CD-ROM doesn't work.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

I can play audio, but it can't read files. I was trying to re-install my scanner and it keeps saying to 'insert disc in d drive'. Or something like that. Well, there is a disc in D drive you POS. I've followed all the steps including uninstalling and trying to reinstall and checked the wires, etc. Anything else I can do or is it toast? And why can it play an audio, but not read the file? I've googled and googled and can't find an answer to that.

W2Pro
Firefox
Avast

[RoyGBiv]

1. It could be the disc itself ...

Could have scratches or something.

If it can play audio, it can read files 'cause those are just .wav files it is reading.

Have you tried another disc with something else on it to see if that works?

What's the scanner make and model? You should be able to find what you need online.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

2. I've tried 3 different discs and none worked.

Another thing I just thought of: my power has gone out at least a dozen times a day for the last week or so. I have to go in to BIOS and reset the date and make sure that the hard drive is the first boot device. Do you think that something got whacked out in BIOS that I need to fix?

Oh, it's an Epson Perfection4490 Photo and I'm sure you're right and the files are on line. I think I got in a one-track mode and forgot any other option.

Thanks for your help/suggestion. :yourock:

[RoyGBiv]

3. Possible, but I doubt it ...

There are some obscure options in some versions of BIOSes that can affect strange things, but I can't think of one off the top of my head that might do that.

Although you do seem to have identified another problem. Your BIOS battery should prevent that from happening. Sounds like it is dead.

This seems to be your driver page:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/timeout_error.jsp?cookies=no&oid=58611&infoType=Downloads&Failed_Reason=No+BVCookie+present+to+retrieve+the+session.&com.broadvision.session.new=Yes&Failed_Page=%2fsupport%2fsupDetail.jsp

Still odd that it'd play music and not read a disc otherwise. It won't read the data off any disc at all? Or do you mean the disc won't autorun? I've seen lots of optical drives go bad, but they generally just won't read anything at all, although I can't think of a time when I tried to put an audio disc in to test it just for that.

Your power outages raise a flag here. Windows is being repeatedly shut down unsafely, and stuff can end up borked that way. Have you gone into the Device Manager and seen whether it claims the CD drive is working properly?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

4. About the first thing I did was check Device Manager

and it says it's working fine. Then I did the trouble shooting thing and it says if it can play music, but not read a CD that it's broken. Autorun doesn't work and neither does start-run-browse. When I click on browse a screen pops up and says 'insert disc in D drive' even though there IS a disc in D drive.

This computer is old and on its last legs so I didn't worry too much about the power outages since I'm going to replace it in a month or so. When I do replace it I'll get a battery back up. A friend & I were talking about it last night and he told me where I can pick one up for about $100. It's not strong enough to run the computer, just strong enough to let me shut down safely. This past week, the power would shut off for just a few seconds, but long enough to kill every appliance. :grr:

[RoyGBiv]

5. Can you ...

... go to My Computer, click on Folders, then click (right-click > browse) on the drive letter on the left (not in the main window) and bring up anything?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

6. Nope. Get the same message:

Please insert a disk into Drive D.

I get the message whether I try to open it, right click it or anything. Same message every time.

Weird huh? that it can play an audio but not read a CD.

[RoyGBiv]

7. Yeah ...

I think it's a problem in Windows somewhere, but I'm at a loss of where to check. I've become really bad at diagnosing problems like this on Windows. I don't have admin rights to the only Windows machines I use regularly, so I've gotten rusty.

[RoyGBiv]

8. One other thought ...

Are the other discs you're trying to use other than the audio CDs or are they DVDs? If they are DVDs, that could be the problem for a couple reasons. If it's a combo drive, the lens for the DVD may have gone bad.

I assume you've checked connections with the cables?

Other than that, I'm out of ideas for the moment. Perhaps someone with more Windows expertise will come along.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

9. The ones I've tried are the W2KPro CD and the CD

that came with the scanner and one or two others.

I pushed on all the cables, but really don't know what I'm doing. Just pushing on stuff. And there's enough fuzz in there to fill a cop car. Maybe I should vacuum it out?

