Drives not operating correctly

[Placer]

Hello,

I have a PC that(after a power outage) can't 'see' the files on the CD, DVD and ZIP drives.

PC=P4-1.7Ghz

Here are a few symptoms:

If i try to boot with a CD in the drive I get the error: trying to boot from ATAPI CD. No Emulation. NTLDR is missing press ctrl alt dlt to reboot. I get the error even in the Win XP CD in in the drive.

When i'm in Window XP (pro), if i put a disk in either drive (CD,DVD) it seems to spin up but either reports ) bytes taken and 0bytes available and won't open the drive to explore OR tells me the disk may be corrupt and can't read from it.

Windows asks me to format the unformatted disk in my ZIP drive (this disk has been formatted and has info on it).

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Mark B

 

[gargouille]

What's Device Manager say about these devices?
There's a possibility that System Restore would set things back, tried that?

 

[Snickle]

Kinda sounds like my wife's computer after a power bump a couple of years ago, had to replace the motherboard. All of my computers are on UPS' now.

 

[Placer]

device manager reports all is well with the disk drives.

have not tried a system restore.

I thought it may be the power supply got damaged and wasn't providing enough power (I have 3 SCSI drives, 1 IDE drive and the CD and DVD drive in this PC).

I tried disconection some drives to see if that would work. When i disconnected the power from my DVD drive (without removing the ribbon cable) the next boot-up stalled during self test. Re-connected the power to the DVD drive the system booted right into CMOS with the error message: during last boot your system stopped because your CPU was not set to the correct speed (something close). It was in fact set to the correct speed, and booted up no problem with the power cable to the DVD drive.

Pretty whacky huh?

 

[gargouille]

Yes, extra current applied in areas of low voltage does BAdoubleD things.
System Restore is a very simple process that I've used as "bacon-saver" several times.
I always make sure I create a new one before doing any major change to OS or hardware.
So you're booting again okay?
Only time will tell if other hardware damage was done...

 

[Placer]

yes, booting is no problem. i can get into windows. the problem is the CD and DVD drives not working correctly.

i'll try a system restore . . .

 

[stevieblunder]

BIOS first! Also check the Roxio thing at MS's web site.

 

[Placer]

The bios recognizes the drives just fine.

I disconected the power from a couple SCSI hard drives in the PC and the CD and DVD drive worked with no problems.

I then re-connected the power to the HDs and the CD or DVD drive would not work again.

Does this sound like a power supply problem? Maybe the PS got damaged and cannot supply enough power to those drives to spin up?

 

[gargouille]

You may well be onto something...could be the power supply.
With so many things aboard, it could have been marginal already...and the power outage finished the job.
What kind of outage? Sometimes the interrupted power comes with a big surge...or with a slow down and out...either one an almighty strain on lo voltages/currents in a computer.
Have another to test?

I'd jumper the board to flush the CMOS ram...just in case something's awry there...
Look in Event Viewer for clues.
System log would be the 1st place to look...
Check all devices in Device Manager to be sure there's no yellow !