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| UK diy (uk.d-i-y) For the discussion of all topics related to diy (do-it-yourself) in the UK. All levels of experience and proficency are welcome to join in to ask questions or offer solutions. |
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#1
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CD drive repair
Hi
My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#2
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CD drive repair
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... Does the computer still see the drive, but cannot see the actual CDROM? If so, running a lens cleaning CD (they have a small hairy bit that knocks dust of the laser lens) or manually cleaning it with a small soft brush can work. I've revived the odd one like that. -- Tim Watts |
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#3
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CD drive repair
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... You don't say what OS but googling "missing cd drive xp" gives this as the first hit http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cd_dvd_drive_problems |
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#4
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CD drive repair
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk Is the cd drive recognized by windows? If a yellow exclamation mark then try deleting driver and reinstalling. If not recognized by windows then is it recognized by bios? If so, then looks like windows driver problem, if not the it is likely to be a hardware problem, either cd or motherboard. Test by substituting known working cd is a good starting point. I had a similar issue recently with a laptop recently where the southbridge chip soldering to the motherboard was dodgy. DVD drive was not recognized unless I pressed on the laptop case at a particular point during boot. Once recognized during boot then it continued OK. Regards Bruce |
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#5
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CD drive repair
On 22/08/2010 10:35, The Medway Handyman wrote: Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens& closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result& tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive& swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... Most likely it is the CD that is defective. Just change it, they are cheap enough. Have a look at eBuyer. The only thing to note is if your PC is IDE or SATA (if you are not sure how to tell, just ask). Make sure you get the right one. http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=50&page=1 -- Howard Neil |
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#6
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CD drive repair
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... A mate of mine suddenly couldn't see his 2nd hard drive, it'd been fine for months & months. I suggested he shut down, unplugged the ide cable, fully reboot, shutdown, reconnect cable and reboot. Its been working ever since. |
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#7
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CD drive repair
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... My father used to say that 90% of electrical problems are mechanical. Connectors are often the issue. Try disconnecting and reconnecting. Rebooting Windows is always a ggod idea. |
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#8
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CD drive repair
Pete Zahut wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote: Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... You don't say what OS but googling "missing cd drive xp" gives this as the first hit http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cd_dvd_drive_problems It is XP, sorry should have said. Tried that and it said the media in the drive was not readable. Tried it with 2 x CD's which work fine in SWMBO's PC (Vista). Thanks anyway. -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#9
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CD drive repair
BruceB wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk Is the cd drive recognized by windows? Yes If a yellow exclamation mark then try deleting driver and reinstalling. No yellow Exclamatio mark If not recognized by windows then is it recognized by bios? I wouldn't know what bios was I'm afraid. Some kind of plant food? :-) -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#10
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CD drive repair
Howard Neil wrote:
On 22/08/2010 10:35, The Medway Handyman wrote: Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens& closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result& tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive& swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... Most likely it is the CD that is defective. Just change it, they are cheap enough. Have a look at eBuyer. The only thing to note is if your PC is IDE or SATA (if you are not sure how to tell, just ask). Make sure you get the right one. I'm going to try cleaning as soon as I find the cleaning thingy, plan B is to replace, how do I tell if its IDE or SATA? http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=50&page=1 -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#11
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CD drive repair
The Medway Handyman wrote:
I'm going to try cleaning as soon as I find the cleaning thingy, plan B is to replace, how do I tell if its IDE or SATA? IDE - 2" wide ribbon cable SATA - ordinary cable |
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#12
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CD drive repair
Steve Walker wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote: I'm going to try cleaning as soon as I find the cleaning thingy, plan B is to replace, how do I tell if its IDE or SATA? IDE - 2" wide ribbon cable SATA - ordinary cable Inside the tower or outside? Sorry to be such a numpty. -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#13
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CD drive repair
On 22 Aug, 12:34, "The Medway Handyman" davidl...@no-spam-
blueyonder.co.uk wrote: Steve Walker wrote: The Medway Handyman wrote: I'm going to try cleaning as soon as I find the cleaning thingy, plan B is to replace, how do I tell if its IDE or SATA? IDE - 2" wide ribbon cable SATA - ordinary cable Inside the tower or outside? is this an external "portable" CD drive perchance? Jim K |
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#14
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CD drive repair
On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:34:02 +0100, The Medway Handyman boggled us with:
Steve Walker wrote: The Medway Handyman wrote: I'm going to try cleaning as soon as I find the cleaning thingy, plan B is to replace, how do I tell if its IDE or SATA? IDE - 2" wide ribbon cable SATA - ordinary cable Inside the tower or outside? Sorry to be such a numpty. Inside. It'll be coming out the back of the CD drive. IDE - flat, wide grey with a flat wide connector on the end. Sata - thin cable with a small connector. -- Mike P |
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#15
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CD drive repair
On 22/08/2010 in message YW7co.32087$UD.21601@hurricane The Medway
Handyman wrote: Steve Walker wrote: The Medway Handyman wrote: I'm going to try cleaning as soon as I find the cleaning thingy, plan B is to replace, how do I tell if its IDE or SATA? IDE - 2" wide ribbon cable SATA - ordinary cable Inside the tower or outside? Sorry to be such a numpty. This is SATA: http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/...al-cable-1.jpg And this is IDE: http://www.vgmusic.com/faq/gallery/plugs/p-IDE.jpg Eatxh for wrapping in the URL's. -- Jeff Gaines Dorset UK There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. (Ken Olson, president Digital Equipment, 1977) |
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#16
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CD drive repair
Jim K wrote:
On 22 Aug, 12:34, "The Medway Handyman" davidl...@no-spam- blueyonder.co.uk wrote: Steve Walker wrote: The Medway Handyman wrote: I'm going to try cleaning as soon as I find the cleaning thingy, plan B is to replace, how do I tell if its IDE or SATA? IDE - 2" wide ribbon cable SATA - ordinary cable Inside the tower or outside? is this an external "portable" CD drive perchance? No, inside the tower. -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#17
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CD drive repair
"brass monkey" wrote in message ... "The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... A mate of mine suddenly couldn't see his 2nd hard drive, it'd been fine for months & months. I suggested he shut down, unplugged the ide cable, fully reboot, shutdown, reconnect cable and reboot. Its been working ever since. Sorry TMH, I thought Windows didn't recognise the drive. |
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#18
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CD drive repair
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk Ever since I bought a cd/dvd writer drive (Philips) for our pc, XP's Explorer has claimed there is no disc in the drive. I have asked many questions about this but never found out why. Anyhow, what I have found is that if I open Windows Media Player, and use *that* to browse to the disc it is then seen along with all its tracks. After having 'found' the disc in this manner I can shut WMP and Explorer then sees it in the normal way. I have no idea why. Perhaps it will work for you. Worth a try. S |
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#19
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CD drive repair
Spamlet wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk Ever since I bought a cd/dvd writer drive (Philips) for our pc, XP's Explorer has claimed there is no disc in the drive. I have asked many questions about this but never found out why. Anyhow, what I have found is that if I open Windows Media Player, and use *that* to browse to the disc it is then seen along with all its tracks. After having 'found' the disc in this manner I can shut WMP and Explorer then sees it in the normal way. I have no idea why. Perhaps it will work for you. Worth a try. Failed alas, navigated to the drive but it came up empty. Thanks though. -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#20
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CD drive repair
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Spamlet wrote: "The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk Ever since I bought a cd/dvd writer drive (Philips) for our pc, XP's Explorer has claimed there is no disc in the drive. I have asked many questions about this but never found out why. Anyhow, what I have found is that if I open Windows Media Player, and use *that* to browse to the disc it is then seen along with all its tracks. After having 'found' the disc in this manner I can shut WMP and Explorer then sees it in the normal way. I have no idea why. Perhaps it will work for you. Worth a try. Failed alas, navigated to the drive but it came up empty. Thanks though. Bin it and replace it with a DVD player. -- Adam |