[canetoad]

10. this is getting desperate

but since you have a Windows disc, why not put it in the drive, reboot and change the first boot device to the CD.
If it boots from CD at least you would know the hardware is working.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

11. It booted from the CD.

I chose repair, but then was lost. I don't know code or anything on how to fix it, just how to reinstall the whole.damned.thing.

Whatever I did or didn't do, didn't fix it since I'm getting the same message. Drat!

Thanks for the suggestion though. Maybe it narrows it down a bit. I mean, if it can boot from the CD then what the heck is going on?

[PennDem]

18. Regarding the power issue...

It sounds like your CMOS battery needs to be replaced. There is a small battery on your motherboard that saves the BIOS settings including the date/time.

[Duer 157099]

22. Epson Perfection4490 Photo = optical drive or scanner?

I'm confused

edit: never mind, just figured it out - but anyway, which optical drive is it?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

26. What's an optical drive?

Sorry. I know just enough about computers to get myself in trouble.

[RoyGBiv]

28. CD/DVD ...

They use "optics" to store and transfer data as opposed to the magnetics in "hard" drives.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

29. Thanks Roy.

So, would that be D? It's my D drive.

[RoyGBiv]

33. Yup ...

It sounds like that's the way yours is set up.

FWIW, the drive letters are arbitrary. In most standard configurations, though, any floppy will be letters A and B, a single hard drive C, and the optical D. Plug in a USB stick, and you've got E, etc.

These letters can be reassigned, and I've casually wondered if something like that might be going on with you, but I really doubt it.

I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing once and ended up with my hard drives as C and F with a second partition of the F drive on E while my two optical drives were D and G. That was confusing ... and silly ... and I still don't know how I did it.

[Duer 157099]

34. Re the mystery of drive letter assignement

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_letter_assignment

Order of assignment

Except for CP/M and early versions of MS-DOS, each of these operating systems assigns drive letters according to the following algorithm:

1. Assign the drive letter A: to the first floppy disk drive (drive 0), and B: to the second floppy disk drive (drive 1), if present.
2. Assign a drive letter, beginning with C: to the first active primary partition recognised upon the first physical hard disk.
3. Assign subsequent drive letters to the first primary partition upon each successive physical hard disk drive, if present within the system.
4. Assign subsequent drive letters to every recognised logical partition, beginning with the first hard drive and proceeding through successive physical hard disk drives, if present within the system.
5. Assign subsequent drive letters to any RAM Disk.
6. Assign subsequent drive letters to any additional floppy or optical disc drives.

[Duer 157099]

31. optical drive = cd/dvd (ie, uses laser)

as opposed to hard drive or flash drive, fyi

[Duer 157099]

12. Check which services are running

Run > services.msc

Make sure that ones like Plug and Play, and Logical Disk Manager and Shell Hardware Detection and Removable Storage are set to Auto and are running. I've had a similar problem on occasion but honestly can't recall how it resolved, but I do think it was after I made sure some services were running.

:shrug:

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

14. I've got two that are labeled Logical Disk Manager.

One was on auto, the other manual so I changed it. I couldn't find anything labeled 'shell hardware detection'. The others were already set to auto.

Didn't seem to work. I'm still getting the error message, but I appreciate the suggestion. It was worth a shot.

[Shardik]

13. Try going to your device manager, right click on your D drive

and select uninstall. Reboot and let windows find the drive again and see if the reinstallation of the drivers helps.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

15. That was one of the first things I tried.

I was hoping that would do it since uninstalling and reinstalling has worked in the past. No dice this time.

[Shardik]

16. If could be the hardware. How old is it?

You can get a new DVD/RW for around $20.oo now.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

17. Years old. I just think it's weird that I can play audio

and it will boot from the CD, but it can't read a CD. :shrug:

I guess it's time to buy a new computer.

[Shardik]

19. Only if you have the itch for something new and shiny. :)

Installing a new CD is a breeze. And inexpensive. It could possibly be a dirty lens in the player which is not allowing all data to be read.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

20. Would a dirty lens allow an audio to play, but not a CD?

And is there a way to clean a dirty lens? Just for now. Like I said, this computer is really on its last legs - at least 6 years old.

[Shardik]

23. I have never heard of it, but I can see how it might.

They do make kits that you might find at a computer supply store or online here: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=cd+player+cleaner&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&cid=11516302191243199767&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=1&ct=result#ps-sellers

They are pretty cheap. At five years, you might also consider replacing your hard drive.

