CD/DVD Drives not reading cd's

I have 2 drives on my pc. 1 of the drives was damaged, but the DVD burner worked fine. A few month ago I started to get a message when I insert a cd on the burner which said that I inserted blank media. Since the drives were a bit old I decided to replace them both with new ones. I installed them but I keep getting the same message when I insert a cd in either one of the drives. Have no idea of how to fix this problem and I really want to avoid formatting the hard drive if possible. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi,
To me it would seem to be a problem with the IDE controllers.

If you are not sure that a good set of motherboard/chipset drivers are installed, you should go to the motherboard manufacturer's website and get the latest chipset drivers.

Try this, go to Device Manager, open Hard Drive Controllers, highlight and "remove" the entries. They will be automatically reinstalled when you reboot.

If this works, see if there are updated motherboard/chipset drivers for it. If you don't know the make of the motherboard, download and run Everest (in my signature).

If that does not work, go to Device Manager and remove the drives under CDroms.
Shutdown, open the case and disconnect the ribbon cables and the power cables from the optical drives. (if you can, check the jumper settings of the drives while you are there).
Restart and go to the Windows desktop.
Shutdown and reconnect the drive cables.

After that I might think it was due to the burning program/s.

Anyway, let us know how those go and also what the jumper settings (drive configuration) are, example: CD burner as slave on the primary IDE, CDrom set as CS on the secondary IDE.

Matt

 

I uninstalled the IDE controllers in the device manager, uninstalled all burning software and uninstall the drives in the device manager (not all at the same time). I no longer get the blank cd window. But now it looks like it's trying to read the disc inside the drive, but it takes forever to do it and the pc slows down real bad. BTW I have to hard drives and both cd/dvd drives are set to slave.

 

Did you have Nero installed? If you did, do a web search for "Nero uninstaller ". Nero does not uninstall correctly.

After that I would look at changing the configuration of the drives to HDDs as master/slave on the primary IDE and try the optical drives on the secondary IDE cable, each one as master the other as slave.

Make sure the connections are well seated.

Matt

 

I had installed Roxio Easy Cd & DVD creator and Alcohol 120%. Another thing I left to say on my first post is that I had this problem with my old mother board and I update it about 3 weeks ago and still have the same problem. Don't know if this info will help.

 

Javish, have you had any success?

I was going to yell, but...It was quite important that you try the tests in sequence...
"Try this... "
"If this works... "
"If that does not work... "
"After that... "

You have changed motherboard and I would say that you have changed the harddrive over, but not reinstalled Windows. That would now lead me to suspect that the ASPI layer drivers have been corrupted.

To reset the ASPI layer drivers, the method is this:

If that does not work, you may need to reinstall Windows over itself. Boot to the Windows floppy or CD and run setup and install to the C:\Windows folder.
This may also reset other drivers from your new motherboard. Run the motherboard's chipset/driver disk after you have reinstalled Windows.

If that does not work, you will most likely have to format and install Windows again.

Matt

 

I tried the steps you told me and after I disconnect the power cable and the ribbon cables and went back to the desk top I still have a cd/dvd drive in there. Device manager says I have a "AXV CD/DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device ". When I uninstall them there were 3 drives there and I only got one. It also was there with the old motherboard. Don't know if that has to do anything with the problem I have. Going to restart now and plug the cable back. I let you know how it goes.

 

still does the same. I don't get the blank media window but it takes forever to read it. You can see the light flashing on the drive like it's trying to read it, but nothing happens and the system is slow down until I eject the cd.

Let me know what you think about the 3rd cd/dvd drive that device magager says I have. I really don't want to format my hard drive unless it's the only choice I have.

 

AXV CD/DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device is a "Virtual" drive installed by Alcohol 120%. If you need / want to remove this drive, it should be remove via Alcohol 120%.

 

I have not tried Alcohol 120%.
Look in Add/Remove programs, I have found virtual drives (programs) there.

You will need to remove (including the virtual drives...SCSI run on ASPI layer drivers) and disconnect all the drives that run on the ASPI layer drivers (the optical drives) and then boot to the Windows desktop before the drivers will be "reset ".

Matt

 

Dennis
This virtual drive was left there cause I uninstall Alcohol 120% a few weeks ago. So I search for removal on the net and I already removed them.

Mattman
I'm gonna try that when I get home. I'll let you know how it went.

 

Try downloading the forceASPI drivers. Also under the hardware manager check and see if the drives are in DMA mode and not PIO mode. I had a similar problem, I found my burners where in PIO mode. I changed them to DMA and magically they worked.