Can anyone help me. My CD Rom and CD Writer do not read discs (audio or data) when inserted into the drive. No autoplay menu pops up but the icons in my computer change slightly seemingly indicating that the drive is being accessed. The CD Rom asks for a disc to be inserted when I double click and the Writer just shows a blank folder. The strange thing is that when I reboot with a disc in the drive they both work perfectly normally. I've used a cd lens cleaner and the discs work ok on other machines.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

bazzaratti

have you checked your autoplay settings?

did this problem just happen? did things work ok before?

here are some tips from kellys korner: (assuming you're running xp)

AutoPlay Checkpoints: Check your settings here:

Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services/Shell Hardware Detection/Return
this service to Automatic.

Go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\Autopl
ayHandlers. Right click on the AutoplayHandlers subkey and delete it. Do
the same here under this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\CD
Burning\Drives

Disable CD AutoPlay for Home or Pro (Line 3)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Enable CD AutoPlay for Pro (Line 10)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Other Auto Play options here under (A) AutoPlay and (C) CD-Roms
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm

Like altering system files, modifying the registry can be risky and D-A-L.com and its members cannot accept liability for any adverse effects caused by following advice freely given on this site.

Thank you Jephree for your reply

I tried all those fixes you suggested but still no luck. I can't be sure when this problem occurred but I think it must be some sort of software conflict in my xp installation. It was running fine awhile back. I am running dual boot with windows 98 and xp pro, the disk drives are working under 98. I have now just added a clean xp installation on a third partion and again the drives work fine when I insert a disc.

Could I inspect certain keys of the 2 xp registries and perhaps find the problem there or is it a case of painstakingly installing each program one at a time and rebooting on the new xp to see if there is any effect on the disc drives.

kind regards
bazz

Like altering system files, modifying the registry can be risky and D-A-L.com and its members cannot accept liability for any adverse effects caused by following advice freely given on this site.

Besides the keys you visited above I can only add this search for browsing:

registry keys cd dvd

Have you installed any third party CD/DVD software?

You might try uninstalling that if so.

Also I should have asked if this is a new problem? Did XP ever work right?

Also you might want to consider a repair install on that one problem XP.

Here is a good guide:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/index.html

Good luck