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#21
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CD drive repair
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:Trcco.130941$6C1.124829@hurricane... Spamlet wrote: "The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk Ever since I bought a cd/dvd writer drive (Philips) for our pc, XP's Explorer has claimed there is no disc in the drive. I have asked many questions about this but never found out why. Anyhow, what I have found is that if I open Windows Media Player, and use *that* to browse to the disc it is then seen along with all its tracks. After having 'found' the disc in this manner I can shut WMP and Explorer then sees it in the normal way. I have no idea why. Perhaps it will work for you. Worth a try. Failed alas, navigated to the drive but it came up empty. Thanks though. Dave - The Medway Handyman Oh well, it was a bit of a long shot; guess my system must be somehow unique. Anyhow, before you bin the drive (and it really is worth getting a modern all in one dvdrw/cdrw etc drive - they are very cheap compared to the ones that go with the tv!), try opening the tower and disconnecting the drive. Then restart without the drive. Let it finish updating, then shut down, open up, reconnect the drive and power up again. Then it should tell you it has found new hardware, and, with any luck might clear your glitch when it reinstalls. S |
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#22
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CD drive repair
John Rumm wrote:
On 22/08/2010 10:35, The Medway Handyman wrote: Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens& closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result& tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive& swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Assuming windows still sees the drive and gives it a drive letter, but it just won't read any disks, the simplest and cheapest solution is usually to bin it and replace with another. Not the cheapest. but an ok drive: IDE version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151999 SATA version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227080 Note those are fast DVD rewriters that will also handle all the CD formats. You can get them from about a tenner! For £17 I might as well get the super dooper jobby. If you really want a bog standard CD ROM (i.e. read only, no DVD compatibility) you will have to look at second hand probably. (in fact I have a new unused IDE CD ROM drive on the shelf - yours for the price of postage! Cheers, but I'll go for the turbo nutter one :-) I'm assuming I take the back or side off and it just unbolts? -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
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#23
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CD drive repair
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:M5dco.39015$qQ6.27643@hurricane... John Rumm wrote: On 22/08/2010 10:35, The Medway Handyman wrote: Not the cheapest. but an ok drive: IDE version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151999 SATA version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227080 Both of these are SATA -- John Donne http://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/ |
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#24
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CD drive repair
The Medway Handyman wrote:
John Rumm wrote: On 22/08/2010 10:35, The Medway Handyman wrote: Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens& closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result& tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive& swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Assuming windows still sees the drive and gives it a drive letter, but it just won't read any disks, the simplest and cheapest solution is usually to bin it and replace with another. Not the cheapest. but an ok drive: IDE version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151999 SATA version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227080 Note those are fast DVD rewriters that will also handle all the CD formats. You can get them from about a tenner! For £17 I might as well get the super dooper jobby. If you really want a bog standard CD ROM (i.e. read only, no DVD compatibility) you will have to look at second hand probably. (in fact I have a new unused IDE CD ROM drive on the shelf - yours for the price of postage! Cheers, but I'll go for the turbo nutter one :-) I'm assuming I take the back or side off and it just unbolts? More or less yes. Sometimes you need to take a cradle out before you can remove the drives. Take photos of all cables etc. so if you have to unplug everything, you know how it all goes back together. |
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#25
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CD drive repair
The Medway Handyman wrote:
