Disabled CD ROM Drive

[Bindifer]

HELP!! I'm ready to rip out my hair!!! My CD ROM Drive has become disabled. I have tried everything I could possibly think of. What my system says is: CD Audio Device (mcida.drv) Disabled, MIDI Sequencer Device (Mciseq.drv) Disabled, and Wave Audio Device (Mciwave.drv) Disabled. When I try to use the cd drive, it does not read the cd. The system says: D:\is not accessible. It was working ok until I took out some old games. Those files have been totally deleted, so I am unable to retrieve any of them. I tried with my NORTON rescue, but it didn't work. I can't use my Windows 98 disc because..... well, the system doesn't read the disc. I have run diagnostics and it says my system is fine, and everything checks out ok. I have kept up with my live updates from NORTONS, and regularly check for virus's. HELP somebody!! I'm going out of my mind here. It's been 4 days since I have been able to use my CD ROM Drive. ANY and ALL suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Many thanks, and Best wishes

Bindifer

[fatboyjim]

Is the CD ROM in device manager? If so, is it disabled?

Where are the disabled devices listed (the ones you are talking about)?

[LawyerRon]

CD Rom drive problems are usually easily solved provided the drive hasn't acutally died, which they routinely do. Give us some more info on your system (ie, version of Windows) and whether or not you have any software for the cd rom drive. Normally, you don't acutally need drivers as Windows has their own. What I would try first is to remove the cd rom in the device mgr. along with the midi divices, reboot and see if Windows will just re-install it. Often this works.

You mentioned that you "deleted" some games. How did you delete them? Sometimes important files are deleted when programs are incorrectly deleted.

You problem should not be too difficult to solve.

[fatboyjim]

Yes, remove all disabled and unknown devices and reboot. Let windows redetect

[Bindifer]

Thank you kindly for the suggestions.......
I looked through FIND FOLDER, then MSINFO,then In MS32 App Folder, to systems, to components, and then to AUDIO CODECS. This is where I found that info that said they were disabled.

If I do take out those disabled files, how should I go about it? Do I delete them in a certain way?

Thank you Guys!! I really appreciate the help!

Sincerely, Bindifer

[Bindifer]

P.S........I have a Dell Dimensions XPS D, Windows 98, and no software came with the computer for the CD ROM. ALSO .....Where would I find the DEVICES folder?? THANKS!! Bindifer

[fatboyjim]

I suppose they say Disabled:0

The devices in here usually aren't very helpful (they don't have pretty pictures to tell you whats up)

Go to DEVICE MANAGER and see what's wrong in there

CONTROL PANEL - SYSTEM - DEVICE MANAGER

See if any devices have yellow exclamation marks to the left of their names. If they do, click on them and remove them. Then restart your machine

[glc]

Restart the computer in MS-Dos mode and type SCANREG/RESTORE - and pick a registry backup from before the drive went south.

[fatboyjim]

btw, that light blue is almost impossible to see on the grey background

You can't see me!

[Bindifer]

Jim..... I checked and there are no yellow exclamations ......any other suggestions?? Chancellor.....I'm not sure I understand......how would I decide what folder to use? THANKS!, Bindifer

[Bindifer]

OK..., Chancellor I did what you suggested, and also did the SCANREG/FIX..... BUT still nothing from the CD ROM...... Any other suggestions?? Jim...You mentioned taking out the disabled items.....from where, or what file do I need to go into to completely remove them?? Thanks, BIndifer

[fatboyjim]

I meant removing the devices that had yellow exclamation marks in Device Manager.

This is slightly drastic (PLEASE don't do this until somebody else has confirmed what I am saying)

If you have all of the drivers for your Hardware on CD (Sound Card/Motherboard etc) then you can delete the Enum key from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in REGEDIT

I haven't explained this very well, this is because I don't want you to go ahead and do it without somebody giving it the OK first



I don't want to be responsible for messing up your PC so please wait!

Please can somebody just say OK to what I have said above.

Thanks,

[Mr_Wobble]

I had a similar sounding problem once when I screwed up my g/f's computer. Thankfully somebody on a BBS came up with the solution, which just may be your problem too.

Back up your registry.
Open the registry with Regedit.
Use the Find function to find a key called "NOIDE" (if it exists).
If you find it, delete it.
Reboot.

It worked on my g/f's computer and saved a lot of frustration and a re-install. It's a long shot, but it might just work.

Have Fun!

