A friend of mine recently dug up an old Windows 2000 computer and wants her kids to use it. When she puts a cd into the tray it tells her that the CD Drive is not ready. What could cause this? I made sure she is not trying to put a dvd in the tray. She said she tried a regular music cd. Now I haven't been able to look at the computer myself yet. I will tomorrow but I thought if someone could give me some suggestions I could try some things when I get there. I do have some old Windows 98 and Win. 2000 computer games that I will try. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

Start with the device manager.

Did she try more than one CD? Life's more painless for the brainless.

Yes she did tell me that she tried more than one cd. But I'll see what the device manager tells me. Thanks for repling!

I've looked at it and the device manager says the device is working properly. I tried the floppy drive and when I put something in the floppy drive to open it says that the Floppy Drive A: has not been formatted yet. Do I wish to format now? I wasn't sure what options should be chosen or anything for that so I didn't go through with it but what does this mean? Does that mean that the computer was not set up properly? It seems like it might've been home built. Nothing on the tower tells me what brand computer it is. Any other suggestions? Perhaps wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Windows is in order?

I wouldn't reinstall for that. Where are you going to get the drivers? You said you didn't even know the name of the machine. Put the floppy in again and let it format. See what happens. Try the CDROM in another machine or another CDROM in that machine. That's how you test it.

"When she puts a cd into the tray it tells her that the CD Drive is not ready. What could cause this?" 1. If it has been used a lot, the drive may not be spinning at all, or not be spinning fast enough for even 1X speed (regular audio CD speed), because it's motor bearings are worn to the point they produce too much friction. This is the most common reason CD or DVD drives eventually fail to work properly. With either situation Windows will not see a CD in the drive even if Device Manager says the drive is working properly. No spin is easy to test for. With the computer running, place a CD in the tray, note it's position. Retract the tray, let the CD try to spin - the led on it's front should come on - when the led goes out, eject the tray. If it's in the same position the motor is not spinning. Another clue is you won't hear the drive spinning. 2. - or it's data cable is damaged. Device Manager may say the drive is working properly, but Windows may not be able to see the CD. The following applies to floppy data cables too. It is common to un-intentionally damage IDE data cables, especially while removing them - the 80 wire ones are more fragile. What usually happens is the cable is ripped at either edge and the wires there are either damaged or severed, often right at a connector or under it's cable clamp there, where it's hard to see - if a wire is severed but it's ends are touching, the connection is intermittant. Another common thing is for the data cable to be separated from the connector contacts a bit after you have removed a cable - there should be no gap between the data cable and the connector - if there is press the cable against the connector to eliminate the gap. 80 wire data cables are also easily damaged at either edge if the cable is sharply creased at a fold in the cable. Try another data cable if in doubt. 3. - or the CD drive is otherwise damaged. If the led on the front of the drive does NOT come on when a CD is inserted, or if it does come on but stays on for quite a while instead of briefly, or it does come on but goes on and off for a while, the drive is damaged. Try another CD drive if in doubt. .... "I tried the floppy drive and when I put something in the floppy drive to open it says that the Floppy Drive A: has not been formatted yet." Try another floppy disk. Defective floppy disks are common. If that doesn't help.... Could be a damaged cable or a poor connection - see 2. Or - the floppy drive could be damaged. If it's led doesn't come on when you insert a floppy disk, it's dead, but if it does, that doesn't necessarily mean it's okay. Try another floppy drive if in doubt. ..... I've seen cases where a mounting screw for a floppy drive inside the case was installed in the wrong place, and that eventualy damaged it's circuit board. That could happen for a CD drive too. I've seen cases where both the floppy drive and CD drive circuit boards were damaged by a faulty power supply. E.g. both use 5 volts, so if what is supposed to be 5v goes way too high the circuit board will eventually fry. Or, if what is supposed to be 5v gets too low, the drive won't work properly. Usually the drive's led still works, but Windows will not find a disk, or the drive will not work properly otherwise. USB uses only 5 volts. If what is supposed to be 5v is too much out of whack, your USB devices won't work, or won't work properly. Failing power supplies are common and can cause your symptoms. Check your PS. See response 4 in this: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... To find the current voltages mentioned in that.... If the system is generic, or maybe if it's a brand name system, you will see a prompt while booting to press a specific key such as Del or F1 or F2 to enter Setup, or to enter the Bios, or similar - press that specified key while the prompt is still on the screen, preferably when it first appears, and in the bios Setup somewhere you will find the current voltages, such as under the heading Hardware Monitor. ...... Re-loading Windows will probably NOT cure either of these problems. You don't even need a hard drive to test whether they work properly - the bios Setup boot order can be set to boot from a bootable CD and is often set that way by default, and a bootable floppy disk should work fine to boot the computer, if a floppy drive is first in the boot order in the bios Setup.