GARY said:
May have fried the CD ROM drive by vacuuming up the dust.
Thanks for the quick response, but how do I check if its fried and how do
I
get another cd rom drive to installed.
GJR
To check if it's fried, put a disk in it. If it doesn't respond, it may be
damaged.
Replacing a CD or DVD drive is normally incredibly simple these days.
Get a new drive - bare DVD/RW drives (which will read and write CDs, too)
can be had for under CDN$50, often now for around $35-$40. You can get a
LightSribe drive for more money, which lets you burn a label onto the top of
the disk. With this process, you turn the disk over, use the LightScribe
software to design the label and burn it onto the disk. Don't do this if
you're in a hurry - it can take 20 minutes or so, longer than burning the
data!
Shut down the computer and unplug the power, and open the case. Locate the
CD drive, and remove the two or four screws and the two cables. Pull the
drive out.
Look at the back of the old drive for the jumpers. There are usually three
pairs of pins marked MA, SL and CS. These stand for MAster, SLave, and
Cable Select. One pair will have a jumper. Set the jumper on the new one
exactly the same.
Now, slide the new drive in, connect the cables - they only go one way - and
put the screws back in.
Close the case, plug the computer back in, and turn it on. Windows will
detect the new hardware, and the old software should work fine.
You're done.
HTH
-pk
