Topic: Troubleshoot OS WinMe, CD won't run.

Operating system is WinMe. In a nutshell, the CD player won't spin up. But it did. The problem surfaced after I reinstalled ME from a folder on the HDD. There were no problems with the installation.

I did change the boot sequence in the bios so it will boot from the CD but changed it back to "A:\" but that didn't correct the problem.

Device Manager shows the CD player, identifies it correctly.. says it's 'working properly' drivers are ok and there are no conflicts.
All cables are good and seated correctly.

But...the error message is 'insert disk' when there is a disk present and at the DOS prompt it's the old "Abort Retry Fail". I'd almost forgotten about that ugly old message. (lol)

I thought maybe it had something to do with Autoexec or config.sys but if I remember correctly you don't really need either in ME.

Can't change the OS.. this is a friends computer. Ultimately the fix just might be a bullet...I remember being happier than a clam seeing the backside of ME.

All assistance greatly appreciated.

NJ

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You'll never have to think outside the box if you don't get in the damn box in the first place.

Tell your friend he's using the worst OS in the history of the universe.

It sounds like a hardware problem. The Device Manager only checks the driver (a software component of the OS). Since you say that neither Windows or DOS is seeing the disk in the drive, I would suspect the hardware.

Have you tried rebooting? (I would assume you have).
Have you tried a different disc?
Have you tried replacing the CD-ROM drive?

.



-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

^ Rebooted yes.
Different disk yes.
Won't even bother trying to replace the drive....this thing just ain't worth it.

But I am back to looking at the autoexec.bat which I think does at least need a valid path. I still believe a bullet's the answer. =)

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You'll never have to think outside the box if you don't get in the damn box in the first place.

Problems in those versions of windows can sometimes be fixed by deleting the troublesome device in the control panel system settings' device list. Then re-add it using the latest drivers. And update the firmware, if any. Use ( www.belarc.com ) to check on the drive's model.

And, flashing the Bios really helps on older computers. Although this improvement is usually directly proportional to the difficulty in identifying the motherboard and finding the correct bin bios files. http://www.motherboards.org/tools/moboidtools.html might help, but you should really try for the motherboards' manufacturer webpage.


A more subtle approach would be to get a good registry cleaner - jv16powertools ( http://www.jv16.org/ ), even if it is shareware - and do an agressive registry cleaning.

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