Or here's a nice burner from NewEgg for $24.000 with free shipping. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136147

[Duer 157099]

24. CD qualties vary and yes that can influence which will play

So presumably the audio CD is higher quality, unless it's a homemade one. It's amazing how much they can vary, brand by brand.

Can you get *any* data CD to read, because maybe it's just the CD itself. If so, try cleaning the CD, wiping with soft cloth from center out to edge, not in circular motion. I've rescued many a scratched disc just by cleaning - sometimes even using pretty harsh methods (abrasives) to remove or at least minimize the scratches

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

27. I've tried at least 3 or 4 different CDs and none work.

But, weirdly enough, I can boot from the CD. I went into BIOS, per a suggestion above, and changed it to boot up from the CD. So, it's reading data. Or at least it read the data from the OS disc. But, I can't put the disc in the drive and read from there.

The audio I tested (and it played) was just a song I burned to a CD from ITunes. So it was homemade.

Whole thing is a puzzler and I thank you very much for your suggestions and help.

[Duer 157099]

32. Well those are good clues

it means the drive itself is fine, it means the discs are fine (assuming that the cd/disc you booted also does not show up in Windows Explorer when the others don't)

Sometimes some CD burning software will mess things up - can you try to uninstall whichever you are using, and see if that helps?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

35. I don't have any CD burning software on this PC.

When it whacked out the first time I reinstalled the OS and firefox and Avast and zonealarmpro and forgot everything else.

[Duer 157099]

37. Ok... and is that when it stopped working, too?

And if so, is your windows updates (patches, hotfixes) in the same state as before, when it worked?

Post details about your hardware, I can look more things up (eg, model of CD drive, and BIOS version)

I've had this same/similar issue so many times in the past myself, that I'd like to finally once and for all figure out what's going on, because I'm sure I'll have it again some time in the future.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

39. I can't recall when the CD worked last.

It worked when I had to change BIOS to boot from the CD then reinstalled it. And I 'think' that after I reinstalled it I also installed the 4th patch - what's that thing called? those updates the Microcrap does?

As far as hardware, this machine was built by a friend of a friend 11/03. I still have the invoice.

I've got:

Case MXTP|MID 350W 2FAN CSX147KBF-W

MB VIA NF2|3P3D MN31N SHTL MATX RTL

CUP AMD|2500/333 ATHLON XP BARTON R

DDRAM 256 DDR333 PC-2700 KINGMAX %

FD 1.44MB|MITSUMI D359M3D BLACK %

HD 80 GB|SEAGATE ST380011A 7200 %

MODEM 56K|CREATIVE V.92 D15652-1 %

CDRW LITEON|52X32X52 ;TR-52327S BL

[Duer 157099]

40. It looks very much like my own

and I would not be thinking I need to get rid of mine. Only reason I can see for upgrading hardware these days is if one is big into gaming or something -- otherwise i bet most of your issues are software related and you're already learning now how to deal with some of this.

[Duer 157099]

41. FYI, just posting for reference for the thread

http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/storage/liteon_52x/

Lite-On LTR-52327S Specifications

* Speed :
52x Write CD-R
32x Rewrite CD-RW
52x Read CD-ROM Speed
* Interface : ATAPI / E-IDE, support up to Ultra-DMA Mode2 ( 33.3MB/sec )
* Access Time : 80ms ( typical )
Buffer Size : 2MB
* System Requirements :
CPU Pentium 166MHz or faster, 128MB DRAM required
HDD must have access time < 20ms, with a minimum of 100MB Free space
Support Operating System :
Windows 95 / 98 / NT / ME / XP / 2000
* Disc Format : CD / CD-R / CD-RW formats both 8cm & 12cm discs ( up to 99 mins )
* MTBF ( Life ) : 70,000 Hours
* Dimensions : 170.0 ( D ) x 145.8 ( W ) x 41.3 ( H ) mm
* Weight : < 1000g

[Duer 157099]

21. Another idea

In Device Manager, go to the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller and look at (probably) the secondary one (if that's the controller you have the optical drive(s) on. Under "Advanced Settings" check out what the transfer mode is. Play with those settings.

