Stupid CD Rom Q

[Tikhon]

Hey,
I am a bit puzzled by this problem. I foolishly installed a cheap cd rom game on my pc. After quickly growing bored with it, I tried to exit, but it would not let me. It would not allow me to close it out via ctrl-alt-del or even open the cd rom door. Eventually, I managed to manually remove the cd rom and close the program, but now the cd rom will not respond and the pc doesn't recognize the drive.
The door works, so I know there is power to it and the light comes on momentarily, but that's it. Is it possible that the pc thinks the cd rom still running the program?

Pentium Celeron, 333Mhz, Win 98 4.10.2222 A

THanks in advance

[TwoRails]

Hi Tikhon,

Ya never know if you're going to like a game (cheap or otherwise) until you play it. Some of my most enjoyable games have come from the "bargin bin."

About the CDROM: how did you "manually" open it?

Did you do a Cold boot, then see if the BIOS recognized it?

Is it still in the device manager??

Did you uninstall the game and run a virus scan??

TwoRails

[Kaeruve]

Hey Tikhon,

TwoRails posed some really important quetions (as well as a good statement re games!)

Along with those...a couple other things:

*Upon attempting to access the CD-ROM drive, do you recieve any error message?
*Have you attempted to access the CD-ROM via DOS? What is the result?
*System Information|Componants|Multimedia|CD-ROM what is shown there?
*Any exclamations in Device Manager?

Have you:

*Run Scandisk - Both in Windows & in Dos?
*Check BIOS settings?
*Use Windows boot disk?
*Re-fit your drive - testing connection in case it was damaged and/or dislodged during removal of said CD?

After more information is gained, people will be better able to assist you in your problem.

[Tikhon]

About the CDROM: how did you "manually" open it? Foolishly, yes.

Did you do a Cold boot, then see if the BIOS recognized it? Yes

Is it still in the device manager?? Yes

Did you uninstall the game and run a virus scan?? Yes

*Upon attempting to access the CD-ROM drive, do you recieve any error message? I either get an "invalid media" error message or else it simply says that it's inaccessible.

*Have you attempted to access the CD-ROM via DOS? What is the result? I will check.

*System Information|Componants|Multimedia|CD-ROM what is shown there?

*Any exclamations in Device Manager? No. It says that it is working properly. I have tried deleting it and rebooting.

Have you:

*Run Scandisk - Both in Windows & in Dos? Windows- it doesn't appear

*Check BIOS settings? Not yet.

*Use Windows boot disk?-Yes, to no avail.

*Re-fit your drive - testing connection in case it was damaged and/or dislodged during removal of said CD? There appears to be no damage at all.

Thanks for the additional help. Sorry I wasn't more informative. I didn't know where to begin.

I appreciate it.

[TwoRails]

Hi Tikhon,

Seems like you did "the basics." It now kinda sounds like the drive died (maybe some other info will prove differently, hopefully...)

Just resently tried to install a new program on a friends system. The CD worked fine for the first 1/2 of the install, but after reboot, it simply would not read the disc. The CD died that easily!

Hopelfull thats not the case with you, but it does make me want to ask how old (or heavy usage) the drive is??

TwoRails

[Tikhon]

I was afraid you were going to say that. :-)

The drive is only 2 1/2 years old.

Thanks!

[glc]

2 1/2 years is pretty good life for a CD-Rom. You can buy a new 52x Sony or other good name brand for well under $30 now.

[Tikhon]

Then I'd better tell the wife I'm going shopping. :-)

Thanks to all for the feedback and help

[TwoRails]

Hi Tikhon,

Yep, at 2 1/2 years, that's a good life! That's about 85 in human years (bg).

Maybe now would be a good time to get a CD burner if you don't already have one!! A friend of mine did that when his CD ROM died -- and the price difference was not too bad.

TwoRails

[Sirrob01]

if your also feeling a bit investigative open up the cd-rom drive, sometimes dirt/wires can become entangled around the drive motors causing them to not be able to spin upto the required speed to function, of course usually the motors are burnt out, but occasionally you get lucky, give it a try never know ur luck
Rob

[Roadfish]

I replaced my old Memorex 40X a few weeks ago after finally getting tired of banging my knuckles on the tray just to get it to eject. CD-ROM's are pretty much a disposeable commodity nowadays...2 1/2 years is a pretty good lifespan.

[Tikhon]

Thanks everyone. I bit the bullet and installed a new one yesterday and it's running great (which is to say it's running). This at least gave me the excuse to convince my wife that we should upgrade to a burner, which is fine by me.