WEIRD CD problem.

OK, I inserted a CD in to my other pc, and it just came up as having nothing on it. I tried a very good condition cd, same thing. I restarted the pc, and the pc said "New Hardware found". I let it go, then when it finished I tried the CD again, and it said:

"Disk is not formatted..Windows cannot read from Drive D: because the disk may be corrupt, or in an unrecognized Windows Format"..

I better tell my ISP their cd is stuffed then? All the other cd's, same message.

 

Your CD drive could be having a hardware problem. The new hardware message is a bit of a red flag. Make sure all cables and connections are tightly seated.

Blue

 

Thanks BZ, the thing is, they were. It just...stopped working..

 

Not that unusual if a connection is marginal, and that also applies to connections within the CD which are inaccessible.

We think in digital terms, 0's and 1's. It's black and white. Well, these digital levels are determined by voltage levels. In a TTL circuit, a low - or 0 - might be anything between 0 and 0.8 volts or so while a high - or 1 - is anything between 2 volts and the supply voltage (around 5 volts). Muck up the connection - by either a series of expansions/contractions related to heating/cooling of the device by turning it on and off or via surface corrosion on the connection leads - and these voltages start to float. The net result is that the device can't reliably talk to the main PC anymore.

I'd had this occur to me in the past.

Blue

 

Should I classify it as unusable now?

 

The easy test - if you have access to another PC with a CD drive - is to switch the drives. If the problem follows the drive, it's a hardware issue with that drive. If the problem stays with the PC, it's either a hardware or driver issue with the PC.

If you can't do that, try a fresh reinstall of the CD. Go to Start>Control Panel>System. Select Hardware tab>Device Manager. Expand the CD-DVD Drives entry and delete the CD drive in question. You'll be asked if you want to uninstall that device, say yes. When that's done, reboot. You will go through the whole Found New Hardware sequence again. See if it works.

Straight CD/DVD drives are cheap these days, even the burner type. Don't devote an overwhelming amount of time here unless you're strapped for cash or help performing some hardware maintenance at the moment.

Blue

 

Thankyou so much for your help BZ. I tried the drive, it's pretty F'd. It was a AOpen dvd rom/cd-rw combo thingy..the shop I bought it from is a bit suss..too bad it's not under warranty.

 

hi

sound to me like ya drive is fryed becaues the other day a disk exploded in my drive and now when i try use it the light flashes but wont pick up the disk keeps saying there is no disk in the drive so could be somthing similuer

 

Hi TrBot,

I used to have this problem, being the cheeky person I am, always going over the bounderies and testing the unknown.

This is just an option, but effective. It is by wiping your hard drive and make sure everything is connected correctly and having all the correct drivers and updates and re-install everything. Make sure you get all your important information off before wiping your hard drive

Why, you have somewhere incorrectly installed your new hardware, and without trying to waste time on where you went wrong. If you do as what I have mentioned above, and you still have an issue, this you have broken down the matter at hand more. Breaking down the issue as quick as possible is the only way to go.

In PRINCIPLE:
Sometimes it good to wipe the drawing board clean and start fresh.

Sometimes we spend eternally searching the why when we should have been fixing the issue.


Kindest Regards

 

I hadn't had any CD probs and I wiped last week, that may have broken the CD drive down a bit