I'm assuming I take the back or side off and it just unbolts? Yeah, shutdown machine and remove mains lead, remove power and data cables from CD drive (if unsure take a quick photo of which way they go), undo screws on side of drive (or if it no screws slide the relevant quick-release clamp etc). Check the master/slave/cable select jumpers on old and new drives, you want the new one set for the same option (which might be different physical positions from one drive to another) re-assembly is the reverse ... |
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#26
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CD drive repair
"Spamlet" wrote in message
... "The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:Trcco.130941$6C1.124829@hurricane... Spamlet wrote: "The Medway Handyman" wrote in message news:rb6co.148388$qO1.132468@hurricane... Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens & closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result & tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive & swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk Ever since I bought a cd/dvd writer drive (Philips) for our pc, XP's Explorer has claimed there is no disc in the drive. I have asked many questions about this but never found out why. Anyhow, what I have found is that if I open Windows Media Player, and use *that* to browse to the disc it is then seen along with all its tracks. After having 'found' the disc in this manner I can shut WMP and Explorer then sees it in the normal way. I have no idea why. Perhaps it will work for you. Worth a try. Failed alas, navigated to the drive but it came up empty. Thanks though. Dave - The Medway Handyman Oh well, it was a bit of a long shot; guess my system must be somehow unique. Anyhow, before you bin the drive (and it really is worth getting a modern all in one dvdrw/cdrw etc drive - they are very cheap compared to the ones that go with the tv!), try opening the tower and disconnecting the drive. Then restart without the drive. Let it finish updating, then shut down, open up, reconnect the drive and power up again. Then it should tell you it has found new hardware, and, with any luck might clear your glitch when it reinstalls. S That is good advice and is worth a try. |
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#27
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CD drive repair
On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:26:46 +0100, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Cheers, but I'll go for the turbo nutter one :-) I'm assuming I take the back or side off and it just unbolts? Make sure you set the jumper the same on the new one. Usually it's Slave but depending on the machine's configuration it might be Master. Jumpers on the back edge, usually there's engraving on the top for MA, SL or CS. Just set the same as the old one. (if it's SATA, none of this is necessary) -- Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org *lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor |
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#28
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CD drive repair
On 22/08/2010 10:35, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi My PC CD drive has stopped working. The tray opens& closes OK, but according to My Computer there is nothing there. Tried various CD's with the same result& tried the apparently blank CD's in SWMBO's PC and all works fine. I'm assuming the drive is FUBER so is it just a case of buying a new CD drive& swapping it over - which I could prolly manage, or is it likely to be some confounded software glitch? Advice welcome at numpty level please :-) Angle grinder is on standby.... Did a liberal spray of WD 40 not sort it? Dave |
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#29
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CD drive repair
On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:59:20 +0100, John Rumm wrote:
If the existing drive is the only drive on the ribbon cable, There is some requirement for a single drive to be connected to a particular connector on the cable. I *think* you connect a drive configured as master to the connector closest to the motherboard as slave to the end and it doesn't matter with cable select, ish that is. If you have a hard drive and CD drive on one cable and both set to cable select, it considered better to ensure the CD is a slave so it should be on the end of the cable. -- Cheers Dave. |
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#30
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CD drive repair
On 23/08/2010 in message
o.uk Dave Liquorice wrote: On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:59:20 +0100, John Rumm wrote: If the existing drive is the only drive on the ribbon cable, There is some requirement for a single drive to be connected to a particular connector on the cable. I think you connect a drive configured as master to the connector closest to the motherboard as slave to the end and it doesn't matter with cable select, ish that is. If you have a hard drive and CD drive on one cable and both set to cable select, it considered better to ensure the CD is a slave so it should be on the end of the cable. A single drive should be connected to the furthermost connector from the mobo to avoid wave reflections, whatever they are. With 80 core connectors the master is furthest from the mobo connector and slave nearest. -- Jeff Gaines Dorset UK Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to get along without it. |
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#31
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CD drive repair
On 23 Aug 2010 11:30:17 GMT, Jeff Gaines wrote:
