So my son says he played a music disc an hour ago, now it
doesn't work. I insert a disc, the green light flashes a
couple times, then goes dark. I don't hear it spinning. I
click the icon in my computer, it says "please insert a
disc". In device manager it says "this device is working
properly". One thing i did notice is it says "Location 0 (0)",
don't know if that means anything. Tried rebooting.
Where do I go from here?
(Lite-On LTN486S 48X Max, Dell Dimension 2350, Win XP
Home SP2.)

I would reinsert the disc son was listening to and them see if cd-rom works and then rebbot computer after closing all programs and windows then as it rebbots take disc out of cd-rom and see if that works to start. Also you should check it with another cd that is different from the one your son had in it and the one you have already tried just to check and see if it isn't a problem with the cd itself.

Actually, i did try the cd my son just played, and then a
factory music cd, then a data disc, all w/ the same prob...no
autolaunch, then my computer says, "please insert..." when i
rt. click open or explore or whatever.

It sounds like the drive just went south. The laser can burn out but the motor still turns. To verify it isn't just a Windows problem you could go into Device Manager and remove the drive in question from the listing there. Reboot and Windows should reinstall it. If Device Manager states the drive is working OK but it still is not reading disks then the laser is most likely burned out. Drives are cheap enough. If you are in the USA look at Newegg.com for a replacement. There are stwo main types of interfaces available IDE/ATA or SATA. Your drive is most likely IDE but you can verify that by running a utility call SIW. Get SIW from the link below. When replacing the drive take care to set the jumper on the back of the drive in the same setting as the old drive. Your can buy a DVDRW drive and it will handle CDs and DVDs. Both reading and writing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...

http://www.download3k.com/SIW/Downl...

...Reboot and Windows should reinstall it. If Device Manager
states the drive is working OK but it still is not reading
disks...
This is basically what is happening. WMP says "no disc in
drive..." when I try to play it. One thing that was al ittle weird
is that this a.m. it popped up the "what do you want to do,
etc." window when I put in a disc and I was able to view the
contents of the disc. So it's like it tries to work sporadically.
Is this another symptom of a comatose CD drive? What is
Location 0(0) all about in the device manager?

Something else came to mind, don't know if it's meaningful
at all...
The day the CD drive stopped working, I installed the usual
MS updates including the spyware removal tool and a Java
update. I've read on this forum that one should manually
remove older versions of Java by means of Add/Remove
Programs, which I did. I still have Java 6 Update 3.

If the drive reads sporatically it may be a software issue. Try performing a system restore to a time before the updates and see if that cures the problem. Start> help and support> system restore.

wiil do.

Done, but I must admit, no help to the CD-ROM drive. Still
says "no disc..." when I know there is. I guess I should
assume that it's dead? Anyone else wanna chime in before I
go get my screwdriver?

If the drive was working at the time of the restore you rolled back to then you can be pretty sure the drive is defective.

Thanks for the help. I'll uninstall it in device manager, then
remove/replace.

So here's where we're at: I uninstalled the dead drive,
cannibalized my old 98se box, put the salvaged cendyne
cdrw 48x16x48 where the dead one was, hooked it up to
the same ide cable (?) and power cable, jumped it same as
the dead one (cs position), seems to work okay, some
homemade cds skip, i'm listening to a factory cd now, no
skips yet... one thing, the old box used a audio cable
plugged in next to my sound card (?) but the newer box
(dell, dimension 2350) didn't have that for the dead cd
drive, just ide and power. don't know if that matters.
seems to work anyway. would a newer driver help the
skipping problem? i'm sure i'm using the stock xp driver
now (ver 5.1.2535.0, says ATAPI CD-RW 48X16). I
googled for one, all i can find is one for w98se, not for the
xp box i put it into. don't know if that matters. any other
ideas to get it humming nicely? i forgot to mention, the first time i put it in the xp box, the jumper was at it's old place (master). i just powered down pulled it, changed the jumper to where the dead one was set, put it back in, reboot, etc. should i have uninstalled it before resetting the jumper? or does it matter? i know jack about hardware!

No need to unistall the drive. If the jumper was wrong the drive wasn't configured anyway. The skipping you mentioned is only happening with some CDs? Look at the bitrate they were made in. I am guessing you are using integrated sound? I'm not sure about this but connecting the audio cable may help with the skipping.

I finally found a schematic of the mobo on the net for the
Dim. 2350 and identified where the cd audio cable plugs in, I
plugged in the cable, but the skipping remains. Haven't
done a lot of testing, but it seems factory cd's play well and
homemade cd's skip, probably the bitrate thing you
mentioned, dunno. I wouldn't mind finding something
besides the stock XP driver, just for giggles, but so far
haven't had much luck w/ that.

The IDE contoller driver should have nothing to do with the way music is played. Look at the sound card/chip drivers instead. Also look at shared IRQs. Integrated sound is subject to skipping if sharing resources with another high bandwidth device.

If the ONLY files that skip are homemade ones then maybe the file was created with the skip in it. Try the files on a different computer to see if the result is the same.

...Also look at shared IRQs...
I'm not sure if i know how to do this.
...Try the files on a different computer...
the same disc that skips on the Dim.2350 plays flawlessly
on my Mac Book Pro (iTunes) and as well on my truck's cd
player (notoriously skippy player otherwise!).
Just noticed in Device manager, props of cd drive, there's
a box checked saying "enable digital cd audio for this
device" and i plugged the audio cable into the analog port
on the drive, that's where it was on the old box. Also says
"you can have windows use digital instead of analog
playback... disable if you are having problems w/ audio
playback"

Well then try that. The analog is the audio cable you connected.

Well then try that. The analog is the audio cable you connected. Under device manager> Highlight computer> view> devices by connection> IRQ. List all devices using the same IRQ as the sound card/chip.

...Highlight computer> view> devices by connection>
IRQ...
view>resources by type>IRQ
PCI 17 is shared by Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated
Controller AND
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200 AND
SondMax Integrated Digital Audio.
I read a website that says a network card doesn't like to
share resources...but then another where Msoft says it
shouldn't matter. Just got off the phone w/ Dell, they say,
not a soundcard issue (and it looks like i have the latest
driver anyway), possibly a cd drive driver issue (i'll keep
looking for one)
Would it make sense to plug the cable into the DIGITAL
"port" on the CD drive?

You could try this. Boot into the BIOS and disable all integrated hardware you don't use. Parallel ports and/or Serial ports. See if there is an option to assign IRQ for video. If so, enable. Then look for a setting called reset configuration data. Enable for one boot cycle and then disable. This may reallocate the IRQ assignments.

You could try this. Boot into the BIOS and disable all integrated hardware you don't use. Parallel ports and/or Serial ports. See if there is an option to assign IRQ for video. If so, enable. Enable ACPI if not already. Then look for a setting called reset configuration data. Enable for one boot cycle and then disable. This may reallocate the IRQ assignments.

see what i can do...

hi guys i just recently aquired an old gateway pentium 2 windows 98 and the cd rom won't work i see it on the device manager but when i put a cd in it it says drive not ready the computer only has one cd rom drive so i can't load anything with a cd i read about the 4 in 1 package will it help me and is it possible to to put it on a floppy disc as i can only use that drive

Thank you for your help

lauro

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