I think those settings are also avail via BIOS, so if your bios/cmos has been reset recently as you indicated, this might be involved.

Check any documentation for that specific optical drive to see which transfer mode should be used

edit to add possibly helpful link:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

25. Both the primary and the secondary are set to

'DMA if available' and 'Auto Detect'. I monkeyed around and changed them then rebooted and the screen came up whacked out so went back in and set them back to their original settings.

[Duer 157099]

30. Was that in the bios?

There may be a similar setting in the bios (do you know what bios/version you're using?)

The hard drive(s) is usually on the primary controller, optical on secondary.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

36. I changed them using Device Manager in My Computer.

Not sure where they are in BIOS. And I'm not sure which BIOS I'm using.

Sorry I'm such an idiot.

[Duer 157099]

38. It's ok, this is usually how we all started learning

And it never ends, lol.

When you boot up, press either the DEL or F1 key (it may say which one you need to press to get into your Bios settings). On the top of the bios page it should say something like "Award" or "Phoenix" or whatever, and a version number.

edit to add an easier method: Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information

On the System Summary page, look for the BIOS Version/Date entry.

In fact, much of the info on that page would be useful here, if you can screenshot it (if not, fine)

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

42. I'm too dumb to do a screen shot - i remember just enough to

muck it up, but I copied it to the desktop and then copied it here, but it lost its clean look.

Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4 Build 2195
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name
System Manufacturer NVIDIA
System Model AWRDACPI
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 10 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~1094 Mhz
BIOS Version Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Windows Directory C:\WINNT
Locale United States
Time Zone
Total Physical Memory 490,992 KB
Available Physical Memory 259,816 KB
Total Virtual Memory 1,688,948 KB
Available Virtual Memory 1,181,980 KB
Page File Space 1,197,956 KB

[Duer 157099]

43. That's fine - I'm using the same BIOS/version

Although it did just finally click for me that you're using Win2K, not XP

OK good, so in that same place, go down to the "Components" "CD-ROM" and post what you find there...

Assuming this drive is on your secondary controller (as opposed to being the slave on your primary controller), have you tried to uninstall your secondary controller? (Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controller)

I know this is frustrating, how much hit-n-miss and trial-n-error this involves, but I think that's just the nature of the beast, at least from all the evidence I've ever seen. It just takes time. And patience, lol

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

44. Here you go:

System Information report written at: 12/28/2008 06:31:36 PM


Item Value
Drive D:
Description CD-ROM Drive
Media Loaded False
Media Type CD-ROM
Name LITE-ON LTR-24102B
Manufacturer (Standard CD-ROM drives)
Status OK
Transfer Rate Not Available
SCSI Target ID 0
PNP Device ID IDE\CDROMLITE-ON_LTR-24102B______________________5S5A____\5&D7D2AD2&0&0.0.0

[Duer 157099]

45. Try this

Check this link, it has a firmware download for your drive. The above post shows that your system is not correctly identifying your drive, so *perhaps* that is part of the problem?

http://www.liteonit.com/DOWNLOADS/ODD/LTR-52327S/firmware/R52QS0E5A.zip

http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=75

http://us.liteonit.com/us/help_firmware_odd.html

http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=152

editing to say: OR... the invoice you posted shows a CD-RW other than the one that is actually installed. It's a PITA but sometimes you have to actually look at the label on the drive itself, which of course involves removing it (ouch) - but before doing any firmware or driver upgrade, make SURE which model it actually is

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

46. Oh gawd. The very ideah of getting that drive out

makes me pound my head against the desk. What would happen if I downloaded it and it was to the wrong CD-RW? Would my computer crash? Or could I fix it and just end up back where I started from with a CD that doesn't work?

And thank you so much for your help. You've been more than patient. In fact, thanks to all who answered my questions.

:youguysrock:!

[Duer 157099]

47. Not sure about that with firmware, but I'd be careful

Perhaps the markings on the faceplate will answer the question -- here's an image of the one your system thinks it is - does yours have the "24x10x40" on it, or does it have other numbers that would match with the invoice model? (eg, 52x24x52)

[PennDem]

48. Create another user account

in Windows. Logon using the new account and try reading your data disks to see if the problem remains.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

49. I don't think that I can create another account in W2KPro.

At least, I've never found that option.

