If Your Cd Drive Was B0rked...

DiscoZombie

<div class="IPBDescription">...how would you troubleshoot it?</div> k well I got a new puter, custom built and shipped on a truck across the country. it's very pretty and shiny. first problem: the HD wasn't working. I opened it up, jiggled the connections, and it started working. now, my CD drive isn't working. Windows detects it, assigns it a drive letter, says exactly what model it is (lite-on combo LTC-48161H), and if I right-click and hit 'eject' it ejects, but it reads no CDs I put in it. If I type D: at the command prompt, it says the device is not ready. is it a hardware problem or a software problem? how should I go about troubleshooting?

Marik_Steele

I tend to always blame hardware first when troubleshooting for myself and others. If it ejects fine, it's getting power from the power supply, so that's a good sign. Next thing to check is whether the IDE cable is in properly. If so, go to the BIOS: if it's totally ok with the drive, you can blame the operating system.

[edit]Forgot to explain what my next steps would be if it isn't ok in the bios: next I'd plug it in to a different computer to check whether it's a problem with the drive itself or the computer you're working with.

[edit2]Um...one more thing. If this company isn't so keen on you opening up the computer yourself, don't do it. Call their tech support and/or return it while you still can.

DiscoZombie

thanks for the input... the BIOS seems to think it's fine -- it detects the drive, and the brand too I think, so I imagine that's not where the problem is... the company doesn't care if you open up the computer -- it sells parts seperately and will throw them together for you for $75 (www.mwave.com), as well as install software, etc. I'm not sure if they have tech support or not -- if I can't get to the bottom of it, I do know I could return the drive...

they DID install windows and various drivers for my hardware, which suggests either that the drive was working for them when they installed the software, or they did the installation by hooking the HD up to a different machine beforehand...

feh, I'll keep plugging away at it and keep whining if I can't figure it out.

edit: when I right-click on the drive and go to properties/hardware, I notice the "location" of both my hard drive and CD ROM is '0' -- does that suggest there's some sort of location conflict? is one supposed to be 0 and the other 1? would that suggest a jumper is placed wrong on the drive or something like that?

Marik_Steele

If "location" refers to the IDE channel (most motherboards have 2, plus an extra for floppy drives), and both your cd-rom and hard drive are on the same IDE cable, then that's fine. If location instead refers to whether the drive is "master" or "slave" (this terminology may change for political correctness reasons in the near future), then each should be set to its own setting with a jumper in the back. Refer to the manual or look at the top, underside, and rear of each drive to see which jumper locations do each setting.

[edit]Just looked at the properties of my own hard drives and cd drives -- Win2k says the location for <i>all</i> of them is 0. I guess my above paragraph can be thrown out the window.

Bo_Selecta

The "Standard List": (I'm an ex-helpdesker): Update the firmware. Update Windows with the lastest service pack. reconnect all cables. Update the cd-rom drivers. Are you having hardware conflicts?

These probably aren't going to hekp you, but still, you never know <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

DiscoZombie

ok, I did everything both of you said -- firmware, drivers, etc... I think it's the drive. Why? When I tried it in my old compy, it acted the exact same way -- it showed up in Windows and BIOS like it should, but nothing happened when you put a CD in. listening to it, it doesn't sound like it spins up either. I thought lite-on was supposed to be a pretty reliable drive company... blah. now I have to exchange it all the way to california, etc... at least I have an external drive to use for now...

[WHO]Them

If I were you I would check the autoplay features.

*Sometimes* my drive won't detect the fact that I've put a new cd in the drive nomatter what I do. And I'm not talking that it won't automatically start or something. I mean to say that it won't even let me explore the drive properly cuz it thinks the old cd is still in there.

When this happens, I have 2 options...

1. reboot the computer with the cd in the drive and it'll boot up with the right info about the cd.
2. fiddle with all the autoplay settings in windows and reboot each time until it works.

Not sure if it'll help, but it can't hurt.

Jammer

Pull out the drive, unscrew it, and clean the lense and such. There are tutorials on other sites about this. Sounds like its just having a read error.

DiscoZombie

I dunno how it would get dirty considering it's brand new, and I don't really want to open it up since that voids the warranty... I'll just return it, I've done all I can <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo--> thanks for the input guys <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

R_A_C

Computers s0x0rs when they don't work perfectly, but r teh pwn when running smoothly.

Gliss

I had the same exact problem, yet I never solved it. It just started reading the disks today, though.

My old one--phew, it wouldn't even eject. I tried to put lotion and butter on the gears to make it go out easier, but then I think some stuff dropped onto the hardrive...

Talesin

Ignore Jammer.

Try opening the case, unplugging the IDE cable, and plugging it back in. Sounds like a loose connection more than anything else.