Sending out an SOS!

[WytchDokta]

Is anybody out there? This is .:Nightmare:., I'm stranded and sending out an SOS. If you get my SOS, send help straight away. Time is running out, somebody must do something! Many thanks in advance!

....There seems to have a problem.... I'm not sure if it's a problem with Windows Media Player or with my DVD RW drive. Either way, one of them is "up the swanney" (I love that phrase, haven't heard it used in years) somewhat. The problem has only started occuring very recently.

Ok, now I'll outline the problem:

[Jethro Tull voice] What 'appened waaaas.... [/Jethro Tull voice]

I noticed the other day, after putting an audio CD in the DVD RW drive, that all of sudden, the sound cut out but according to Media Player, the CD was still playing (the playing progress bar was still moving). I clicked stop. I double clicked on the next track. The next track did not play, instead, the colour of the text of the track changed to orange and it refused to play the track. The same happened to the next track. And the next one. And the one after that.

This morning, I put in another audio CD and halfway through a track, the sound cuts out but Media Player says it's still playing! Here we go again!! So, I double click on the next track.... it change the text to orange and refuses t play the track....then, get this: it auto scrolled by itself extremely quickly through the rest of the tracks on the CD, turning the text off EVERY track to orange and hence, refusinmg to play ANY track on that CD, yet it was playing those tracks fine a few weeks ago.

So I took the CD out and put it back in, and fire up Media Player again. Nothing in the playlist. That's odd.... I click on the little down arrow next to the now playing bit so I could select the CD in my D: drive, but no D: drive was listed!!

So I whacks in the Vietcong game CD and double click on the desktop shortcut.... it proceeeds to come up with "no disk inserted"... Ok, so if I just put the Vietcong game CD into the DVD RW drive, how is "no disk inserted"? Shutdown and restart and the D: drive has returned from the dead.

And the same thing happened just now. Media Player got halfway through playing a track, the sound cut out, blah blah blah.....you get the picture.... Anyway, moving swiftly on, I pressed the "open" button on the front of the DVD RW to open it in order put a game CD in.... And it had become non-responsive. First time I've ever known to to do that! I must've pressed the button 3 or 4 times before it decided to open. So, launching my own investigation, I pressed the button again so it would close.... Ok, so it closes.... So I press it again to open it yet again, but for some reason, it again wasn't co-operating. Continuing in on with my own investigation, I kept pressing the button to open it (to see if it was functioning properly), and it then decided to open and close very time.

And now I just whacked in the H&D2 CD in order to play the game. Before playing the game, I decided to go into My Computer (had to do some jiggery-pokery....)and noticed that the D: drive has done a disappearing act again!! Yet, prior to putting in the audio CD, I was playing Vietcong for ages, so it must've recognised the D: drive back then!

######

Any ideas? Is my DVD RW drive shafted? Or is Windows Media Player playing "silly-buggers"?

(and before you ask, the audio CD's were originals. I DO NOT copy CD's nor do I own any copied CD's (be it audio or game, it don't own copies). I support the music artists and the game companies by going out and buying their stuff)

[NYR_32]

Shut down your rig, and check to see if the molex power connector and ATA cable are properly connected. If they aren't, maybe a more experienced person can give you more suggestions.

[WytchDokta]

Er....this just gets better and better.....

I just shut 'er down and restarted 'er again to see if she'll recognise the D: drive upon next start up.... Well, upon restart it comes up with a black screen saying something about "Please insert boot device media and press enter" or something along those lines. So I hit enter, same message again. I smack the enter key down again in true Bruce Lee style, but the message comes up again. Loads of the same message filled the screen. So, time to hardboot 'er. Flick the ol' switch on the back of the rig and *BANG!!* Hahahaha, just kidding about it blowing up.... When I flicked the switched the switch on the back of the rig, it started up fine, but the biatch kept giving me back talk. "Please insert boot device media and press enter". Don't gimme no backtalk suckah! I press enter. "Please insert boot device media and press enter". Shuddup foo'!! I press enter. "Please insert boot device media and press enter". DON'T MAKE ME MAD FOO'....GRRRR.... I couldn't enter no boot device media or whatever it was cuz the D: drive wouldn't open!! Must be that time of the month for 'er eh? So I reach for that switch and turn the damn thing off again ready to hard boot it again. But this time I grabbed me old keyboard (the key board I got right now is a wireless one, I wanted to plug in my wired one incase I needed to fire 'er up in safe mode or whatever). Took me a while to plug the wired keyboard in cuz the way I got my rig and all in the desk unit thing, it's hard to reach in behind 'er proper and plug stuff in. But I got the keybopard plugged in after a short struggle. And I fire it up again.... And it loaded up right into XP properly, no faults along the way at all, the D: drive is now showing up again!! What's up with that?!

