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General discussion

CD ROM, DVD ROM problems.

Sep 24, 2004 7:38AM PDT

Sorry if this is a duplicate post, but this problem really has me frustrated. First, let me give you some system specs.
Liteon CD-ROM LTN244
Creative DVD-ROM DVD2240E
Microsoft Windows XP, Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack 1
Intel Pentium III, 1.01 GHz, 512 MB of Ram

Now the problem.
I recieved this computer from a friend, with one Hard drive and one DVD drive. I installed a second formatted hard drive and a second CD ROM. The hard drive worked fine, but the cdroms didn't work together.
When the eject button is hit on either drive, only one drive (the DVD) would open. I just disabled the CD rom and used the computer anyway.
Then I noticed that every once in awhile the DVD rom would not autorun a disk. When I would go to open the drive in "My Computer" the drive would have dissappeared, as if it wasn't installed. The only fix for this is to reboot.
The same is true when the cd rom is running and the DVD is disabled.
Now, both drives are active. Both can be accessed. But neither drive, under any configuration that I have used, will "see" a disk. The CD rom will very seldom recognize an audio CD. The DVD will not run at all.
I have checked cables, master/slave settings, and other such problems I know of. But Nothing seems to fix it. I have used CD/DVD/CDROM cleaners, and nothing works. Could someone give a little help if they have some time.

Discussion is locked

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Re: CD ROM, DVD ROM problems.
Sep 26, 2004 1:02AM PDT

Some CD ROM drives/DVD ROM drives and writers don't play well together. My suggestion is to make one the Master and thee other the slave. If this doesn't work make the other the master and the one that was master the slave. Usually one has a problem with being the slave. Also make sure you have the latest drivers installed for both drives.

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Have you checked the BIOS?
Sep 26, 2004 3:12PM PDT

If so, what are the drives set at? I'd suggest "auto" for all drives. Do you have up to date 4 in 1 drivers (if applicable)? This may affect the IDE controllers.

Double-check the master/slave jumpers. I've forgotten, out of frustration, to re-jumper the caps properly when trouble-shooting situations such as yours.

Do you happen to have any programs that create a "virtual drive"? This happened to just this evening. I ran into a problem somewhat similiar to yours. The only constant was that the virual drive would appear in my computer, so I uninstalled the program (Alcohol 120%). My drives came back to life.

Lastly, make sure the jumper caps are *firmly* in place. Good luck.

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Re: CD ROM, DVD ROM problems.
Sep 27, 2004 4:29AM PDT

I will presume that you set the hardwares (HDD/CDROM/DVD) to the correct master/slave settings. It seems that the problem is intermittent, how old are your CDROM and DVD ROM? I can see a defective hardware problem. Try testing your drives (CDROM and DVDROM) with other computers.