Compaq 1625 won't recognize D drive

I'm trying to help my step-son who is out of state and starting college in a couple of weeks. He called last evening to tell me his Compaq 1625 suddenly quit recognizing the "d:" drive. When you insert any CD, he gets the error "drive not ready ".

The operating system is Windows 95 and I did a complete format and reinstall about 3 months ago due to an unrelated problem and it has been working fine ever since.

I'm hoping this will be a relatively simple problem to repair. My first thought was to pop in the 'restore' CD but the problem with the drive would prevent that.

I'll be happy to get specifics on the 1625 (processor, etc.) if anyone replying to this needs it.

Thanks for your help!

Mark

 

First thing I would try is opening the case and reseating the cables.
After that I would go to Device Manager and remove the drivers.

A check for if it is the PC or Windows is to boot with a startup disk and see if files can be read on it. (Edit: just remembered 95 startup disks don't have CD drivers. You'll need a Win98 startup disk.)

Maybe worth a try to disconnect the cables, boot the machine, shutdown and reconnect the cables.


Matt

 

CORRECTION

Ok, I finally got my hands on this laptop. I was INCORRECT when I originally stated that it was a Windows 95 system as it is actually running Windows 98.

With that said, I've opened the thing up, reinserted the cables. When you place a CD such as my original Win98 installation disc in, the yellow light on the CD door flashes about 10 times but nothing ever happens. I can go to Control Panel and click "D" drive but it reads "D:\ not accessible ". I've gone to Start>Find and tried reading from a data disc but nothing appears.

I've also gone to System>Device Driver and removed the driver and let it reinstall on startup.

I read a related post and there was a recommendation to insert the Win 98 Startup disc, choose "Start computer with CD Rom Support" and try running setup from d:\. I tried this and it ultimately reads "The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive D" Below that it reads exactly as follows:

MSCDEX Version 2.25
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1986-1995. All rights reserved.
Drive E: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0

At the "A:\" prompt, I typed "d:" and I get "D:\ "
I inserted the original Win98 disc and typed "setup ".
It reads "CDR101: Not ready ready drive E
Abort, Retry, Fail? "

After aborting, I typed "e:" and I get "E:\ "
Typed "setup" and get the same error as above.

As always, any input would be greatly appreciated!

Mark

 

Sorry to say it sounds like a hardware fault to me.

Have you tried a cd cleaning disc in it as the lens may have something on it preventing the drive from reading the disc that is inserted in it.

Do you have any exclamation marks in device manager? If you do then delete that entry and restart the laptop to see if anything is recognised.

The other thing is he may have a virus on it, do a check if you can.

Hope this helps

Regards

tel33