@ NYR, the molex's or whatever can't just unconnect themselves!! I haven't played around inside my rig for ages, certainly haven't touched anything to do with the part of the DVD RW drive that's inside the case. The Molex connector to my DVD RW drive is as it was when I got this rig, and I have left it (the molex) untouched since I've had this rig. Unless it just unconnected itself for no apparent reason....which I doubt.

**Turns on the Bat-signal and points it into the midnight sky....**

Edited July 5, 2005 by .:Nightmare:.

[NYR_32]

Molex connectors can become loose, I had an issue with one loosening up for a number of months and finally solved the problem with a piece of electrical tape. It doesn't hurt to check the simple things first, it can sometimes save you some cash.

[WytchDokta]

Yeah, I might check it in a mo'. But really, they can loosen up by themselves? I can understand it losening up if I'd been moving the DVD RW drive. But I haven't done anything to it that would warrant it loosening up.

[NYR_32]

Did you read my last post?

[WytchDokta]

Yes.

Hang on a minute, I must go check the front door; the hinges might have loosened themselves up so the door might be hanging off right now.... Oh, and I must check this handle on my cup, it might have loosened itself, so when I next have a cup of tea the handle may come off in my hand the remainder of the cup and it's contents will end up all over the floor....

**Sticks blu-tac around the handle of the cup to reinforce it to reduce the risk of the handle loosening itself up and falling off**

[WytchDokta]

So you guys think this problem is nothing to do with Media Player? Afterall, it was Media Player that messed up and then caused my D: drive to do a disappearing act. It doesn't do it when I put a game CD in the drive (assuming it was a loose molex or whatever, surely it would do to game CDs what it's doing to audio CDs. But the fact of the matter is, it's only doing this with audo CD's. Maybe it just handle the beats anymore ). Therefore, I think this problem IS to do with Media Player. I'm tying to determine what triggered the whole problem in the first place anyway.

[pz3]

while im not positive what your problem is

I would try looking threw media player options and checking them all out to see if u can find anything stranged checked or unchecked.

it may infact be audio driver errors.... id try uninstalling and reinstalling them if nothing else so far works.

[Dan]

Molex connectors can come loose because of vibrations. HDD workin up, fans going, not to mention optical drives, which spin at RPM speeds that would make your average car explode. Why is not the answer....

Go and DL winamp, ( www.winamp.com ) and see what happens. Also use media players ripping feature, and copy the CD to your HDD. See if the tracks copy fine.

But yeah, make sure you check those cables. And make sure you plug in in real good, cos when they are too lose things can go BANG....

[GreyHaired]

Maybe the drive got tired of playing Jethro Tull and VietCong

Run antispyware, an antivirus scan then a Windows Update.

[WytchDokta]

Just had it do the "insert boot device media" whatever it says thing again upon startup just now. And again, the DVD RW drive would not open. So I restarted, pressed F8 and it came up wih the select boot device thingy, so I chose "exit, and start with default settings". Then the menu where you can select safe mode etc came up so I chose load windows normally. And here I am. I will check the cabling in a mo'. If it ain't that, it's off to stores to by another DVD RW drive this weekend.

[WytchDokta]

Huh? The DVD RW drive keeps checking to see if there's a CD/DVD in the drive (I can hear it, plus the green light keeps coming on). Why's it doing that?

