My CD disappeared into the computer

[pontifex]

Last night I got a message from my great aunt saying she is having computer problems. I just got off the phone with her and this is what her problem is....

She got a new printer and tried to install it. She says she put the cd into the drive and it closed but nothing happened. She went to take the cd out andit was gone. It disappeared into her "modem". she is calling her tower a modem...

I thought maybe she had 2 drives and didn't realize it and maybe ejected the wrong tray so I had her check and she does have 2 drives. I had her eject both and she says there is no disc in either one.

I want to say this is impossible, but she is very computer illiterate beyond email and basic web browsing so who knows.

I'm burning a copy of the driver to cd in case I can't fnd her disc.

 

[Quasmo]

My grandmother thought the same thing, that the tower was the modem, and the monitor was the computer.

 

[FoBoT]

happens all the time, many towers have a small gap between the drive panels/plates on the front, so n00bs think it is a trayless CD drive and shove it in there

you'll find the CD inside the tower, not inside the drive

 

[marvdmartian]

Only other thing I can come up with is maybe there's just enough room above or below her cd drive that she actually slipped the cd in there, like it was a slot-load drive? I mean, physically speaking, there's just no way for a cd to "hide" in a drive, if you can get the tray to open, is there???

She doesn't have an old 5.25" floppy drive on that "modem", does she??

 

[daniel1113]

I had a situation many years ago where a friend inserted a CD into the small crack/slot formed between the actual drive and the computer case. Would that be possible in your case?

 

[Inferno0032]

Oh yus, computer illiterates are the joy to us...

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
happens all the time, many towers have a small gap between the drive panels/plates on the front, so n00bs think it is a trayless CD drive and shove it in there

you'll find the CD inside the tower, not inside the drive

You beat me to it. Didn't someone here work at a computer repair shop and find a dozen or more CD's inside of a tower that someone brought in?

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Inferno0032
Oh yus, computer illiterates are the joy to us...

be nice. it's his great aunt, and he is being a good nephew by going over and helping her.

 

[Jhill]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Inferno0032
Oh yus, computer illiterates are the joy to us...

be nice. it's his great aunt, and he is being a good nephew by going over and helping her.

Not to mention, he just got a little more in the will.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: marvdmartian
Only other thing I can come up with is maybe there's just enough room above or below her cd drive that she actually slipped the cd in there, like it was a slot-load drive? I mean, physically speaking, there's just no way for a cd to "hide" in a drive, if you can get the tray to open, is there???

She doesn't have an old 5.25" floppy drive on that "modem", does she??

Ugh, I once had to extricate a CD from a 5.25"
"But it just went in there so easily"

 

[Soundmanred]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
I had a situation many years ago where a friend inserted a CD into the small crack/slot formed between the actual drive and the computer case. Would that be possible in your case?

She didn't want to put the CD in the cup holder, so it was the next best place.
And why does the cup holder have an eject button?

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: Jhill

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Inferno0032
Oh yus, computer illiterates are the joy to us...

be nice. it's his great aunt, and he is being a good nephew by going over and helping her.

Not to mention, he just got a little more in the will.

ahaha

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
I had a situation many years ago where a friend inserted a CD into the small crack/slot formed between the actual drive and the computer case. Would that be possible in your case?

exactly the case, lol

i have no idea how anyone could think that is correct

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
My grandmother thought the same thing, that the tower was the modem, and the monitor was the computer.

Here is an oldie, but a goodie (and completely true):

There was a time many years ago when I only had a laptop and I would plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse (no docking station) into it on my desk at home. I would take the laptop with me on business trips since my wife, at the time, very rarely used the computer and almost never used it without me present.

One day I got a call on my mobile phone when I was away at a meeting. My lovely bride says that the computer won?t work. I pause, then I look down at my computer on the conference table and say ?Looks fine to me.?

She thought this was the computer.

Sigh?

MotionMan

 

[Mr Pickles]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Inferno0032
Oh yus, computer illiterates are the joy to us...

be nice. it's his great aunt, and he is being a good nephew by going over and helping her.

Great nephew

 

[PHiuR]

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: Quasmo
My grandmother thought the same thing, that the tower was the modem, and the monitor was the computer.

Here is an oldie, but a goodie (and completely true):

There was a time many years ago when I only had a laptop and I would plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse (no docking station) into it on my desk at home. I would take the laptop with me on business trips since my wife, at the time, very rarely used the computer and almost never used it without me present.

