Perplexing CDRW problem

I am new to this BBS and a beginner at PCing (but learning fast). I have a Yamaha CRW3200EZ CD-RW Recorder (bad choice as their website and customer support is useless).

1. My PC has an AMD 900MHz CPU
2. I am using Windows 200 Professional SP4
3. I run Norton Antivirus and Firewall
4. CDRW uses Nero and InCD
5. CDRW is master on Secondary IDE
6. Updated firmware for CDRW about 4 months ago (got it from yamaha website...their website does not have drivers).

About 4 months ago I recorded my first Rewrittable Disc and immediately afterwards had a problem where the CDRW would still burn audio and data CDs, would read a music CD (even a copied one), but would not read a data CD (i.e. a store bought game CD). I tried many different things to fix it and was finally able to fix it (although I pressed so many different buttons that I don't know what the solution was.

About a month or so later the same thing happened (after using the rewrittable CD. This time it was repaired by downloading Windows 2K SP4.

It is now happening again and I cannot fix it. It records both Data and music, reads music CDs, but will not read a data CD. Here is what I have tried. Now my Floppy Drive does not work either.

1. Went into Device manager. Message said everything working OK. Updated drivers from Windows Update (reinstalled drivers)and rebooted (can not reinstall original drivers as they are on CD).

2. Used Device mangaer to delete both devices (CDRW and Floppy) and rebooted. Windows found the "new" devices and reinstalled them.

3. Opened the PC case, changed to new ribbon cable, reseated all cables/cards. Still not working.

4. Downloaded and ran AIDA 32 and everything looked OK til I viewed the Events Log. Under "atapi" it said "\Device\IDE\IDEPort0 has old or out of date firmware ". (I updated the firmware a few months back).

Events Log also indicated "\Device\CdRom driver detected a controller error.

Have a coworker who knows alot more than me about PCs. His guess from the start was a bad controller. He says that other things will start behaving badly soon. He said I will need a new motherboard but, with the costs of PCs decreasing that I would be better off buying a new PC.

I have been considering buying an external CDRW (connects to USB) to bypass the controller. Is this a solution (long term or short-term)? Also, if I get the external I will be able to reload original drivers. I am wondering if I buy the external and then reformat the H/D and start over from scratch that this may help.

If I din't do something about the controller, will other things start going wrong? Any solutions? Should I start shopping for a new PC?

Sorry for the length of this and thanx in advance for any help you may have.

 

Take a look at previous post by Spankydata:

"Primary IDE failure "

Good Luck

 

Thanx for the speedy reply

Thanx for the suggestion, but it did not work.

I went into device manager, found secondary IDE controller, uninstalled it and rebooted. Windows found and reinstalled it, but am still having same problem.

For both CDRW Floppy the message reads "D (A for Floppy):\is not accessible. Incorrect function ".

Thanx for the suggestion.

 

Hi M

CDRW's sometimes pefer being set as slave (even without a master), so try it as slave on IDE 2. You may want to try Cable Select, but anything else on the cable will also need to be set to CS.

You mention several problems, but if reading data is still the only one then you may consider just getting a CDrom or DVDrom to read CD's (they are getting very cheap).

If you are still pretty certain that the controller is the problem, I would look into getting an IDE Controller card. This will give you the option of using a new huge-space/high-speed hard drive if you want to and may cost less than the extra you would spend on the external CDRW (which would probably be slower than an internal).

Matt

 

Some BIOS upgrades (flash programs) have fixes for IDE controllers.
If you find out what motherboard model you have then you could check the upgrade revisions for your BIOS (each revision does certain fixes).
A flash has to be done carefully (you will find this out). I did my first with the help of a knowledgable friend. You must be certain that it is the correct one for your motherboard.

Maybe something to investigate.

Matt

 

Try one thing as a last resort since I had the same issue with Windows 2000.

Insert a Data CD in the drive and re-boot. Now see if it can be read. That is the only way I could use any of my Data CDs and never did find a solution.

A clean install of Windows XP and the problem is gone. May or may not work in your case but worth a try.

 

Thanx to all for your suggestions.

Tried all of your suggestions (except flashing the BIOS, which I know nothing about) and none of them worked for me.

Think that I will be getting a new PC soon. Mine is too old and slow to invest the $$ in a new motherboard, CPU, etc.

Dude....I am getting a Dell!!

momboman