dragonlady420 said:
Thanks for the reply.....
I've run cc cleaner and hijackthis and the rundll message is now gone,
thanks! Didn't even think that, my mind keeps focusing on driver issues.
I don't have any of the cds that came with the laptop unfortunately, just
got it back from the ex-husband-who wasn't running any antivirus or
malware
programs-hence my problems. I contacted microsoft to try to obtain
atleast boot disks, and am told that because I am running media center
edition of xp, that it is a manufacturer OS and that I would have to go
through them. Toshiba no longer makes or distributes disk copies of xp
media center, and
would only advise me to 1) buy a new OS and 2) buy a new dvd drive. Lots
of help there.
As for the dvd-ram drive, my currently pressing issue-
I have tried downloading and installing the dvd-ram firmware from the
matshita/panasonic site-didn't work.
I have uninstalled the dvd drive in device manager, and the system finds
it
on reboot and installs the matshita uj-811s software. However, I am also
getting a "found cd-rom" message after which windows tries to install
automatically but can't find the software. The matshita is the only
cd/dvd drive in the computer, so I have no idea what on earth that's
about.
If I put a disc in the drive ( I can eject through the right click option,
so there is SOME kind of communication) and go through my computer to try
and explore what is on the drive, I get an error-
"D:\ is not accessible. The request could not be performed because of an
I/O device error."
I've gone through device manager to my ATAPI and tinkered with changing
from
dma to pio, etc. Nothing.
It has to be a setting I'm overlooking or something, because the computer
recognizes and can communicate with the drive, just can't read discs.
1. Boot with a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix or Ubuntu, or any other
bootable CD. If the computer boots from the CD (you may need to change the
boot order in the BIOS) then you know the optical drive is physically
sound. If the computer will not boot from anything, this has nothing to do
with any settings in Windows (software) and you will need to replace the
drive. Unfortunately, the only place you'll be able to get it is from
Toshiba replacement parts or third-parties such as eBay. I don't recommend
buying computer items from eBay.
2. OTOH if the computer *does* boot from whatever bootable CD you used (and
in this case a Live Linux CD would be useful because you can see how the
machine performs), then you know the optical drive is good. Purchase a
retail copy of Windows XP from a reputable place such as NewEgg.com and do
a clean install of Windows. Get drivers for the machine from Toshiba's
website.
You know your own skill level best and can make the decision as to whether
you should take this to a local computer professional or not. I don't
recommend using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place.
Malke
