How do I send a cdrom drive reset signal?

[usalabs3]

After using my cd burning software, the burner has locked up, I had to use the emergency eject, because the eject button don't eject the cd, neither does the 'Eject' command on burners context menu, I had no problem with it previously, but the burning software showed an invalid cd inserted, and locked up.

Is there a way to send a reset signal to the cdrom drive without rebooting the computer? as rebooting takes 15 minutes from initial shutdown to restarting windows.

 

[bcastner]

Double click My Computer, and right-click on the drive in question. Click eject.

This likely will not work. I suspect hardware issues here unless the CD platter is completely of center on the hub.

 

[linney]

Is anything listed in Task Manager as "Not Responding"? You could try ending process on your CD software or even Explorer (then restarting Explorer via New Task Run). You should try and fix your rebooting problems too.



Try Safe Mode (Do you have slow booting in Safe Mode?).

6 min boot / install window
thread779-931717

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

Removing adware & spyware
faq608-4650

FAQ779-4784 may help.

windows XP running very slow
thread779-796508

 

[usalabs3]

There's nothing that says 'Not responding', I did find out though, that I need to send a 'Device Reset' to the cd rom drive, just like the reset that's sent when performing a hard reset, except the 'Device Reset' signal will be sent to the cdrom drive, while windows is running.

Pressing the reset button or restarting from windows, enables the cd drive to work properly, but as I said in my previous post, restarting the computer is not an option, as it takes 15 minutes to complete the restart.

I found out that the when the burning software tried to write to a blank cd-r it set the 'BSY' line of the cd rom interface to 1, then froze with the error, 'invalid command sent to device' thus it will ignore any commands sent to it (including eject), until the 'BSY' line is cleared, by sending a 'Device Reset' to the cd drive.

If anyone has a program or knows where I can get one, that can send that reset, it would be much appreciated.

 

[bcastner]

Have you tried in Device Manager a disable/enable sequence on the device?

Create a desktop shortcut to: C:\WINDOWS\system32\devmgmt.msc

Expand the CD/DVD Rom listing, and right-click on the device and choose disable. Repeat, but select Enable.

 

[linney]

I don't know of any general type of program, there may be such an animal to be had from your CD drive's manufacturer web site?

Even though there is no "Not Responding" indication in Task Manager, you can still try ending the processes I mentioned.

Of course, I feel you are treating a symptom rather than fixing the real problem of why your boot times are so long.

 

[usalabs3]

The length of time it takes to boot is not a real problem, it's mainly because the computer is setup as a mail, ftp, web, and chat server, using 3rd party server software.

I had a look on the drive manufatures website, but they only have drivers for DOS.

I tried the disbale/enable device in the device manager, but it was still the same, I even uninstalled the device then re-scanned for new hardware until windows found the cd drive, but it didn't reset the drive, eventually, I had to do a hard reset.

I have another post somewhere in this forum to find out how I can display the windows shut down procedures, much like linux displays each process being sent the 'kill' signal, and if a process hangs, eventually, it'll show 'Failed' and I'll know which process was making linux too slow to restart, jopefuly, there's something like that in windows xp.