Cd Drive Issues

I guess this may fall under either hardware or windows categories... I have little to no luck getting games to play on my computer. I can put the cd in and it might spin around a little, but then an error message comes up saying the program must close. Sometimes, if I try a few kazillion times, it will decide to work. This didn't happen when I was installing the game; the install began just fine. But in the middle of installation a message kept coming up saying a file couldn't be copied and I noticed I didn't hear the cd spinning, so I took it out and put it right back and the install continued fine. I ran the autoplay repair wizard and it found an error that it couldn't fix. I guess it is probably the hardware that has the problem then? Here is a log.

AutoFix [V5.2.3790.67]
Time [2007-03-22 08:59:51]
Microsoft Windows Version [5.1 (Service Pack 2) <2600>]

Test [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.] - Instance [N/A]:
Result [AutoStart Setting]: OK
Result [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.]: OK

Test [Policies] - Instance [E:\, Drive Type: 5]:
Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Present}
Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent}
Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Absent}
Result [Driver level policies]: OK {
HKLM\...\Services\cdrom!Autorun (Present) <Allows>
HKLM\...\Services\cdrom\Parameters!Autorun (Absent) <Allows>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysEnable (Absent) <Not set>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysDisable (Absent) <Not set> }

Test [Drive Notification] - Instance [E:\, Drive Type: 5]:
Result [Legacy Notification]: OK
Result [AutoPlay V2 Notification]: Problems {
Service (Silent)
Shell (Deaf) }
>> Repair << [Autoplay V2 Event]
Step: No steps to take.
Result: This AutoPlay setting cannot be fixed. Either the device is malfunctioning, or the wizard cannot determine the problem.

>> Required action: The wizard found problems but cannot fix them -> None

 

Have you tried another disk to rule out any drive problem? The other thing that I would do, if it were me, was to uninstall the game and then reinstall it.

 

Hello KzTd,

Another basic remedy to try:

Go into Device Manager and uninstall the ROM drive - then reboot, Windows will re detect the drive and reload the driver.

Regards - Charles

 

It is definitely not the game. It does this when I put in any cd, except for audio cds. Those play fine. I did the uninstall thing, and it worked- the game started. But the drive was making weird sounds the whole time, and the game was going really slow (and I have a good amount of memory so that never happens) and then after the game loaded, the computer just restarted. I think it was the same problem I had with installing the game- the drive just stopped working in the middle of the game.

 

I just found out that the game crashing after it started had nothing to do w/ the cd drive, I needed a patch. But it still stopped working in the middle of the install for no reason, and even though it worked that one time after I uninstalled the drive, the game still will not start. I also have two other games on here and it is the same story with them.

 

i've been looking at other posts about people with my brand and model cdrw/dvd drive, and it seems as if nobody has been able to find a fix... so i should probably buy a new one, correct?

 

That may be your only option. What brand and model of drive do you have now?

 

its a samsung cd-rw/dvd sm 352-f

 

I suggest checking the configuration. Look at the jumper configuration of the drive, try changing it as master/slave. Do you have any other drives on the same controller? Disconnect those or look at rearranging them. I have found strange problems from drive configuration.

Use Help and Support to check that the IDE controller is running in DMA mode, not PIO mode. Win XP will drop the controller's mode to PIO if there are a certain number of errors, but you will need to find out why the errors are occurring.

Update the motherboard/chipset drivers. I see new versions are being released lately.

Matt

 

There are no other drives, and that one is definitely set as master. I do not know anything about IDE controllers, but I went into device manager and there are two primary and two secondary. The first primary ide channel says 'dma if available' and the current transfer mode is 'not applicable'. on the second primary channel the current transfer mode is ultra dma mode 5. On the second two, one is 'not applicable' and the other is 'pio mode'. Sorry if it was useless to list all of this but I have no idea what any of it means. I bought another drive today, and I'm about to install it now so hopefully it doesn't have any problems.

 

That might be right. On the secondary controller on one of my older machines, the DVD drive (drive O...master) is listed as Auto Detection, DMA if available, Not applicable.
On my new computer I am using an 80 lead cable and the drive is listed as Auto Detection, DMA if available, DMA mode 4. (Another modern machine is using DMA mode 2 , but on a 40 lead cable. They all work fine though.)

It might be worth updating your chipset drivers anyway. Let us know if you need help finding them.

You say the drive is on a cable without any other drives attached. You could try setting the jumper to slave (SL) and even CS.

Matt

 

It was definitely just broken. The new one works great. I even had to uninstall and reinstall everything that I've put on the computer in the past couple of weeks because the drive would stop working in the middle of the install and ***** up the programs. Thanks for all of your help!

 

KzTd,

Great to hear and thanks for the update.

Mike