CD drives not working

Hi all,

I currently have a very peculiar situation. I have two CD drives (52x
CD-ROM, and a Ricoh MP7163A which is about 3 yrs old). They were
working fine one day, then the next, they both showed 'Drive D:/E: is
not ready.' messages.

OK, so I deleted them from the System Device Manager, and restarted.
Everything worked fine for about 2 days, then it happened again. So I
go through the same procedure, but this time it doesn't work.

I have tried new IDE cables, each drive (separately), each drive as a
slave off the primary IDE channel. Still nothing.

I am running Windows 98 SE.

Does anyone know why this would happen? I mean, I can understand one
drive not working, but both at the same time? I have come to two
conclusions:

1) It is the drives, in which case they will both have to be replaced.
2) It is the OS, but I cannot figure out where the problem is.

Thanks,

Murdoc
; ===========================
"Morality cannot be legislated but behaviour can be regulated. Judicial
decrees may
not change the heart but they can restrain the heartless."-- Martin
Luther King.
"Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not
here. And when
it does come, we no longer exist." --Epicurus

sibly the onboard IDE controller went out? Seen that happen a few times...

try them on different IDE connections

ie. try them one at a time on the same cable as the hard drive


"Murdoc" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I currently have a very peculiar situation. I have two CD drives (52x
CD-ROM, and a Ricoh MP7163A which is about 3 yrs old). They were
working fine one day, then the next, they both showed 'Drive D:/E: is
not ready.' messages.

OK, so I deleted them from the System Device Manager, and restarted.
Everything worked fine for about 2 days, then it happened again. So I
go through the same procedure, but this time it doesn't work.

I have tried new IDE cables, each drive (separately), each drive as a
slave off the primary IDE channel. Still nothing.

I am running Windows 98 SE.

Does anyone know why this would happen? I mean, I can understand one
drive not working, but both at the same time? I have come to two
conclusions:

1) It is the drives, in which case they will both have to be replaced.
2) It is the OS, but I cannot figure out where the problem is.

Thanks,

Murdoc
; ===========================
"Morality cannot be legislated but behaviour can be regulated. Judicial
decrees may
not change the heart but they can restrain the heartless."-- Martin
Luther King.
"Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not
here. And when
it does come, we no longer exist." --Epicurus

Captian's Log: 8/03/04 - Will Sutton of the Cyborg Race wrote:

try them on different IDE connections

ie. try them one at a time on the same cable as the hard drive

I've done that. And still no luck. I went out and bought a new CD
burner anyways (only $AU 50), and it's working fine.

--
Murdoc
; ===========================
"Morality cannot be legislated but behaviour can be regulated. Judicial
decrees may
not change the heart but they can restrain the heartless."-- Martin
Luther King.
"Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not
here. And when
it does come, we no longer exist." --Epicurus

Captian's Log: 9/03/04 - Trent© of the Cyborg Race wrote:

On 8 Mar 2004 01:47:11 GMT, "Murdoc" wrote:

Hi all,

I currently have a very peculiar situation. I have two CD drives
(52x CD-ROM, and a Ricoh MP7163A which is about 3 yrs old). They
were working fine one day, then the next, they both showed 'Drive
D:/E: is not ready.' messages.

OK, so I deleted them from the System Device Manager, and restarted.
Everything worked fine for about 2 days, then it happened again. So
I go through the same procedure, but this time it doesn't work.

I have tried new IDE cables, each drive (separately), each drive as
a slave off the primary IDE channel. Still nothing.

I am running Windows 98 SE.

Boot into safe mode and delete ALL optical drives that you find.

Hmm, I just deleted them under normal Windows. Would safe mode make a
difference?

Does anyone know why this would happen? I mean, I can understand one
drive not working, but both at the same time? I have come to two
conclusions:

1) It is the drives, in which case they will both have to be
replaced.

Highly unlikely. But you might be able to check that by putting them
on another controller...or even another machine.

2) It is the OS, but I cannot figure out where the problem is.

Did you add any new hardware recently? Sometimes, folks add a memory
card reader, etc...which will change drive letters temporarily.

No, that's what's strange (haven't installed any new software either).

Its always a good idea to install the cdrom reader as the R
drive...and any writer or other optical as W.

Good luck...let us know.

I went and bought another burner anyways, and it works fine. I shall
keep trying to find out what's wrong with the other one.

--
Murdoc
; ===========================
"Morality cannot be legislated but behaviour can be regulated. Judicial
decrees may
not change the heart but they can restrain the heartless."-- Martin
Luther King.
"Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not
here. And when
it does come, we no longer exist." --Epicurus