CDROM Drives Won't Work under XP

[HGC]

I am having a problem under XP. Everything was fine for a few months, now the CDROM drives will not recognize that a disk is in the drive. I tried new cables, different configurations of master/slave, and three different CDROM, DVD, and CDRW drives. The onboard IDE controller works fine with hard drives. The CDROM drives are recognized in the BIOS without problem, and the drive letter is there in My Computer, but disks will usually not play or even be recognized that they are in the drive.

Is this a common problem? Is it hardware incompatibility? My drives are Pioneer DVD, Imation CDRW, and Memorex CDROM. Or is it a known XP flaw? Does anyone have a clue how to solve it? Thanks for any help.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

when you first started using XP...remember how every little thing you did brought up a "What would you like Windows to do with this? " type of dialog?

 

[HGC]

Sorry, I don't follow, Scrap. Do I need to tell it to use the drive or something?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

yes...do rightclick on Start ..Explore ..Pick your CD drive ..rightclick Properties..pick the tab AutoPlay..choose file type then select program and what you want it to do

 

[HGC]

Thanks scrap but that is not solving the prob. I went there, and it had been set up to ask what to do with different types of disks when the disk is inserted, which it never did. I just reset it to do specific things (play a music CD, open files, etc.) still the disks just spin in the drive and are not recognized as even existing in Windows.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

sorry...when was the last time you were able to get a CD recognized(by doing WinExplore) on this machine?

 

[John]

I have seen Roxio/Adaptec software cause recognition problems in Win XP. It will also toss some exclamation marks in the device manager next to the IDE channel that houses them.

 

[HGC]

A couple of weeks ago it recognized one, then back to nothing. Prior to that, everything was fine for a few months. Then one drive started intermittently failing to be recognized, then the other drive, too, then the first drive was not recognized all the time, now disks are never seen in both, plus a replacement I tried... it's quite a mystery to me.

 

[HGC]

Thankjs John, no Adaptec or other Cd software is installed.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< A couple of weeks ago it recognized one, then back to nothing. Prior to that, everything was fine for a few months. Then one drive started intermittently failing to be recognized, then the other drive, too, then the first drive was not recognized all the time, now disks are never seen in both, plus a replacement I tried... it's quite a mystery to me. >>

hmmm... I dunno...BozoGalora ?

 

[MysticWar]

Check in Device Manager to see if there is an exclamation point next to your CDROM.

 

[HGC]

No exclamation points and the drive itself is recognized fine, but no recognition of a disk when inserted.... a mystery..

 

[John]

Can the cdrom drives read media in DOS?

 

[HGC]

I just checked with DOS prompt under XP... no dice, same problem. i'm hunting for an old dos boot disk now...

 

[MysticWar]

Try installing an ASPI layer. Search on google for FORCEASPI. That might fix your problem.

 

[HGC]

Thanks for the idea mystic. I downloaded forceaspi and the guide for it. The guide says there are issues with Windows Media Player 7, and recommends 6.x. I have Media Player 8, so I'm nevous about installing this.

 

[Dreadogg]

wow I thought that this was just my media then I tried more and more and the same damn problem, I know that windows update has a patch I'll have to go and try this! I will not be able to post my results till tommarro because this is on my fathers machine! I did burn the cd's with nero and a lite-on burner though!

 

[BlakkIce]

wass there ever an outcome to this problem cause im having it too

 

[HGC]

I still have the problem. I found a Microsoft online document saying that this can happen when you use three or more IDE devices. It says changes need to be made to the registry, but does not tell you what the changes are or where to find that info.

I realized I installed a backup program that is designed to write to CDs... maybe that screwed things up.

In any case, I am about to reformat the HD and start all over

 

[lorlabnew]

HGC, before you'll format and start over, you could try to post on some Microsoft's moderated newsgroups (like microsoft.public.windowsxp.general ). I had recently problem with inaccessible MSDN library on my HDD; I tried everything, posted 10000000 messages all over the web, nothing. Then I posted to one of MS newsgroups; 2nd day the MS tech gave me a link to KnowledgeBase; I fixed the problem in 5 minutes..... have to admit that I couldn't find the same info before myself in KB...and I've been searching it a few days.

Good Luck! just an idea..

Dave



<< I am having a problem under XP. Everything was fine for a few months, now the CDROM drives will not recognize that a disk is in the drive. I tried new cables, different configurations of master/slave, and three different CDROM, DVD, and CDRW drives. The onboard IDE controller works fine with hard drives. The CDROM drives are recognized in the BIOS without problem, and the drive letter is there in My Computer, but disks will usually not play or even be recognized that they are in the drive.

Is this a common problem? Is it hardware incompatibility? My drives are Pioneer DVD, Imation CDRW, and Memorex CDROM. Or is it a known XP flaw? Does anyone have a clue how to solve it? Thanks for any help. >>

 

[BlakkIce]

wow i just went to the microsoft site and i found someone that had a close enough problem to ours and he said to disable it in the device manager and reenable it and it should work and what do u know it did

 

[Eug]

I had the same problem just recently. I think it was because I installed Limewire and Sun Java.

I tried everything, including reinstalling the drives in the device manager. Finally ended up reformatting. 3 different drives - no worky. Strangely enough they would workin XP if I booted with the disc in the drive. However as soon I removed the disc, it was dead again. Everything worked fine under DOS.

 

[HGC]

Eug, everything works Ok since reformatting?