CD Drive problems

[bujin]

Help!!! I recently bought a Creative Labs 52x CD drive which has worked fine until a few days ago. The problem is that when I put a CD into the drive, it recognises the CD and starts the autorun, if available, but then refuses to recognise the CD afterwards. For example, I bought a game (IGI) last weekend and after installing, it it started with a few problems in recognising the CD. You'd press the "Run" button on the autorun menu and it would think about it for a while before informing me that it can't find the CD. It also does the same on at least one other game. If I use Explorer, it seems to read the CD ok.

I have tried the CD drive on both IDE 1 and 2 and I get the same result.

Can anybody offer any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Gareth

 

[mbaranski]

Switch the power cable and the big, fat gray IDE cable. Remembering that the red strip goes toward pin 1, and the power cord on the CD. Then, if hte CD still does not work, put it into another computer to see yif you got one that burnt out quick...It happens...

MWB. As always, I hope that helped!

Disclaimer:
Beware: Studies have shown that research causes cancer in lab rats.

 

[cwpaul]

This strkes me first as a cleaning problem, then as an alignment problem and possibling a configuration problem. The first place I would go is to check the Propertie settings in the Device Mgr. If it shares a cable with your C: drive, is it configured to Slave?

Clean the CD-ROM drive. Check your settings and verify all connections. Are the CDs clean and relatively scratch free? You may wish to place a workable CD in the tray and Run Startup>Accessories>System Tools>System Information and expand Components >MultiMedia >CD-ROM and read the results.

Worst case scenario is that your read head is out of alignment ever so slightly so that it misreads the drive. If it is under warranty: replace it.

cwpaul

Conrad W. Paul
cwpaul@syd.eastlink.ca
Creative Solutions to Challenging Problems

 

[mbaranski]

Good idea, I forgot about cleaning it. I always try the simplest, least invasive stuff first, then get more complicated. Chances are that the easiest thing fixes it... As always, I hope that helped!

Disclaimer:
Beware: Studies have shown that research causes cancer in lab rats.

 

[bujin]

I'll try the cleaning idea, but it can't be any of the other problems because it was working fine until a few days ago. Maybe you're right about the alignment thing though. I'll give it a thorough testing before I try to return it.

Thanks for your help

 

[twertman68]

i also have a creative 52x.when i first got it it would not work at all , it just kept making clicking noises.i went to their web site and sent support a email.they responded with all sorts of trouble shooting with no luck so they gave me a RMA number. i did have to pay to ship to them but it was fixed and returned back free of charge.it turned out to be a jamed tray.if you have no luck here i would try through creative.i beleive there is a year warranty on it. good luck

 

[cwpaul]

It took less than a week or so, before I ran into the same problem or reasonable facsimile thereof! The PC Gods decided to throw my own solution in my face.

In my case, I had added a 8x4x32x CD burner. I had burned a few CD-r & CD-RW. The burner was set for master and the Creative 48x was slaved on the same IDE channel. It would read partial directories of the burned CDs then when viewed on the Creative 48x: It churned and churned without finding the directory or would recognize it as a music CD.

At other times, it would read those CDs only on the burner and choke on the 48x. I used the burner to recopy the burned files unto my hard drive then erased the CD-RWs. I then reburned said files using more relaxed ISO 9660 standards (path >255 characters Depth >8) via Level 2 mode 2xa. Failure seemed less likely in reading via 48x. I doubled checked the burn by taking various ZIPs and testing them with the burner. Since I knew the files on the burned CD were OK, I could always use the burner to read them.

I since loaned the CD burner out and discovered that the 48x works fine in reading those suspect CDs. The snag seems to be that failure to 1st recognize the directory of the CD, which somehow defaults to assumptions of it being an audio track. The only difference I can ascertain would be the use of the DMA channel.

My configuration was C: & D: were on IDE #1, the burner and CD48 on IDE #2. In W98se, I found that only the Master IDE channel could claim the DMA. The slave on IDE @2 could not set and hold the DMA channel [Device Mgr tree in System properties] while the Master was present.

As long as the "reader" of the CD held a DMA channel it was OK. If the CD reader shares a DMA channel, there is a likelihood of a problem.

Here is my extrapolation and inference. If the drive that reads your CD fails to set & hold DMA check in its Device Mgr properties table: it MAY have similiar problems. Eschew panic mode and resolve it in stride. By "set & hold" I mean after you check marked the DMA box, rebooted, then checked it again to discover it is still checked; if not checked then the set failed to hold.

So attempt to corelate your CD reader to DMA conflicts :=)

cwpaul





Conrad W. Paul
cwpaul@syd.eastlink.ca
Creative Solutions to Challenging Problems