Problem with CD-WR

[psandekian]

Hi. I'm trying to repair my Mom's pc. She lost the use of her CD-RW. I had her remove the driver and restart the pc. It now recognizes the cd-wr as a cd-rom but it does not recognize the writable cd's. I can not write to a new cd and it does not read any of the cd's previously written to by the same burner. It says "Place a cd in drive E:" Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm not used to ME and I'm not sure how to reload the driver manually since the only disks she received with the pc is restore cds.

Thanks.
Patty

 

[cdogg]

If you go through "My Computer", is the drive letter the same for the CD-RW? Also, check Device Manager to make sure it is working properly...
~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[psandekian]

The drive letter is there and it works for cd's from manufacturers such as microsoft but not for the cd's that it made. There were no problems listed for the cd driver in the device manager. I thought I would reload the driver (I'm an NT user so I'm familiar with reloading drivers) so I removed it from the device list. When I went to reinstall it, I could not find the driver on the restore cd nor did Windows ME have the company in the list it offered. It's a Samsung DVD/CD-WR.

Since I've removed the driver in Device Manager and rebooted, it seems to be back. It still does not work properly. Is there something else that I can do (besides rebuild her hard drive)? She has a lot of pictures from a digital camera that she would like to store on CDs that's currently on her hard drive.

Thanks.
Patty

 

[cdogg]

Okay...

Are you going through Windows Explorer and trying to view the CD's contents, or are you using 3rd party software like Roxio Easy CD Creator?

Make sure you are trying to read a CD-RW disk in the drive using Windows Explorer.

Also, you shouldn't need to install a driver for the CD-RW drive. It's built-in to the hardware known as "firmware". So, it shouldn't be a driver issue.

Sounds like you might have a combination of problems. Try the CD-RW disk in another burner if that's an option (to make sure the CD itself isn't bad). Also, consider cleaning the Laser Lens.
~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[psandekian]

ok. So I've done some more investigation. Windows ME is weird to me so it's making this more difficult than I think is necessary. Here's what's happening:

1. The DVD/CD-RW is not reading the disks that are made for writing on.

2. It reads other disks just fine (i.e. Microsoft Office comes up).

3. It plays audio cd's just fine.

Steps that I've taken:

1. In device manager, removed driver for cd. I tried to find the driver manually to reload it but failed. I rebooted for a different reason and it automatically found the driver. What's confusing me is that it did not come up and say "New Hardware Found" like it would have in Win95, 98 or NT.

2. To check the driver thing, I shut the machine down and disconnected the cd, both power and ribbon cables. Rebooted and the driver was automatically removed. I shut down and hooked the cd back up, booted, and driver automatically there again. Still no improvement.

So I'm open to suggestions. The software using the DVD/CD-RW is Adaptec DirectCD Wizard 3.01c. Do I need to reload this software to get this to work again? If so, can someone tell me how to read this restore CD to do this? All it has available for loading is the audio, video, and modem drivers.

Thanks.
Patty

 

[cdogg]

It sounds like you've got a good start. Sorry if I haven't been clear up to this point. Try this:

1) Use Windows Explorer (Start->Programs), NOT Easy CD Creator to read the CD-RW disc (one that already has something on it)

- If it gives you an error message, let us know


2) Uninstall/Reinstall DirectCD. Also try Adaptec's Easy CD Creator if it's installed.



Other than that, it sounds like a Windows registry problem...
~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[psandekian]

Ok. Windows Explorer lists out the drive letter but when I insert one of her photo cd's, it says "Insert a disk in drive E:". The photo cd works fine on her plain cd-rom.

I did take one of my new rw cd's that worked on my pc over there but it did not recognize a disk in the drive. Also, Mom said she cleaned the drive last week. She purposely went and bought a cleaning kit thinking it might be the problem too. This has been a problem for more than a month now.

As for reloading software, I'm not sure how. She purchased the pc with everything loaded and they gave her a 2 cd disk set that's labeled "Restore CD". If I boot off the CD, it gives me the option of restoring Windows ME or DOS prompt. Restoring Windows ME gives a warning that it will format the HDD. We don't want that!

When looking at the cds in Windows Explorer, it has directories: drivers, manual, and internet. There's nothing else. When it starts up automatically, it gives the same options. This is so frustrating since I bought mine from a well known company that gave me disks for everything that came with mine. I even tried to load my Adaptec DirectCD but unfortunately, her pc couldn't read the CD. Think it was somehow set up for my pc only. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for all of your help. I'm so new to ME and so used to the old ways of NT and 95.
Patty