How can I make my "device" ready again? CD ROM trouble

[Shelleyot]

Hi folks,
I'm not quite sure what happend to my IBM 390E P2 300mhz win98 laptop today, but I sure do need some expert help. I use this personal laptop during therapy with special ed. children, predominately autistic, because it tends to capture their attention. This is what happened when I loaded and began to use a developmental reading game that was supposedly compatible with my machine.
Everything was clipping along, and then the machine stopped responding. Some of the layers of graphics disappeared. I did Ctrol/alt/deleat to end the task, and when the desktop came back up, the graphics were large, offset and just funky. From there, the computer wouldn't respond so I had to shut it down hard. Scan disk was ok upon restarting and desktop graphics were back to normal. I tried to open My Computer" to get to add/remove programs to get rid of the game, but the tile came up empty with the hourglass. Again the comp. wouldn't respond in any form so I shut it down hard again with normal scan disk upon turning back on.
When it booted up again, I was able to get into "my computer" and removed the game and said yes to all files. Now, the cdrom is spitting up a message that the device is not accessable or ready, and my machine makes that small processing noise intermittantly. As this is a machine I use for a limited # of kids, there is only one other game loaded in it, my palm pilot software (which worked before and after the game)and IE. I would GREATLY appreciate ANY insight to this matter, because I'm on my own to get this fixed. Fear Not

 

[Jontmke]

When you say you went into "My Computer" and removed the game did you uninstall it? Or delete the directory it was in?
As for the cd-rom: Is this one of those laptops where you can remove the cd-rom and put in a floppy drive? If so, remove and reseat the cd-rom drive. Maybe it is not quite connected.
Also, can it read any cd? In "My Computer" does it show up? That might be why it stopped responding when you went into "My Computer" that time, because it knew you had a cd-rom but was having a big problem finding it.

JON

 

[Shelleyot]

Hi Jon,
Thanks so much for your interest. To answer your questions:
1. I uninstalled the game through add/remove programs, and selected ALL files, even shared ones (I think that was a mistake, too) The game asked me to install DirectX. I don't know if that matters. I even checked the trash for the program, thinking to put it back in hopes of getting back any files I flushed with it, but it wasn't there.
2. The CDROM is integrated, not swappable.
3. It won't read any cd now. It just spins, slows, stops, spins ect...and keeps making that little noise about once every 30 secinds or so, just as though I had just clicked to open a program. My Computer doesn't show it in there, says Device not ready when I click on it.
I'm so mad at myself. There's so little on here I'd be willing to reformat and reinstall win 98 (of course I don't know how, and would require explicit instructions or solid reference to such instructions) and not ever try that game again. It was working perfectly until now. Thank you again for your assistance. Very much. Fear Not

 

[Jontmke]

So, it does show up in "My Computer"? Like your D: drive? If so, then Windows knows its there. Maybe it got some dust or dirt in it. Get some canned air and blow it out. Couldn't hurt either way.
This has nothing to do with Windows, I don't think. I would not reformat as of yet. I don't think that would solve the problem.

JON

 

[Wirdo]

there is also the possiblity the cd is dead. Even if it shows in my computer and device manager that just means it is detected by the os it dosnt mean for example the lazer is still working.

 

[Grenage]

By your description of the noises the CDROM is making, and it's actions I would probably place a bet on the CDROM being physically broken.

 

[Shelleyot]

When I'm in My computer, windows doesn't show a particular cd is in there(like the icon of Sponge Bob, ect...) just the typical icon (of a cd) is present. I also went to Start-Run-D:\ and it said it "ready reading" wasn't happening. I blew it out with compressed air and also used a CD cleaning disk yesterday, but to no avail. The sound I hear isn't coming from the cdrom, it's coming from the computer, and is exactly that little, brief, muffled clicking I hear when clicking on any desktop icon to open it up. Thanks everyone again for your time. I appreciate it. Fear Not

 

[HKinNYC]

Does it run any other CD or does it fail to read all CD's now?

As people said, sounds like a bad CD, get it replaced.

 

[Shelleyot]

It won't run any CD. No matter what I put in the drive, it doesn't register in My Computer, and when I click on it anyway it just spits up the same message: Device not ready Retry or Quit. Fear Not

 

[BuckeyeComputers]

drive is toast, has apparantly died or gotten out of alinement. either way time for a new one

 

[onsite]

I would suggest booting to a boot disk and choosing start with cdrom support, it will tell you what device letter it assigns to the cdrom. Put in a cd, go to the drive letter for the cdrom, eg. D:\, type in dir and hit enter. If it will not read a cd here it is probably broken, if it reads this cd then the problem is in windows and oftentimes just doing this will fix it.
Brian

 

[Shelleyot]

Thanks Brian, I'll give that a try.

Fear Not

 

[Shelleyot]

Brian, I tried your suggestion and it did indeed read the CD's directory. I do hope this irons-out the problem as you predict...but since it seems the problem is in Windows, is this what I'll have to do from now on as the problem presents, or is there a real fix to something like this? Thank you again!

Fear Not