Computer Issues Question: RE CD-ROMs
 

Okay all of a sudden today I am having trouble loading anything in my CD and DVD Roms...All 3.

First attempt may work, but 2nd won't or any there after.

Since it's something that's going on with all 3, I'm thinking it's pretty safe to assume it's the mother board...am I off?

Should I be looking at some other issues?

I should add these symptoms.

If I have a program that needs the cd to run and I click on the program it works fine...the CD runs...however I can't add a new program if it has multiple CD's sometimes the CD will load up to install, other times it doesn't.


But if I load up a CD full of content I"ll get a prompt to choose a program, and if I choose ACDSee I can see the content...but if I don't choose anything and I try and browse the CD I don't see anything.

weird.

Those CD are taking 3 ide. Your hard drive is master on the first ???

You could always try a PCI ide card. I used one when I had all my drives in the computer. Now they are in USB cases...

Could be a lot of things. Try removing the devices from the hardware manager and letting XP reinstall them.

Try moving the Cd-ROM onto its own IDE channel.

Buy a new CD-ROM drive. Hella cheap now.

The problem is it's not ONE but all 3...so something tells me there could be an issue...and I'm running 2 120 gig hd's in a raid setup.

Is one IDE cable connecting all three of the drives?

Unless I'm mistaken, IDE can only support two devices per channel so I'm guessing the answer is "no".

If running EIDE it can run four device of controller chip...Though two cables....

No idea if he's running EIDE. Hasn't said so, so I'm gonna assume it's regular ol' crappy IDE.

No..it's 2 CD Roms on one, a DVD Rom on another and it's IDE.

I've taken that other system somewhat apart and put it back and I'm making a few tests..one CD Rom seems to be okay, the other still giving me issues.

I still have the DVD Rom disconnected so I don't know if that's going to give me issues yet.

Yeah try them out one by one and see if that gives you any problems. Then start adding them to the chain, testing as you go.

If not, it could be the northbridge chip on your board flaking out (if you're running a p4 of course).

Well the CD-Rom 1 that in the initial tests wasn't giving me any problems is back to giving me problems.

Try re-installing the drivers for them if that doesn't work I would think that it's the motherboard...

One last question and I appreciate everyone's help.

If reinstalling the drivers etc doesn't work..and it ends up being a MOBO issue and I get a new MOBO do I have to do I have to reinstall everything...mainly XP?

You shouldn't have to...You may have to reinstall motherboard spefic things but XP does pretty good job picking up most....

Okay so I won't lose data?

No you won't lose data....

Thx :thumbsup

Not entirely true.

For a completely stable system you should reinstall from scratch.

Also be aware XP will see the change in hardware and request a re-registration. If you're using a *cough* copy, you're FUBAR'd.

Nope I have a license.:thumbsup

You're all good then :)

Give it a shot. Sometimes, especially if you get a mobo from the same manufacturer, you're okay. If you swap to a different brand, be prepared for some problems.

and don't forget your hard drives are in a raid setup ( which one by the way)...

If it is only a mirror, you could put the drive in a USB box to be safe.
If you are in a stripping setup. well be carefull.

I have here an extra add-on ide card ( 2 channels - 4 drives). If you want it, it's yours. You could add it, put your cd's on that controller ....

Np I have never had problems swapping hardrives amongst systems with differn't motherboards. I found that alot of motherboard drivers arn't signed by microsoft *which* could lead to system instability anyhow...

It's mirror, and the IDE Card...I may just try that myself...thanks for the offer I truly appreciate it..but with shipping costs etc..it would probably be just as easy to go to a local store to pick one up.

How many IDE devices do you have running?

3. One CD-RW, one DVD, one DVD RW