CD Writer

I have a Celeron running win98 2nd and in the external bays I have installed a "Creative" CD Rom and a "Waitec" CD Writer. These used to work to perfection since the last time I used them. Yesterday I tried to burn a CD using the "Prassi Primo" application and every time I insert either a new blank CD or a CD RW to erase data from it, the CD RW Drive "Disc In" LED Switch starts blinking, and the drive making some noise (spinning i guess) and then after some time I get the message that the drive is not ready. Eventually, the RW CD with data worked fine in the other CD Rom (opening data correctly). I tried to go to My Computer and double click on the E: (the letter associated with the CD Writer drive) and I get the following message: "The device is not ready" "retry" or "Cancel ".

I went in the Device Manager and when I located the CD RW it appeared as "The Device is working properly ".

Then i clicked on the "remove" in the device manger and after I ran the Add hardware wizard to install it again. The PC restarted several times during this process and also prompted me to insert the Win 98 SE (which I browsed to the Win 98 folder in my hard disk).

However, the problem remained the same.

Note, that I haven't added any new software/hardware lately.

Any ideas pls ?

 

Are you trying to install specific drivers for these components?

Most of the time it is not necessary to install specific drivers for a CD ROM, or CD\RW.

I am running 98SE, and I just allowed Windows to recognize the equipment.

Go back into device manager, highlight & remove the two drives, then allow windows to recognize them, & install generic drivers. See if that works.

Post back with results. Good or bad.

 

OOPS! forgot! Your CD\RW needs to be set to master, & the CD ROM set to slave, when both drives are on the same cable. If this is not the case, fix that first.

 

I had already tried what you suggested but without success. Actually, i am suspecting either a fault or a dirty head of the CD RW.

However, my problem now is that, I am trying to use a CD Cleaner. This worked fine with the CD ROM, but since the CD Writer is not reading any discs, I am unable to clean it with this CD Cleaner (it is unable to load the program on the CD Cleaner).

Any other suggestions pls?

 

OK.

What have you got to lose? If it were me I'd take that CD writer out, & gently take it apart, & find it's little eyeball, & very gingerly clean it. Guess I'm a little on the adventerous side.

If that don't work, then it's probably off to the store for another one, unless someone else has an idea.

I am sorry I haven't been more help.