Probs with CD Burner not working

[testmg80]

I'll try to make this brief and to the point: I've had my Dell Windows XP SP3 machine for 2 years now. Lately, upon copying my backup files and other files to a CD, when finishing copying, I would get a black screen, then the BSOD with a bunch of writing on it relating to hardware issues, no error codes. Fan speed would kick up to max, and the only way to shut off PC was to unplug it. It would play any Music CD just fine, no probs. Prob 2: I ordered a new CD from Dell, they sent me a re-furbished CD/DVD combo drive.I installed it, PC wouldn't get past the Dell logo on startup. Dis-connected the drive, now when pc starts up, it tells me the drives are not activated, or press F1 to continue. Checked the BIOS setup, looks fine. Computer works fine, but no CD. I put the old CD drive back in, same prob. btw, I have a 80 Gb SATA drive, and a 250 Gb external usb drive, floppy drive, Zip Drive, DVD drive, haven't tried that yet. Any Ideas? :confused: Also, I ordered a Brand New drive from Dell, waiting for that to arrive. Thanks for your patience reading this long post.

Steve

[Guest Wolfeymole]

2 year old box, is it clean inside, ie no fluff around the cpu heatsink?

Obvious question I know but is the optical drive DVD Write

[testmg80]

CD Drive not working

 

2 year old box, is it clean inside, ie no fluff around the cpu heatsink?

Obvious question I know but is the optical drive DVD Write

 

PC is clean inside, DVD Drive is a player only :( prob now is getting the CD to work, then worry about PC toasting itself after backup of files.

S.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I backed up my laptop yesterday with a full a full image and it asked for 2 x 4.7gb DVD + R to write to.

I have XP Pro on my laptop.

XP Pro in it's own right consumes 1.5Gb of hard disk space never mind installed programs.

 

How much data are you trying to back up?

[testmg80]

How much data are you trying to back up?

 

I have 4 Gb of RAM and 1 Gb of Video RAM, I back up the System State (about 550 Mb) and misc .jpg's and photos, datafiles, never more than 80 Mb at a time (Rare), average backup is about 1 Mb. What I can't figure first is why neither CD burner will work, i.e. keep the PC from booting up. Something happened when I pulled the old CD Drive out and put the refurbished one from Dell in. I then practically chewed them out and ordered a Brand New drive. Driver prob maybe?:confused:

[Guest Wolfeymole]

So let me get this right, your saying the pc won't boot now yes?

 

What I can't figure first is why neither CD burner will work, i.e. keep the PC from booting up.

[testmg80]

So let me get this right, your saying the pc won't boot now yes?

 

It won't boot if I leave the CD plugged in. If I disconnect the cable, pc will boot, but not normally (i.e. Press F1 to Continue) It tells me my hard drive is not enabled now I'm really confused.:confused:

[testmg80]

Anyone have a clue

 

Anybody have a clue as to what's going on? Read the rest of the post for more info. Thanks

 

 

I'll try to make this brief and to the point: I've had my Dell Windows XP SP3 machine for 2 years now. Lately, upon copying my backup files and other files to a CD, when finishing copying, I would get a black screen, then the BSOD with a bunch of writing on it relating to hardware issues, no error codes. Fan speed would kick up to max, and the only way to shut off PC was to unplug it. It would play any Music CD just fine, no probs. Prob 2: I ordered a new CD from Dell, they sent me a re-furbished CD/DVD combo drive.I installed it, PC wouldn't get past the Dell logo on startup. Dis-connected the drive, now when pc starts up, it tells me the drives are not found, or press F1 to continue. Checked the BIOS setup, looks fine. Computer works fine, but no CD. I put the old CD drive back in, same prob. btw, I have a 80 Gb SATA drive, and a 250 Gb external usb drive, floppy drive, Zip Drive, DVD drive, haven't tried that yet. Any Ideas? :confused: Also, I ordered a Brand New drive from Dell, waiting for that to arrive. Thanks for your patience reading this long post.

Steve

[Seth]

Your power supply may have weakened and can longer supply enough power to all those drives you have. Try it with just your main drive and the burner.

 

Another possibility is the cmos is corrupt, or the mobo is failing. Pull the cmos battery from the motherboard and leave it out for 30 minutes. After putting it back in (oh, with just the main drive and burner attached), choose yes at restoring the bios defaults and see what happens.

[Dalo Harkin]

Do you have the HDD set to the first boot device in the BIOS - disable all the others and it should be ok -

you normally get the error you describe when either the 1st 2nd or 3rd boot device is the CDROM/DVDRW and its no longer there :)

[testmg80]

OK, here goes...

 

Here goes the sequence of troubleshooting:

Bought a brand new EIDE CD Burner, same problem

Checked to see if DVD player worked, nope, because CD won't work.

Checked the Jumper settings, both set as Cable Select, tried variations, nope, put them back on Cable Select.

Error message on Startup with CD Burner unplugged:

Drive 1 Not Found-Serial ATA, SATA-2

Drive 2 Not Found-Parallel ATA, PATA-0, Primary IDE Master

Drive 3 Not Found-Parallel ATA, PATA 1, Primary IDE Slave

F1 to Continue, F2 for Setup.

Boot Sequence is A:, C:, CD

Computer works Fine! pressing "F1 to continue", except for CD of course.

With CD Burner plugged in, PC won't go further then the Dell Logo, stops right there. Think maybe a cable prob????

Afraid to to disconnect CMOS battery, might lose something. Any further ideas. I'm lost.

oh, btw, dis-connected Zip Drive and Ext. HDD, cleaned the CPU fan and Heat sink.

[Seth]

Either the psu has weakened, or you have a problem on the motherboard.

 

Take out the mobo battery for 30 minutes. It won't hurt anything, but will reset the motherboard's program back to default. As such, you will get a message that the defaults have been loaded and to press F1 to save the defaults and continue.

[testmg80]

It works!

 

Thank You Seth, I took out the battery for 30 Mins. as you suggested, put it back in, still get an error message about "Drive 1 not found, Press F1 To Continue" and I got this far. First thing I did was test the DVD drive, then the CD drive, both work. PC seems to be running a bit slower than normal, so I may have to some cookie and spyware cleaning. Thank You Again,

 

Steve :)

[Seth]

Cool:)

 

The reason you get that particular error, is because the bios is looking for a Sata drive, and you have Pata drives. You can disable that in the bios and you won't get that error message again.