XP/2000 CDROM Problems

[silencio]

I've spent half the day hitting the reset button on my XP box. I have no idea why but my old cds (between 4 and 1 years old) which were burned with a mix of NERO or EZCD Creator won't read correctly. I lost a pair of drives on my MP3 machine so now I'm coppying everything back to the new array.

The CDs are unscratched, the CDROM is a Plextor 24/10/40, and the OS is XP. Once it detects a read error the machine hangs for a minute hten the drive disappears. I've never had any other problems with the drive. I've tried disabling DMA and even dropped the PIO mode down to 1 with no luck. Anyone have any ideas?

Also, does anyone know how to disable the way NT5 OSs make the CDROM disappear or does anyone know how to make it come back without a reboot. I've had to reboot at least 30 times and god D4MN!! it's frustrating.

[Darren Wilson]

Sounds like your IDE drivers are playing up. try reinstalling them and reinstalling the ASPI layer.

[silencio]

I tried it on two other machines... both have plexes tho.. And I have no problems reading the new CDs... I don't get it...

[mrwilhelm]

A couple of things to try:

1. re-seat the IDE cable at both ends.
2. replace the IDE cable.
3. check for a firmware update for your CD-RW.
4. update the driver for your IDE controller

If you do all that and still have a problem I'd guess you're looking at a bad drive.

[Darren Wilson]

Also try burning the data at a lower speed especially if using cheap generic CDR media.

[NooNoo]

Also try this
Navigate in the registry to
HKLM / SYSTEM / currentcontrolset / control / class /
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

delete the entries for upper and lower filters
Exit the registry and reboot the computer

[silencio]

[quote]Originally posted by mrwilhelm:
<strong>A couple of things to try:
3. check for a firmware update for your CD-RW.

If you do all that and still have a problem I'd guess you're looking at a bad drive.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Ding! Firmware appears to have been the problem. Plextor's site mentions a fix for reading Maxell media which is what I was using in 97 and 98.

[mrwilhelm]

I'm not in the least bit surprised. CD-ROM reading issues are one of the most common problems I see and I've found that buggy or outdated firmware is usually the culprit.