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CD-R Drive Not Working.

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9 replies

by commandergoat

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Ok, here's the deal....I have Win2k Pro., ASUS A7v266 AMD 1700+, A Sony DVD Drive, Imation CD-R 8x4x32 drive, and 2 Maxtor hard drives...I just recently installed the second hard drive, but before doing so, my Imation CD-R was working fine. Anyway, I screwed-up my hard drive install, so I had to do a clean Win2k install...new updates and drivers...the works.

Now my CD-R drive is not working at all. It appears to be installed correctly, it has power. I have the generic CD-ROM driver since it didn't come with an install disc or better driver. Everything looks good in the Device Manager, and it's identified everywhere else, but it won't read or write cds. When I try to open a disc, I get a "Please insert a disc into drive" message. I have the jumper setting correct. I've even unhooked the DVD drive and had the CD-R as the only drive...still no luck. It's acting like it's burnt-out or something...Any ideas?

....one last thing, I could be dreaming, but I thought it was working after the initial win2k install because I had a disc in the drive that had back-up files on it and apparently I got them back to my system from that drive....Could a windows update or something else possibly interfere?

9 replies

by thechas

Yes, I have seen Windows update, and software installations "blow" away drivers.

First, you only need drivers for your CD/DVD drives if you need to access them from DOS.

If you do not need DOS mode access, I would delete the lines for the CD driver from your Autoexec.bat, and/or Config.sys files.
The DOS mode driver may actually be confusing Windows as to the identity of your IDE controller.

For Windows, the IDE Bus-Master driver for the chipset on your motherboard handles the "normal" CD access.

If you haven't done so, download and install the latest drivers from ASUS (VIA?) for your motherboard.

If you have installed the drivers, then remove all IDE controllers (3) from device manager.
Re-boot, and windows should correctthe driver errors on it's own.

Next, to burn CDs or play DVD movies, you need application software.
For the CD-RW drive the 2 big names are Ahead Software's Nero-Burn (www.nero.com)
Or Roxio (Adaptec) Easy CD Creator (www.roxio.com)

For playing DVD movies, I use Cyber Vision Power DVD. There is also WinDVD.
I have seen both at web-tailers for under $10.

Chas

by commandergoat

I don't know how to get into and change the CD lines in Autoexe.bat and Config.sys....how do I do this? step-by-step.

Everything underneath the config.sys advice I've tired and it hasn't worked.

Well, like I said before...it did work at one point, and windows tells me the device is working properly and so forth...yet it still won't read a disc.

Thanks for the help so far.

by opatzg9

In answer to editing the autoexec.bat and config.sys files.
Do you have an editor? there will normally be an edit.com file in the windows\command directory,I'm not sure on win 2k pro, so far I'm only up to 98.
open a DOS window.
you should be ata c:> prompt
do a CD\ to change directory back to the root
type edit config.sys or edit autoexec.bat
Anywhere you see mscd.exe or atapi relating to your cd drives, preface the line with REM
this will remark the line out and allow you to bring it back if its a mistake. Then Alt-f (file)
s (save) and you're done. type EXIT to close the window. and reboot.
Good luck
Another way into the files would be running msconfig from the start/run menu and use the edit button to allow you to change them. I don't have much experience using this as I've always used a notmal file editor. Even notepad should work unless one of the lines is a longer than 80 characters.

by commandergoat

When I try to edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat, I can get into the editor, but no lines are listed....it's blank on both of them...is this a win2k pro thing?...same with notepad.

by opatzg9

Ok so the autoexec.bat and config.sys aren't in c:\ on a win2k machine. Find the directory while at a command(DOS) prompt by doing this
cd\
-- this is to change directory to c:\
dir config.sys /s
-- this will search through the whole c drive
cd directory names
and then edit it there.
provided from the above search Otherwise try the msconfig route. Note I believe there is also a config.nt file which may also have cdrom drivers in it.

by commandergoat

Ok..when I do the search, nothing is found.

config.nt lets me edit, but I don't see any cdrom drivers listed.

And I can't run msconfig fromt the start/run menu.
What the hell is going on? is my system screwed up or are you giving me 98 commands?

by thechas

Win2K does not come with MSconfig.
However, you can copy it over from a W98/Me PC and use it.

Try running sysedit (Microsoft may have removed this also, I don't have a W2K box (just W98 and XP))

The CD driver lines in Autoexec / COnfig shouldhave mscdex in them.
As stated previously, just place the word rem and a space at the front of the line to disable the command.

I know with ALL of the W98 systems that I have setup, that I cannot access the CD drive from Windows until I have thecorrect IDE driver for the motherboard installed.

?? can you read CDs from your DVD drive? If so, perhaps there is a hardware issue with the CD-R drive.

Chas

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