[Sardonicus]

Although I have heard similar cries of distress elsewhere on the web, some of which may have already been echoed here, (however, I’d rather be forced to sit next to Carlos Mencia on a 20 hour flight to Saudi Arabia than use the Geeks to Go search engine) my CD drive woes seem somewhat unique. I’ve got myself a 6 year old Dell Dimension 2350, with a 1.80 GHz Pentium 4 processor. I’m running Windows XP with all the service packs and updates installed. I have two disc drives, an NEC CD-RW NR9100A, (E Drive) and an HL-DT-ST CD ROM GCR-8481B, (D Drive) as well as a floppy drive that all came with the PC, so I’ve ruled out a master – slave problem. I believe the issue is related to some software updates I recently downloaded; namely Roxio, Divx, Real Player, and Adobe Reader. Now I know what you’re thinking, but deleting the upper and lower filters from Easy CD Creator 5 did nothing, nor did uninstalling that entire program before doing the same with the drivers. Deleting Adobe only succeeded in forcing me to wait an hour for my 56k to obtain another copy of it, erasing the Real Player was a smart move, (but changed nothing) and I assume removing Divx will yield the same lack of results. I religiously eradicate malware and scan for viruses, (and my PC’s currently showing no symptoms of infection) so I’m thinking that it’s safe to rule out those variables. IMAPI is turned on, (though not constantly running; I assume that it’s not supposed to) as is the ability to burn discs in my E drive. Furthermore, my Dell claims that these devices are working properly. Yeah freakin’ right. The symptoms are as follows:

-CD’s are not detected when I place them in either drive. That is, the trademark CD icon & title do not appear over the corresponding drive icon, (auto play has been disabled…properly.) However, files are acknowledged when I click on the drive, and neither copying them nor opening them poses any problems.

-A disc can be “detected” (that is the icon appears) when I restart/boot up with the disc already in the drive. Interestingly enough, however, the icon remains when I remove the disc as well.

-I cannot copy files to a blank CD-R, (using the native Windows burning program) as an obstinate little pop-up box “informs” me that there is no disc in the drive when there [bleep] well is. Once again, however, this can be overridden when I leave a recordable disc in the drive and restart.

-Furthermore, I can still burn discs with Roxio, but the only way my computer can read the disc afterwards is to, you guessed it, reboot with the plastic in the drive.

While I could just deal with the problem in the aforementioned manner, I refuse to allow my second-rate PC to be demoted to the ranks of third-rate computers. Although I’ve heard that the BIOS settings can cause similar troubles, I have no idea what to look for. I’d greatly appreciate any and all suggestions. Many thanks in advance.

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Roxio 5 is pretty old so it needs to have updated drive recognition,the file you need is :DriveUp5.3.5p 810kb from Roxio. it fixes the CD recognition on newer cd/dvd

[HaraldR]

Roxio 5 is pretty old so it needs to have updated drive recognition,the file you need is :DriveUp5.3.5p 810kb from Roxio. it fixes the CD recognition on newer cd/dvd

[Sardonicus]

Well, interestingly enough, my attempt to update Roxio indirectly alleviated the problem...

In preparation for the download, I had decided to install the Direct Drive option that I had left out from my previous reinstallation, (believing that it was an unnecessary waste of HD space.) Turned out that I couldn't install the update you suggested, as I'm relegated to the no frills version of ECDC 5, but incorporating the Direct CD drive option solved the detection issues anyway. Apparently, Roxio, not Windows, runs the "drag and drop" CD burning program on my PC. What's more, it seems that auto run is directly tied in to the Direct Drive's ability to recognize CDs as a dialog box appeared shortly after it was installed informing me that "auto-detect" had been disabled. After switching it on and popping in a blank disc, my drives functioned properly once again, however, I found myself staring at that same old obnoxious Roxio project selector window that I attempted to destroy several weeks ago, (at least I found a way to eliminate the Windows XP prompt!) So as not to make this exchange completely fruitless for the two of us, I thought I'd inquire as to whether or not I can disable this feature without removing the necessary auto-detection.

Arigatoo

[HaraldR]

Unfortunately In Ezycd5 you can't disable project interface.Even though winxp was based on adaptec(roxio now) Direct cd I do remember that if you chose to run Nero as well then you had to disable "auto-detect",this was fixed in EasyMedia creator,you can use either windows or drag to disc but given how slow windows cd burning is,why bother?
You may be interested to know that in ezmc7 you can shortcut direct to most used programs within ezmc7 without using main project interface .

[Sardonicus]

That's a bummer. Ah well, I'm not above clicking a window closed once and a while; don't want to become a convenience junkie anyhow. I'm not sure if I've noticed any significant difference between the writing speed of the drag-drop and Roxio, but I tend to prefer the former for creating data discs because the process itself seems faster. Well, I'm gonna bounce two more insignificant questions off of you, and then I promise to leave you alone. #1-Is it really necessary to use compressed air on the keyboard and disc drives in order to prolong their health? #2-Occasionally, very occasionally, icons will disappear from various locations on my PC, (90% of the time it's the PeoplePC icon {I know} from the task bar) even though the programs themselves still function all proper like. Similarly, the personalized jpegs I stamp on folders will sometimes revert to the default, 4-pic setting, and at other times, the view will change to "icon" or something other than what I had set it as. Also, (come to think of it, these might each qualify as separate topics) the auto-arrange/alphabetize setting doesn't always work when I drag a file to a folder. I'm 99% sure that I'm virus and spyware free, and though I've done a bit of streamlining, I don't believe that I've deleted any pertinent processes. Could these just be the glitches of a computer in its adult diaper stage of life?

[HaraldR]

On Keyboards you can turn them upside down and tap the rubbish out,mostly I do that first.You can use a vaccuum cleaner as well,won't do any harm.
The boxes I take outside at least every 6 months and blow them clean with my compressor(140psi)to remove all fluff,dust etc.

Most of the glitches Winxp seems to do,just to annoy,the unused shortcut cleaner is partly to blame and I suspect even when disabled it still operates to some degree as it is a fairly common occurance.(seems left over from win98 actve desktop which does similar things)

The default arrange for files seems to be the date/time they were added,the only way I know to rearrange them correctly is change from thumbnail,go to list,exit folder and return,files are then correctly listed in order.

[Sardonicus]

I reckon I'll pick myself up some pricey air then, 'cause I've never, in the 6+ years I've owned the beast, cleaned it out. Yes, Windows XP is synonymous with annoying, so I guess those glitches shouldn't have caught me by surprise. H*ll, if there were not a way to disable those d*mn info balloons, my PC would've taken a quick trip out a real window years ago. It's always the little things...At any rate Harold, I appreciate your time and efforts. Thanks, and have a good one.

Edited by Sardonicus, 11 July 2006 - 11:49 AM.

[HaraldR]

To disable the info balloons you can try THIS

[Sardonicus]

Actually, I meant I had already disabled them. Of course, I didn't even know it was possible until a little over a year ago. Thanks anyway, though.