Hi. I installed a CD burner a few years ago and everything worked up until last year when my original CD rom stopped working. I put a CD or DVD into the player and it will show the contents of the CD/DVD, but when I try to play it, it produces the same error message –
“Windows Media Player cannot read the CD. Be sure the CD is free of dirt and scratches and the CD-ROM drive is functioning properly”
I cleaned it and tried again with several CD’s but always got the same message.
I thought it must be the actual CD rom so bought a new one and installed it but the problem is still there.


I can play everything through the writer but as it is only a CD player I can’t play DVD’s, and I can’t copy anything directly from the CD rom onto the writer because of this fault.
I am at my wits end on this as it appears that the CD rom can actually read the disc but can’t play it.
Is this a wiring fault somewhere in the PC???
Help…………….
Oh, the PC is an old Windows ME, but it is ideal for what i use it for and still works great

Tenex,
There is several things it could be. First check your cables and the jumpers on both drives, they should either be set to cable select or one set to master and the other set to slave. That is if they are on the same cable. Now if one is on the same cable as the hard drive and the other is on a cable by itself then the one on the hard drive should be set to slave and the one on the cable by itself should be set to master.
This can cause it to read and not be able to write to the other drive during a copy.
The second thing could be your drivers did not install correctly for your new drive. Try reinstalling the drivers by rerunning the driver disk that came with the cd/dvd drive.
The last thing is some cd/dvd drives are not compatable to some of the older systems. Chek the manufacture web page and see what systems the drive is compatable with.

There are a lot of other things that can cause this same problem but theses are the first I would check.
Curtis

From last three days my computer is not working properly and can't install any new software. what do i do? suggest me i need to install photo shop and dream weaver asap.

Thanks for the answer, but I have been through all of these things. The CD rom is the same as the original one (Hitachi GD-8000) , and it is set to master whilst the writer is set to slave. I have tried reinstalling the drivers but the PC keeps telling me that no drivers are installed or are required for this device, and when I go into “Devices” it tells me that the best drivers are already installed ?????
They do both use the same ribbon, which is why I thought it may be a wiring problem.


I hate computers. lol

Originally Posted by soniasharma

From last three days my computer is not working properly and can't install any new software. what do i do? suggest me i need to install photo shop and dream weaver asap.

Hi Soniasharma,

This question is not related to the discussion that we are having here about Tenex's problem. Could you please create a new message thread? What you have described sounds like a virus so I would recommend that you try to follow the instructions in the Virus / Spyware section of the forum and then post a message there for the experts if you need more help: Spyware, Adware, Viruses and Malware Removal.

Thanks.

Tenex,

I have known ribbon cables to become problematic after several years for no obvious reason. Are you able to replace the ribbon cable? You might have received a new cable with the replacement CD drive.

If you do not have another ribbon cable, then I would suggest re-cabling the drives to see if it helps. Your last post suggests that you have two ribbon cables with your hard drive as Primary Master, your Hitachi GD-8000 (a DVD-ROM drive) that is giving you problems as Secondary Master and another drive, which I believe is a CD-Writer drive, as Secondary Slave. Try re-cabling the Hitachi DVD-ROM drive as Primary Slave, i.e. change the jumper settings and connect it to the ribbon cable that the hard drive is using.

Let us know if that helps :-)

Cheers. The ribbon is actually just one ribbon with two connections; one half way along that plugs into to writer and then continues on to the CD ROM. I do understand you logic though and I will swap them around and see if the CD ROM works and the writer doesn’t……………. or something to that effect.
G

No he isn't suggesting swapping the hard drive and writer out. The hard drive should always be the master. He is suggesting having one cable for the hard drive and another for the writer.

Ah cheers. I thought I could just swap them over and then change over the master/slave pin thingy’s masterslave.jpg