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  • November 13, 2000 at 6:24 am #2086824

    The Bad CD-ROM?

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    by nathan_2002 · about 24 years, 5 months ago

    I’ve got a (cheap) 50x IDE CD-Rom. It worked until yesterday. Windows detects the drive, the drive spins up but windows doesn’t detect CDs.

    I reinstaled the driver. Didn’t work.
    The cable also has a Zip Drive on it that is still working fine.Can I fix it?

    N

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    • November 13, 2000 at 6:37 am #3872889

      The Bad CD-ROM?

      by plg6 · about 24 years, 5 months ago

      In reply to The Bad CD-ROM?

      >I’ve got a (cheap) 50x IDE CD-Rom. It
      >worked until yesterday. Windows detects
      >the drive, the drive spins up but windows
      >doesn’t detect CDs.

      Ok. How cheap is cheap? How long has it been working? First and cheapest thing to try would be a CD-ROM lens cleaner. That’s a CD ROM with brushes on it to clean off the laser lens. You should be able to find one at a place like Staples, Radio Shack, Office Max, etc.

      >I reinstaled the driver. Didn’t work.
      Since it sort of sees it I think thedriver should be okay.

      >The cable also has a Zip Drive on it that
      >is still working fine.

      The next step to try, assuming the CD-lens cleaner doesn’t fix it would be to switch the ZIP and CD-ROM on the cable (changing the master/slave jumpersaccordingly) and then see if you get the CD back but lose the ZIP. In that case bad connector end on the cable.

      >Can i fix it?

      These are not made to be the most durable of components – if the above two suggestions don’t help – just consider a new drive. You can probably get one from one of the auction sites for not much at all.

      Good luck.

    • November 13, 2000 at 9:24 am #3872797

      The Bad CD-ROM?

      by vue · about 24 years, 5 months ago

      In reply to The Bad CD-ROM?

      To save the head ache, I would buy another chip cd-rom drive. If You fix it the problem might come back in the near future any way. I don’t think the cable or driver is bad, most of the time it is the drive itself. Good luck.

    • November 14, 2000 at 1:52 am #3873827

      The Bad CD-ROM?

      by gbullers · about 24 years, 5 months ago

      In reply to The Bad CD-ROM?

      99% of the time it is a dirty lens inside the cd drive, I have fixed a lot of them by disassembling the drive & cleaning with alcohol & swab stick, just blowing them out almost never works. some one suggested the cd cleaner with brushes which would be worth a try if you feel you can’t tear it down (this does take a lot of patients), I would guess that the pc itself probably is in need of cleaning also, even in clean locations they get dirty unbelievably fast!

    • November 16, 2000 at 6:00 am #3872409

      The Bad CD-ROM?

      by nathan_2002 · about 24 years, 5 months ago

      In reply to The Bad CD-ROM?

      This question was closed by the author

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