Why doesn't my DVD drive work?

Help!!!

I have two problems with my computer and cannot figure how to get around them.

1) My Toshiba CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive will not recognise ANY disc i put in it. I just keep getting asked to insert a CD in to the drive. I have changed the drive for an ordinary CD-ROM drive but it has made no difference whatsoever.

2) I keep getting the blue screen error message "Cannot write to disc C. Any unsaved data will be lost" (or words to that effect. Do I need a new hard drive?

A friend suggested re-installing Windows Me but as my CD drive is not working I can't do this.

Any ideas apart from dumping the whole thing and starting again?

Thanks,

Mark Williams

This question was answered on December 16, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Don't believe everything you read about not writing to Disk C: Windows is reactionary that way I'm suspecting a conflict between your CD, DVD, and hard drives.

I have no indication the DVD drive ever worked, so I'll assume it never really did.

Start by opening your Control Panel, and taking a gander at the device manager See if there are any yellow and black "Event Icons" in there They indicate that Windows is having problems with a hardware device They have to be cleared-up.

Next, unplug the CD and DVD drive I'll bet this helps your problem There are probably drivers which come with the DVD drive Be sure they are installed, and correctly Find them online, if you don't have the original disk.

It's bad practice to plug a DVD or CD-ROM drive into the same cable as your hard drive (although this is not to say it cannot be done) Use the other IDE channel, if possible I recently bought a cheap IDE expansion card to connect my slower drives to, just to make room for a DVD drive connected to a fast IDE channel on my motherboard

A bad, dirty, misaligned or incorrectly jumpered CD drive on the same cable as your hard drive can cause big problems So can a bad ribbon cable Also, so much data comes flowing off a DVD drive, that a poor hard drive on the same channel doesn't have time to see the full light of day

Also, a fair amount of these new high-end drives arrive DOA Keep an open mind, and an open manual for the number of tech support They will insist you do any testing while having only software installed which is included with the drive in queation, and no other.

RG

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Posted by Robert of Mesa Community College on December 16, 2002

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