[BobFIU]

I'm helping my brother with this problem (long distance, so I'm NOT with the PC) and we're both flummoxed.
A week ago his computer stopped reading any content from CD's or DVD's. XP SP2 recognized that the drive was present (as per device manager) but when he inserted a CD or DVD (commerical or homemade, Data or music/video), nothing would happen. In WinExplorer, the drive was present, but when he explored the disc, it would show that there was no content. He tells me never gets any warning messages, etc.

Since the PC is several years old, and since all the web searching indicated that the problem was a bad drive, he bought a new CD/DVD burner and replaced the old one. The PC's bios shows the drive is present, as does XP's device manager, but the original problem persists. So, we're kind of lost.

I'm not sure if this is a hardware or software issue, so I'm starting here.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

[ARock84]

Make sure that your brother has the latest drivers for the new drive.

[BobFIU]

A CD came with the drive, but since the drive won't read it, we're not sure how to see whats even on it. Also, he tells me that when he booted up with the new drive the first time, windows did NOT ask for drivers.

[ARock84]

Yeah usually windows will install a generic driver for the device. Since it can't read the disk, try and see if you can get it from the manufactures website as a download, then install it.

[BobFIU]

ARock...I should have thought of that...I'll have him do that, and post the results here.

[ARock84]

Ok

[BobFIU]

...And while I check into the drivers issue, does anyone have any other ideas, just in case that's not the problem?



Thanks!

[BobFIU]

More information ( I hate doing these things long distance). when he puts a disk into the drive and tries to access its contents, sometimes he will get a "drive not ready" message (or somehting similar), but most of the time, when he checks the disk in explorer, the disk shows no available space, but no contents, either.

LG's website does not list any drivers for the drive, and the manual says that XP's native drivers should be all that is needed. The drive does appear properly in device manager.

He put the CD that came with the drive into another computer, and there appears to be a file folder that may contain a firmware revision. He's going to copy that to a thumbdrive and install it in the PC that is having the problems.

At this point, I don't think this is a hardware problem. I think that there has been some change in Windows that has a problem, but I have no idea what. I know of the SP3 update issue and SOME drives, but SP3 was installed some time ago, and the original drive worked after the SP3 update.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Thanks for all the help so far!

[BobFIU]

And as additional information, the drive has the latest firmware version. LG tech support wasn't much help.

Anyone have ANY ideas? I'm baffled!

[BobFIU]

Additional information...after the uninstallation of XP SP3 things haven't changed, but there IS an unusual wrinkle...The drive WILL play music CD's and movie DVD's. It just will not do anything with DATA disks. It won't show the contents of data disks when viewed in explorer, but WILL show the contents of music/movie disks.


More annd more convinced that the drive itself is OK, but kind of lost on the rest of this. Anyone have any ideas?

[mphenterprises]

Hi BobFIU. I have been following this discussion since the beginning. First, thank you for such thorough and detailed information. Now, I agree with you that the drive itself is okay. Since your brother replaced the optical drive, am I too assume that he kept the original IDE cable? If so, make sure the cable is not crimped in any way and is securely connected to both the motherboard and the optical drive. If he did switch to the new cable that came with the new optical drive, make sure that cable is not crimped as well.

Since you indicated that this is an older computer, I would presume that this optical drive is not connected by a SATA connection, correct? Also, I would presume that the motherboard has more than one IDE port, correct? If both of these assumptions are correct, please find out the exact manufacturer and model number of your brother's computer OR the exact manufacturer and model number of the motherboard if the computer is custom built.

[BobFIU]

MPH...

It is indeed an IDE drive. He's using the same ribbon cable that was already in the computer and has confirmed to me that it is securely attached at both ends. The original drives jumper was set for "cable select" and he did the same with the new one. At LG's suggestion, he changed the jumper setting to "master" but that did not fix the problem. He is planning on buying a new IDE cable to see if the issue is the cable. There is more than one IDE port on the MB.

The computer is a Dell...I don't have the model number information right now, but will get it and post it soon.

Thanks for your help, and I'll post more as I get it.

[BobFIU]

The PC is a Dell Dimension 4600...

[mphenterprises]

Okay, here is a picture of the motherboard:








Please bare with me with the following information. Depending on your technical knowledge, you may already know what I am about to state. The blue and white ports in the lower portion of the motherboard are the IDE ports. If the new cable doesn't correct the issue, your brother may have to swap the cables connected to these ports. Here is a close up example of two similar IDE Ports:







More than likely, the hard drive is connected to the IDE1 and the optical drive is connected to IDE2. If that is the case, and the new cable does not correct the issue, the problem may be the IDE port itself. We can go over configuration options if the new cable does not work.





On a lighter note, your brother can be proud that his computer was rated one of the ten worst computers of all time. :D

http://www.pcworld.c...le/129857-2/the10worstpcsofalltime.html

[BobFIU]

Thanks again, MPH!
He's planning on gettng a new cable today (Friday) and then we'll see what happens. He said that the second LG tech he talked to was pretty adamant about changing out the cable.

As for one of the 10 worst PC's of all time, he must be lucky. This is the first and only hardware problem he's had since he bought it!

[coastie65]

Hi Bob, You need to make sure "Auto Play" is enabled as well. coastie65

[BobFIU]

Thought ot that, but autoplay doesn't really have anything at all to do with whether the drive reads data disks or not.

[coastie65]

Nope, sorry, I was thinking about something else, but if you get a new cable and it still doesn't work, you can figure you got a lemon with a bad laser. If the drive reads both DVD & CD disks, you can try one of each, if it will read say, DVD and not CD, then it will mean swap time time for a new drive, as that one is a lemon. The CD and DVD operate on separate wave lengths, and it is possible for it to work on one and not the other. The only solution is to replace the drive. coastie

[mphenterprises]

BobFIU said:

>

Quote

The drive WILL play music CD's and movie DVD's. It just will not do anything with DATA disks. It won't show the contents of data disks when viewed in explorer, but WILL show the contents of music/movie disks.

>
>



Hi Coastie. I do not think this is a drive issue. the drive will play music CD and movie DVD. It will not read any data CDs or DVDs.

[coastie65]

OOPS, Forgot that. In MY COMPUTER when you right click on the optical drive, then click on properties. There is a tab for AutoPlay. It should be showing mixed content, if you are going to be doing Media files as well as data files. The thing that keeps nagging at me though with this is, when you install a game, it is a mixture of both media type and data type files as far as I know. coastie