CD Drive Problems

[Will]

Well, my cd-rom was a cheap piece of crap, but it used to work. It's not been auto-playing for a while, but that never really bothered me, in fact, it was a good thing.
Unfortunatly, last night I noticed it has got worse. I can install games, but it wouldn't read cd's to play games. I'm running under win98, and I re-installed my drivers, even rebooted, and still nothing.

Any ideas, apart from buy a new drive?

 

[WPKenny]

Tried cleaning the lens with one of them lens cleaning CD thingumybobs?

Short of that, unless you're a qualified CD-rom drive engineers there's not a lot you can do.

 

[Testin da Cable]

aye, as Kenny says...clean the thing you dirty bugger
btw, I have a 32xPlextor scsi cdromdrive free atm mate. you wanna deal?

 

[Will]

I notice the word "SCSI" in your cd-rom. That'd cost more than buying another cheap-piece-of-crap drive. I'll consider it.

And the lens thing, you think that would affect it only when trying to run games? Remember the install works ok.

/me scratches his head

 

[Xavier]

hmm, have you changed anything in your system recently??

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by ItchyTrigaFinga
I notice the word "SCSI" in your cd-rom. That'd cost more than buying another cheap-piece-of-crap drive. I'll consider it.

And the lens thing, you think that would affect it only when trying to run games? Remember the install works ok.

/me scratches his head

I'm willing to swap it for a GF3

 

[Will]

Heh, throw in a scsi card, and I'll swap for a 56k modem and a 486.

 

[Testin da Cable]

I could actually throw in an adaptec2940. no cable tho

 

[Will]

Scsi card and cd rom for an old 486 and a hardware modem? I'll buy my own cable

 

[Testin da Cable]

I have no idea what to ask for it you know.
how's €150 sound?

 

[Will]

Confusing and rather scarey...I better look for a conversion rate.

 

[Testin da Cable]

hehe ditto
pm me if you think it'll work out mate

 

[Will]

http://home.planet.nl/~mun/vme/eurocalc/eurocalc-uk.htm

 

[Xavier]

would a new one cost that?

a scsi cdrom won't be much use on it's own, you can get a cdrw drive for £50 nowadays - would probably be better to stick with IDE

 

[Will]

Aye, except I'm upgrading soon, so might be adding a few more scsi devices. I know what you are saying though, I'll look into my options carefully.

 

[Xavier]

eurgh :s scsi uke: heh

 

[Will]

Go on, try for a reasoned and rational argument, SCSI vs IDE.

 

[FuZor]

Originally posted by ItchyTrigaFinga
Go on, try for a reasoned and rational argument, SCSI vs IDE.

SCSI = Fast & Expensive & Old stlya for PC's Sparcs use 'm though

IDE = Cheaper & Slower & Every M/B got a couple of IDE ports

 

[MYstIC G]

if you've got EIDE ya might as well stick to it imho

 

[Testin da Cable]

true dat, but if you're thinking of getting a scsi cdrw to go with it and perhaps mebbeh a scsi tapeunit too [all on the cheap]
price I quoted Itchy was a bit steep tho and he knows, as I will tell him

 

[Will]

Getting all confused with your new-fangled € are you?

 

[Xavier]

Originally posted by testin_da_cable
true dat, but if you're thinking of getting a scsi cdrw to go with it and perhaps mebbeh a scsi tapeunit too [all on the cheap]
price I quoted Itchy was a bit steep tho and he knows, as I will tell him

hmm, our plexy 12x scsi cdrw coasters at 12x every time - and it's the only scsi device attached... have to run at 8x for reliable burns


the ide plexy 12x burns at 12x every time and hasn't coastered yet...

(oh, and the SCSI cdrw has been replaced once - yes I did consider that!)

 

[Summo]

Just getting back to the first post for a second...

It could be a problem with the SafeDisc copy protection on CDs. I've heard of this before. CDs install okay but when you run the game, SafeDisc tries to verify the encrypted signature on the CD and hangs.

Does this happen on recordable CDs as well or just official and cloned CDs?

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by Xavier

hmm, our plexy 12x scsi cdrw coasters at 12x every time - and it's the only scsi device attached... have to run at 8x for reliable burns

woo strange that Xav mate. i've got the 8x plextor scsi burner myself, and it's never failed me. ah well.

 

[Will]

Originally posted by SomeGuy
Does this happen on recordable CDs as well or just official and cloned CDs?

Don't have any problems with recorded CDs, only games which need to be in the drive to run the games. Doesn't hang though, just fails to recognise the CD.

 

[Summo]

Yeah, sounds just like this SafeDisc problem to me (though a new CD-ROM is bound to cure it). I'll hunt around the webbeh to see what I can find.