I think you connect a drive configured as master to the connector closest to the motherboard as slave to the end ... A single drive should be connected to the furthermost connector from the mobo to avoid wave reflections, whatever they are. That's what the engineer in me told me to do when I was shifting drives about but it didn't work or did but things had the wrong drive letters assigned by the BIOS. With 80 core connectors the master is furthest from the mobo connector and slave nearest. I was using 40 wire cable... that is different master is middle, sometimes, it's a bit of mine field TBH. Hopefully TMH's drives are SATA or using 80 core ribbon cable which makes life a lot simpler. -- Cheers Dave. |
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#32
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CD drive repair
The smaller partition is (from memory so almost certainly) Dell's
diagnostics. You can run these at bootup using F12. See eg Dell's guidance for the Dimension 5000 http://support.dell.com/support/syst...m/adtshoot.htm I agree the other partition will be for you to Restore the system to the way it shipped. Not a good idea unless you want to spend many a happy hour reinstalling software, service packs etc But worth keeping unless you are desperate for disk space. -- Robin PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com |
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#33
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
On 23 Aug, 13:24, "Robin" wrote:
The smaller partition is (from memory so almost certainly) Dell's diagnostics. *You can run these at bootup using F12. *See eg Dell's guidance for the Dimension 5000http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/document.aspx?c=us&l=en&s... I agree the other partition will be for you to Restore the system to the way it shipped. *Not a good idea unless you want to spend many a happy hour reinstalling software, service packs etc *But worth keeping unless you are desperate for disk space. -- Robin PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com Many thanks, Robin. I take it then that this suggestion from 'a friend' is incorrect "All NTFS formatted drives still require to have a FAT 16/32 partition (or 2) to facilitate boot-up. Bios's can't read NTFS because it is requires the OS (Windows or otherwise) to be loaded first. " ?? Rob |
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#34
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
Many thanks, Robin. I take it then that this suggestion from 'a friend' is incorrect "All NTFS formatted drives still require to have a FAT 16/32 partition (or 2) to facilitate boot-up. Bios's can't read NTFS because it is requires the OS (Windows or otherwise) to be loaded first. " ?? Well this is coming from a FAT-free Windows XP machine. (I'd never focused before on how healthy it is.) And I am in the process of trying to rescue data from a friend's disk which ran Vista and was also FAT-free. I think there may be some confusion with the Master Boor Record (MBR) on the hard disk which is read when booting up. The MBR ain't a partition though; is much smaller; and won't show up in My Computer. (For more details please Google or ask someone who knows more than me- there are several here.) No matter how good a friend s/he is, perhaps *not* someone to let free to (try to) fix your PC  -- Robin PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com |
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#35
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:39:16 -0700, robgraham wrote:
On 23 Aug, 13:24, "Robin" wrote: The smaller partition is (from memory so almost certainly) Dell's diagnostics. Â*You can run these at bootup using F12. Â*See eg Dell's guidance for the Dimension 5000http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/document.aspx? c=us&l=en&s... I agree the other partition will be for you to Restore the system to the way it shipped. Â*Not a good idea unless you want to spend many a happy hour reinstalling software, service packs etc Â*But worth keeping unless you are desperate for disk space. -- Robin PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com Many thanks, Robin. I take it then that this suggestion from 'a friend' is incorrect "All NTFS formatted drives still require to have a FAT 16/32 partition (or 2) to facilitate boot-up. Bios's can't read NTFS because it is requires the OS (Windows or otherwise) to be loaded first. " ?? That seems incorrect to me... From memory (mine, not the computer's!), the BIOS loads* the first 512 bytes from the start of the hard disk into the machine's memory and excutes the code that it finds there; it knows nothing of what the filesystem format is. The code that it loads and executes is responsible for booting the actual OS (and loading whatever drivers to access the rest of the disk are necessary, whether it be FAT or NTFS or any of the other hundreds of filesystem formats that have existed over the years) * broadly-speaking; it's a little bit more complex than that, because the code to access the boot device isn't necessarily part of the motherboard's BIOS itself (and may live on a SCSI controller, network board etc.) cheers Jules |
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#36
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
robgraham wrote:
On 23 Aug, 13:24, "Robin" wrote: The smaller partition is (from memory so almost certainly) Dell's diagnostics. You can run these at bootup using F12. See eg Dell's guidance for the Dimension 5000http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/document.aspx?c=us&l=en&s... I agree the other partition will be for you to Restore the system to the way it shipped. Not a good idea unless you want to spend many a happy hour reinstalling software, service packs etc But worth keeping unless you are desperate for disk space. -- Robin PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com Many thanks, Robin. I take it then that this suggestion from 'a friend' is incorrect "All NTFS formatted drives still require to have a FAT 16/32 partition (or 2) to facilitate boot-up. Bios's can't read NTFS because it is requires the OS (Windows or otherwise) to be loaded first. " ?? Rob Yes Rob, that is all rather incorrect I'm afraid. |
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#37
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
"robgraham" wrote in message ... On 23 Aug, 13:24, "Robin" wrote: The smaller partition is (from memory so almost certainly) Dell's diagnostics. You can run these at bootup using F12. See eg Dell's guidance for the Dimension 5000http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/document.aspx?c=us&l=en&s... I agree the other partition will be for you to Restore the system to the way it shipped. Not a good idea unless you want to spend many a happy hour reinstalling software, service packs etc But worth keeping unless you are desperate for disk space. -- Robin PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com Many thanks, Robin. I take it then that this suggestion from 'a friend' is incorrect "All NTFS formatted drives still require to have a FAT 16/32 partition (or 2) to facilitate boot-up. Bios's can't read NTFS because it is requires the OS (Windows or otherwise) to be loaded first. " ?? Rob I hope all this technical digression hasn't put the OP off the simple task of unplugging one cd drive and plugging in another... However, this partition talk should include the point that should the reader wish to upgrade his *hard* drive to a larger capacity one, then the standard imaging tools like Acronis, if left in basic setting, create partitions on the new drive in proportion to those on the original, so your new diagnostics partition will end up much bigger than it was. As new drives tend to be vast compared with old ones, the extra space is still insignificant but you can make adjustments if you wish. The standard disc management console in XP does not have partition sizing functionality, but there is a very useful prog - Easeus - that you can download a free version of: http://www.partition-tool.com. It's a nice tool, and a shame one doesn't need to use it very often. Also there are various reserved areas that get enlarged as well: not a problem, but irritating to see when you are using a defrag programme. JKDefrag is a handy free defragmenter that can be run in various optimisation modes, to maximize the empty 'black' space on your drive. This may seem trivial with the size of drives now, but if you are doing things like editing videos that may come to hundreds of megs, things are quicker if this is available as big blocks rather than spread about all over the place. S |
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#38
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
John Rumm wrote:
On 23/08/2010 15:39, robgraham wrote: I take it then that this suggestion from 'a friend' is incorrect "All NTFS formatted drives still require to have a FAT 16/32 partition (or 2) to facilitate boot-up. Bios's can't read NTFS because it is requires the OS (Windows or otherwise) to be loaded first. " ?? That's out of date. You can have all NTFS if you like now. I don't think it ever was in date, even NT3.1 would boot from a single NTFS partition (or on an ALPHA that didn't have BIOS or run any O/S that used FAT16/32) |
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#39
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:54:56 +0100, John Rumm wrote:
Many thanks, Robin. I take it then that this suggestion from 'a friend' is incorrect "All NTFS formatted drives still require to have a FAT 16/32 partition (or 2) to facilitate boot-up. Bios's can't read NTFS because it is requires the OS (Windows or otherwise) to be loaded first. " ?? That's out of date. You can have all NTFS if you like now. I don't think it was ever true, though. If there was a restriction once, surely it was a Windows one, and nothing to do with the BIOS at all. |
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#40
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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CD drive repair
On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:51:42 +0100, John Rumm wrote:
On 23/08/2010 10:06, Dave Liquorice wrote: On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:59:20 +0100, John Rumm wrote: If the existing drive is the only drive on the ribbon cable, There is some requirement for a single drive to be connected to a particular connector on the cable. I *think* you connect a drive If you are using cable select, and have the right cable, the position dictates which is master (black connector) verses slave (grey) (blue to Mobo). However you can override that with the jumpers. If only using a single drive, then its better on the end connector to ensure the bus is terminated for the reasons you state. All he has to do is make sure the jumper is set the same on the new one as on the old one. And use the same plug on the cable. Job done. -- Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org *lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor |
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