Mr_Wobble

[Bindifer]

Jim, Thank you for your concern...., I will not try the suggestion until we can be sure there won't be any negative results. THANK YOU! Mr Wobble....Thanks for the suggestion. Now, how would I go about backing up my registry?? I'm not sure how to go about that....., your input, and suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks... BINDIFER

[fatboyjim]

START - RUN -

then type

SCANREG

and press enter

It should say "No errors were found, the registry was already backed up today, do you want to back it up again?"

Click yes

Then do as MR_Wobble suggested and goto REGEDIT and search (CTRL+F) for NOIDE. If it does exist, delete it and reboot

If this buggers your machine, boot into DOS and type SCANREG /RESTORE and select the backup with the time and date of when you pressed Yes to Backup

[Bindifer]

Thank you Jim....I will try it straight away, and then let you know how it worked. Best wishes from across the pond!! Bindifer

[Bindifer]

OK Jim, I did exactly as you said to do, and it did not show NOIDE....., I hope this is a good thing. Any other ideas out there...PLEASE send them my way. I do truely appreciate your time and effort!!

Many Thanks! Bindifer

[Mr_Wobble]

Ah well, it was worth a try. At least I've learnt a new trick from Fatboyjim about backing up the registry quickly and easily. Thankyou. Normally I copy the files (USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT) in the \Windows directory to a safe place.
Sorry it didn't work Bindifer. There's obviously another problem. *scratches head*

Have Fun!

Mr_Wobble

[Bindifer]

[COLOR=orangered][FONT=century gothic][SIZE=3]Thank You Mr Wobble,
I have appreciated your effort!! Any new ideas...., please do let me know. Best wishes.

Bindifer

[Greedo]

this is on a different track, but if it were me, i'd get the cd working with a boot disk first to make sure it wasn't completely hosed

use a boot disk with a generic cdrom driver (or one specific if it's handy) and get it working in msdos

or you could take the advice of people who sound like they know what they're talking about. yeah, that's better.

[highrisemech]

go control panel-add remove programs-click on tab "start up disk"follow instructions for making start up floppy. reboot with the floppy you made.
Choose start computer with cdrom support. At this poit all the drivers will be reloaded to the c"drive for the cdrom, remove the disk and reboot again.
When you removed the games you accidently removed shared files.

[Bindifer]

[COLOR=crimson]HIGHRISEMECH.....

Thanks for the suggestion. However, it didn't work. When I went to do Create Disk, it asked for the Windows 98 CD Rom disc to be inserted. I did..., but then, it couldn't detect it there.... It said the file "command.com" on Win 98 Cd Rom could not be found. It said it was trying to copy files from D:\Win98.

The error occuring said 'The device was not ready' (error #15)

Thanks for the suggestion.... if you get any other ideas, please do let me know. At this point I'm about ready to give up and just wipe my hard drive, and start all over.

Many Thanks, Bindifer[B]

[highrisemech]

ok, either use your original boot disk, or make a recovery disk on someone elses computer, or you can buy one on ebay.The boot disk has the cdrom drivers on it.

[Billnodeal]

You can also go to www.bootdisk.com & get a win98 disk. just download to a floppy, reboot the machine & see if it detects the cd-rom.

[Chrisk]

Try to reinstall Win98. Same thing happened to me and this is the only thing that soved it.

[highrisemech]

The boot disk is the key to the cdrom.You can even access the cdrom in dos once you boot to an A:/ prompt with the boot disk. If you are really having problems un-install the cdrom in windows, then re-boot with a windows98 recovery disk aka boot disk, choose start computer with cdrom support. Once it boots to an A:/ prompt you have a choice you can either access the cdrom in dos by typing in most cases D:/setup (if you are re-setting up windows) or type D:/dir/p this will show you all files on the cd. Or you can remove the diskette and rebbot again without the diskette in and most likely it will show up in windows. If it does not show up in windows at this point force it in by going to add new hardware. The fact is once you boot with the diskette and chosen start computer with cdrom support, the drivers are loaded back into the C drive. This applies to most of the cdroms out there.

[Cricket]

Hi Bindifer,

Is you CD-ROM more than 3 years old? Did you use it a lot for games and stuff? If so, it might be dead. Can you borrow a working CD-ROM from someone and swap it in? If the other CD-ROM works in your system, then you know yours is dead and you'll need to buy a new one.

New CD-ROM drives are pretty inexpensive nowadays. Get a name brand one, not a generic if you want it to last awhile. Newegg has the Sony 52X for $30.

Cricket