Intermittant CD-rw/DVD drive problem

[Guest]

I have a similar problem to ours with my CD on XP. In event viewer I get -
source: atapi eventid: 9 descr: \Device\Ide\Ideport1 did not respond within
timeout.
This is an intermittant problem and cannot be laid at the door of SP2 as it
has been happening for a while. The disks (all types, prerecorded and
created by me using windows software) sometime read and sometimes don't.
They will all read on my old Win98 machine. I have tried cleaning,
reinstalling device drivers although no new drivers are available. Have also
tried disabling/stopping any services which are not necessary whilst using
the CD and also firewall, anti-virus etc. I would reinstall from scratch but
the reload CD won't but has in the past.
Any ideas please.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

First, you may want to check the actual power and IDE cable inside the
computer. These can go bad and could be part of your problem. You can
also try some of the suggestions listed here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321641

 

[Guest]

Thanks Nathan
Checking cables is my last resort as the machine is a laptop and although I
have taken a desktop apart to replace hard disks etc I haven't figured out
the laptop.
I have checked the Knowledge base for info and run sfc etc and no
errors/corruption/inconsistancy has shown up.
May have to get a computer repair facility to check it over.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Ah, laptops are a different case. Sometimes they don't really use a
cable. If the drive is one that slides into a slot, you may just want
to clean the contacts and slide it back in. Usually these are built
into the motherboard inside the laptop and the entire connector would be
bad :S

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I found the retaining screw and was able to extract the unit. I was
also able to confirm the make and model. I resisted the urge to give it a
good shake before putting it back. Rebooted with the reload disk in place.
Machine realised that it was a bootable CD but was unable to process it.
Decided to uninstall SP2 following the instructions. Was then only able to
boot into safe mode - ouch. Reasons given in Event viewer was that 2 system
files did not load - amdk7 and fips. With a bit of rummaging I was able to
reinstall SP2 from Software Dist folder although not recommended in safe
mode, booted normally OK so reran install to ensure nothing missed. CDs
still not right. Was able to read and copy from a CD I created some time ago
but prerecorded still refusing. Fips - appears to have come with the
original OEM, don't know what it's for. The only fips I know of is used with
Linux. Currently I'm defragging my hard drive which has 6 Gb free -
clutching at straws I guess.
I think I'm running out of ideas on this but I do wonder if an external
standalone unit might help or perhaps I should format my hard drive as it
certainly would clean it up and no I don't plan to do that anytime soon.