One day I got a call on my mobile phone when I was away at a meeting. My lovely bride says that the computer won?t work. I pause, then I look down at my computer on the conference table and say ?Looks fine to me.?

She thought this was the computer.

Sigh?

MotionMan

what is that? a power conditioner? poor woman, i hope you got her a computer after that call..heh

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: PHiuR

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: Quasmo
My grandmother thought the same thing, that the tower was the modem, and the monitor was the computer.

Here is an oldie, but a goodie (and completely true):

There was a time many years ago when I only had a laptop and I would plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse (no docking station) into it on my desk at home. I would take the laptop with me on business trips since my wife, at the time, very rarely used the computer and almost never used it without me present.

One day I got a call on my mobile phone when I was away at a meeting. My lovely bride says that the computer won?t work. I pause, then I look down at my computer on the conference table and say ?Looks fine to me.?

She thought this was the computer.

Sigh?

MotionMan

what is that? a power conditioner? poor woman, i hope you got her a computer after that call..heh

More of a power station than anything. These were used more back in the AT based power supply days when everything had hard on and off switches. From a single central location you could power everything on and off very quickly.

 

[Soundmanred]

I had one for my Tandy 1000. Pretty sweet setup.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: marvdmartian
Only other thing I can come up with is maybe there's just enough room above or below her cd drive that she actually slipped the cd in there, like it was a slot-load drive? I mean, physically speaking, there's just no way for a cd to "hide" in a drive, if you can get the tray to open, is there???

She doesn't have an old 5.25" floppy drive on that "modem", does she??

Ugh, I once had to extricate a CD from a 5.25"
"But it just went in there so easily"

That's what she said!!!!

I couldn't help myself.


Anyway...
A family member recently installed an update to Winamp, and then reported that the music was playing really quietly. After instructing her to go through all sorts of things in Winamp, checking MP3 decoders, making sure ReplayGain wasn't enabled or set to a really low gain, it finally occurred to me.

"On the Taskbar, in the System Tray, double-click the little gray speaker icon to bring up Volume Control. Boost the volume sliders for Master and Wave."

"That did it!!!!"

*sigh*

 

[her209]

Hey at least your users aren't folding 5.25" floppy disks and shoving them into 3.5" floppy disk drives.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: marvdmartian
Only other thing I can come up with is maybe there's just enough room above or below her cd drive that she actually slipped the cd in there, like it was a slot-load drive? I mean, physically speaking, there's just no way for a cd to "hide" in a drive, if you can get the tray to open, is there???

She doesn't have an old 5.25" floppy drive on that "modem", does she??

QFT, i have had to recover a few cd's that ended up inside the case.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: PHiuR

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: Quasmo
My grandmother thought the same thing, that the tower was the modem, and the monitor was the computer.

Here is an oldie, but a goodie (and completely true):

There was a time many years ago when I only had a laptop and I would plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse (no docking station) into it on my desk at home. I would take the laptop with me on business trips since my wife, at the time, very rarely used the computer and almost never used it without me present.

One day I got a call on my mobile phone when I was away at a meeting. My lovely bride says that the computer won?t work. I pause, then I look down at my computer on the conference table and say ?Looks fine to me.?

She thought this was the computer.

Sigh?

MotionMan

what is that? a power conditioner? poor woman, i hope you got her a computer after that call..heh

More of a power station than anything. These were used more back in the AT based power supply days when everything had hard on and off switches. From a single central location you could power everything on and off very quickly.

QFT.

MotionMan

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: her209
Hey at least your users aren't folding 5.25" floppy disks and shoving them into 3.5" floppy disk drives.

Not anymore, at least.

MotionMan

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Anyway...
A family member recently installed an update to Winamp, and then reported that the music was playing really quietly. After instructing her to go through all sorts of things in Winamp, checking MP3 decoders, making sure ReplayGain wasn't enabled or set to a really low gain, it finally occurred to me.

"On the Taskbar, in the System Tray, double-click the little gray speaker icon to bring up Volume Control. Boost the volume sliders for Master and Wave."

"That did it!!!!"

*sigh*

I have gotten pretty good at asking the ridiculous, stupid, noob questions when troubleshooting for my parents and friends.

Also, it is amazing how many problems get solved with "Reboot the computer and try it again", "Check to make sure that every cord that is plugged in is plugged all the way in." and "Are there any cords that are not plugged in on both ends?"

MotionMan

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: MotionMan
"Reboot the computer and try it again"

QFT x Eleventy-billion

A quick reboot is the first task I ask people to carry out when I am giving them computer help.