
just about anything. .

I inserted my XP Pro disk (registered) and it didn't go to the option for
"boot from disk". The drive indicator blinked and the normal boot loaded
from C:. I checked my BIOS settings, all reads normal there. I updated the
BIOS anyway; there was an update at the Gateway site. Is it possible the
Mother Board is bad on that circuit? I reseated the cables and tryed
connecting the slave connection on the drive bus and it still doesn't read
anything on the disk. This is an odd one.

 

[NotMe]

You're CD drive isn't seeing anything...you said it shows in My Computer
with the correct description.
It is jumpered and cabled properly...have you tried a new or "known good"
cable?
"Known Good" means one that is functioning in another machine, and is
removed and placed in this machine.
The fact it won't boot from CD indicates a bad BIOS setting, bad hardware,
bad CD, BIOS virus, etc.
Having updated the BIOS without effect makes that possibilty remote.
Do you have a 'known good' CD deck that you can try in it?
Especially when testing, I like to have the drive on it's own EIDE cable.
In my personal machine, I have added a PCI EIDE adapter so each of my drives
has it's own private channel/cable.
If it malfunctions, but works when replaced in it's original machine, you
know it is a MB/hardware problem.
Good Luck!

 

[Guest]

That was it.....Thanks all and a tip of the hat to ya!!! The problem is in
my profile. I logged in on a different administrator profile, which I had set
up a few months ago while trying to fix my update problem, and all is well.
Now that I have a CD again, I will be able to wipe the HD for a clean start.

I am to the Wal Mart to get some CD-RWs to do some "back-ups". Then a GW
WRITE to c: drive....THANKS AGAIN ALL; YOU ARE THE BEST; especially you
NotMe.