disc drive help

[jippison]

I have a gateway computer and the two disc drives do not work. i have been using an external cd burner to use as a disc drive. I dont know why they dont work, when i look at the disc drives on the device manager, it says there are two , the cd burner and another one. I have gone to gateway for help but it is such a pain and it takes forever to get any help. Anyone have any ideas? i can be reached at jippison@gmail.com. thanks

[Smiley]

Apparently the puter boots up so the first thing I'd do is to find the setup CD that came with the machine. Then open the case and disconnect the faulty CD drive, start the machine and in device manager, delete the CD drive. Reboot and shut down, then reconnect the CD drive and start the puter again. Most times Windows will reinstall the drive by itself. Occasionally you'll have to go to "Install hardware" and do it manually from the setup CD.

If you can't reinstall the drive or Windows won't reinstall it, the drive may be bad and need replaced. As CD/RW drives are fairly cheap, this might be a good upgrade all by itself.

[Naturist Mark]

I am assuming when you say "disc drive" you mean an optical drive for CD's and DVD's and not a hard drive or floppy drive.

Optical drives have a pretty short life span. Some last for years with reliable service, but in my experience nothing kicks the bucket as often as an optical drive. Your problem might just be a driver gone bad, but if the usual trouble shooting doesn't do the trick you probably need to replace it.

Another possibility, since you say this is happening to two drives, is that the IDE controller on your motherboard may have gone bad. I've had this happen twice over the years - (for me this is the next most common hardware failure after optical drive failure. You can purchase a inexpensive add-in card for your desktop computer that adds additional controllers so you don't have to use the damaged one(s).

Do you actually have two optical drives? Often computers recognize a combo drive as two drives - one for DVD and one for CD or CD-RW (the one in my ACER laptop is actually recognized as 3 drives!).

The easiest solution is what you are already doing ... use a reliable external drive.

-Mark

[walter05]

I am not sure if the disc drives may not be fixed disc drives or not from your description.

If it is a hard drive, I would put just one in.

I would boot from some sort of diskettes, CDs, etc. Then go to a DOS prompt. See if you can read anything on the drive.

Walter

[maxnude]

jippison,

If your computer is booting from power up, the internal C: [Fixed Disk] is working and booting up to the operating system. That also indicates the IDE primary channel is working properly.

By process of elimination, it's very easy to tell if the external [optical] USB drive is working. Just take it to any other desktop or laptop computer and plug it in. If your using Windows 98 SE [Second Edition], XP, or Vista the operating system and its drivers will detect, install and make that drive another drive. If you can put a CD-Rom and read or play the files that eliminates that drive as being a problem.

Usually the optical player or record/play CD that comes with the OEM system is installed on the IDE Secondary channel as primary or secondary.

If your device manager indicates a fixed drive [Hard Drive] and two optical drives, they should show up as drive C: HD, D: and E: as Optical drives.

If you have any Flash or thumb USB drives plugged in they are listed as Removal drives.

Depending what operating system you have, by just deleting the drivers for those drive in the device manager, and re-booting windows should detect that and install the appropriate drivers and drive letters.

You mentioned Gateway. Usually OEM machines [manufactured by HP, Dell, etc use what's called a cable select IDE cable which eliminates jumpers needing to be set on the CD ROM drive and hard drive.

Can you explain when this problem occurred, what your operating system is, and if the computer boots normally, and C: or your hard drive and programs are operating properly. When you insert a CD-ROM in each of the optical drives does the drive activity [LED] indicator flash or seek the media?

Have you done a system or Gateway Disk Restore? If so that configures the whole computer as it comes out of the box, minus any drivers, configuration, updates, cookies, passwords, communications, network, and setup. Not a pleasant experience unless you backed up and copied down all your configurations, passwords, user id's and account parameters.

Please reply, but as I read, your computer is normal and operating, boots and C: hard drive is working, but both optical drives show up in the device manager, but they do not function.

First eliminate your external USB optical CD-ROM by plugging it into another functional computer, then get with us in the forum. As Mark says the internal CD ROM drive could have failed, or you have a driver problem.

I find just the opposite experience with CD or Optical drives over 15-20 years never had one fail of the SCSI, IDE, or SATA type, or External USB Drives. I find them extremely reliable and long lived. I also buy what I consider premium drives from Toshiba, Sony, and major drive manufactures other than generic no name offshore drives from Twain or China.

Waiting to hear further on what you have found or current status.

Please reply as to operating system, age of this gateway, and serial number. Then you can go online and see exactly how this computer was configured when sold, as to drives, memory, operating system, display, and audio configuration online.

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