[WytchDokta]

Ok, just checked out all the cabling etc. I pulled out the molex (it came out quite easy so it could have been loose. Then I pulled out the grey ribbon cable. I then rammed the ribbon cable hard and then the molex too. I tried pulling the molex back out again (to see how well I had pushed it in), and the molex would hardly budge! It was more difficult to pull out after I put it back in than it was before I pulled it out. So there's a possibility it was a loose molex causing the problem, cuz the problem seems to be non-existant now.

[pz3]

try updating your cd rom firmware if u know what model and make it is.

my cd burner wasnt working i had to do that twice before it cought on

on fire (jk)

*edit* try that if problem exists still

Edited July 7, 2005 by Prozac360

[WytchDokta]

Hmmmm.... It just did the start up boot error...AGAIN!! Maybe the DVD RW drive is shafted!

Edit: Now the D: drive doesn't show up in Windows....AGAIN!!

[Specter]

Hmmmm.... It just did the start up boot error...AGAIN!! Maybe the DVD RW drive is shafted!

Edit: Now the D: drive doesn't show up in Windows....AGAIN!!

←

It sounds like a 95% chance that the drive is bad.

What is happening(probably) is this.

Each removable drive, such as CD drives, DVD Drives, Floppy Drives, Zip Drives and LS120 Drives all have a Media Access Control chip in them that tells them when new media is inserted, and where to find the index track on that media. It also identifies that drive to your BIOS and to Winblows or any other OS you are using.

Yours is losing track of the Index track or not finding it at all.

This component on the drives is not replaceable, and even if it were, it is cheaper today to just replace the drive.

So, if you have access to another drive, give that a shot. Just swap them out and see if the replacement works. I'll bet it does.

Edited July 8, 2005 by =UE=Phantom

[Cpl Ledanek]

I just replaced my Lite-on DVD-ROM OEM. It had a good run, about 5 yrs old. Could find a firmware for the life of me. Most of my searches for this particular end up in a forum where 10+ ppl having same problem end up getting a newer drive.

I got a generic DVD-ROM from Fry's...it was priced at $39, but the kid at the register ran it at $19. So I ran to my car, made a couple of detours, thought about getting into my wife truck to switch car just to make sure I'm not being followed. What was "I" supposed to do?

[WytchDokta]

Ok, now it just started up fine..... I've had the rig since last October, everything in it was new as of back then. The DVD RW is made by NEC, it was the latest model as of back then, can it really die that quick?

What about if I went into BIOS and changed the primary boot device to the floppy drive? Would it start Windows fine?

[Specter]

Does it give that boot up error when the drive is empty, or whenever there is any disk in it? If it does it with any disk in it, then the drive is shafted.

The only way to tell is to disconnect that drive and see if your problems disappear.

Have you replaced the IDE cable with a new one?

They go bad quite frequently.

Edited July 8, 2005 by =UE=Phantom

[pz3]

before u go shafting that rom just try updating the firmware for it first...

some times it helps

[WytchDokta]

Drive has always been empty upon giving that error. But would setting the floppy drive to the primary boot device make any differance?

[Specter]

If the rig is that new, here are two things you can do that won't cost you:

Take it back to MFR if local, and have them fix it.

Or, you can call NEC and get an RMA, and they will send you a new drive.

It should have a three year warranty on it.

But the PC mfr. should fix it, being as how it's less than a year old.

[WytchDokta]

Ok, I'll see how it goes for now and let you guys know what happens.

[WytchDokta]

It just started up as it would normally, but when it got into Windows I had in My Computer and the D: drive is gone.... yet again!!

I do have another drive here somewhere. What about if I put that other drive in in the bay below the DVD RW drive and set it primary and set the DVD RW to slave?

EDIT: I've just shutdown and restarted. It restarted fine and now even shows the D: drive again! The wierd thing is, when it loaded up fine first, as mentioned above, it had a CD in the drive. So before I restarted, I took out the CD and it started up fine again but showed the D: drive in My Computer this time around.

Edited July 9, 2005 by .:Nightmare:.