cd-rom and cdrw problems

[letaylom]

I have a plextor cd-writer and a crappy cd-rom drive. The cd-rom is slave to the cd-rw running of the second eide slot on my board. I have been able to use both the drives, sometimes at the same time, for what they are supposed to be used for.

However, things are now, at irregular intervals, starting to play up. For example - I am running win2k professional - when I play red alert2, I cannot start the game, from the shortcut on my desktop, unless the game cd is in the plextor drive. After the game begins to load I get a prompt asking me to insert the cd-rom into the drive. I then have to take the game cd-rom out of the plextor frive and put it into the cd-rom drive, the game then continues to load and I can play it okay (if a little slow?!).

Also, occasionally I cannot read cd's from the drives!

Anyone with any ideas on these strange happenings? And anyone with possible solutions?

Thanks guys

T

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Epox7kxa;
Athlon 650;
320mb pc100 ram;
Vodoo3000 agp video;
SBLive sound;
HP 56k v90 USB External;
20gb hdd;
52x cd-rom;
Plextor eide cdrw.

[VinceF]

I have to ask the basic question of whether you installed any of these games before you installed the Plextor? I know it is simple, but having the drive letters move up one is something people can miss.

Also, it would be helpful if you let us know if the problems started after the Plextor install, or if you've had both the drives for awhile and this is a very recent problem.

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Contributing Editor
HardwareCentral

[letaylom]

Good points.

The drives have been working okay for a while, I recently clean installed windows 2000, and ever since I have done that things are irregularly going astray. The game was installed after the drives were.

I suppose it could be Gremlins!

No, kidding, I think I may slave my cd-rom drive to the hard drive instead.

Any comments on doing that?

T

[VinceF]

Even though I assume you have done it already, I would recommend deleting the hardware device for the Secondary IDE control and letting Win 2K reinitialize it. Leave the Primary alone, as I assume it works correctly.

I would also make 100% sure that any busmaster drivers that you had loaded previously have been reinstalled.

Whenever I perform a fresh reinstall, there are always a few things that I miss (patches, updated drivers, etc.) that I have to work through to get compatibility and performance back up to spec.

If that's the point where things went haywire, then I would put some real time into checking out that aspect of the problem, rather than concentrating on the hardware side.

At least for the moment.


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Contributing Editor
HardwareCentral

[letaylom]

I will try your suggestions in the order they appear.

I am, however, a little unsure of what 'busmaster drivers' are. Do you just mean the drivers for the devices? If not can you please explain this point a little further?

Many thanks

T

Oh, by the way, welcome to the boards. If this is the how you will continue then you are a very positive addition already.

[VinceF]

By busmaster drivers, I am just referring to the specific IDE drivers for your motherboard chipsets (Intel, VIA, AMD) as opposed to the default drivers that Windows loads.


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Contributing Editor
HardwareCentral

[VinceF]

Oh, by the way, welcome to the boards. If this is the how you will continue then you are a very positive addition already.[/B]

Hey, thanks a lot for the welcome, and I must have missed replying in my last message!



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Contributing Editor
HardwareCentral