[PennDem]

50. Step by step instructions...

http://uis.georgetown.edu/software/documentation/win2000/win2000.creating.user.accounts.html

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

51. :rofl:

It says I have to be an administrator to create a new account. I logged on as administrator and it still won't let me do it. :eyes:

Sorry. I looked all over that site and can't figure out where I'm going wrong. I DID try.

[PennDem]

52. Do you get an error or other message

when trying to create the new account while logged on as administrator?

Have you tried to read your data CDs while logged on with the administrator account?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

53. No error message, just the option to add a user isn't

available. The 'add' is greyed out, not clickable. If that makes sense.

I did try to read a disc, but got the same 'please insert disc in Drive D' message.

FWIW, I went to start > shut down > Log off wakemeup. Then when the screen came up I typed in administrator.

[PennDem]

54. Was your computer ever joined to a domain

or part of a business network?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

55. No. It's my home PC.

[PennDem]

56. Random thoughts

Music CDs play through the audio cable that connects the CD-ROM to your sound card.

Data goes across the wide 40 pin IDE cable which currently does not work inside Windows but does work to boot the PC. That pretty much rules out a bad IDE cable and the drive itself.

The drive does not work under 2 different user profiles.

Have you tried booting into safe mode to read your data disks?

What version of Media Player are you using?

What about your file system? Is it NTFS or FAT32?

You mentioned that you did not reload any burning software after your last rebuild, is that right?


If you haven't already, try this:
Uninstall the drive through device manager.
Shut the system down.
Remove all connectors from the back of the drive.
Start the computer and login to Windows.
Shut it down again.
Reconnect your cables.
Start up, letting Windows reload the device drivers and then try it again.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

57. Okay.

I tried in safe mode, but no go.

No Media Player. I have adobe flash 9 - whatever the hell that is and why I downloaded it, I can't remember.

NTFS.

Never reloaded file burning program. If I want to burn, I do it on my laptop.


Another dumb question: when you say disconnect cables from the back of the drive, you mean open up the computer, push through all the fuzz and disconnect the things that are hooked in the back of the CD ROM? Or do you mean disconnect all the crap from the back of the PC? Like, the brazillion wires and stuff?

And thanks for all your help so far. I've learned quite a bit from everyone here. Even if I don't fix this I'm still learning something.

[RoyGBiv]

58. Cables ...

He means the cables from the back of the CD drive.

The point is to have Windows boot and not see the hardware at all, then reconnecting it and having Windows see it as though it is a new piece of hardware. This sometimes works in situations where a driver reinstall doesn't.

[PennDem]

59. If I were you...

and the inside of the case was as dusty as you say, I'd disconnect all the cables from the back of the computer, take it outside and blow it out with canned air or a compressor.

Regarding Windows Media Player, download and install version 9 if you don't have it.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/9series/default.aspx

I'm assuming that the Windows 2000 install disk you have is not a "Restore" disk but a plain old OS install disk. Restore disks can contain additional software from the manufacturer which might include burning software like Easy CD Creator which can cause the very issue you are having.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

60. I downloaded Windows Media Player and noticed that

it installed easy cd creator at the same time. So now I've got burning software on my computer.

Still getting an error message. I'll try disconnecting the cables tomorrow or the next day. More than likely, if I have to disconnect all the wires I'll just go buy a new computer. That is ONE thing I was trying to avoid: unplugging everything and breaking a nail. I might as well break my nails on a new machine.

[RoyGBiv]

61. Serious Advice ...

When you do buy the new computer, after it is up and running, take the CD drive out of the old one, walk out side (with baseball bat) and go all Office Space on it.

It heals broken nails. I'm sure of it.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

62. Will do!

:rofl:

:hug:

[PennDem]

63. Ready for some registry editing?

Step 1:
Close all open programs then start the Windows Registry Editor by clicking Start, Run, and typing "regedit" followed by hitting the enter key.

Step 2:
Locate the registry class number {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class directory and single click it.


Step 3:
The right pane will become active with settings for the system’s optical drives. Any given system may contain one or both filter drivers, so don’t be concerned if one of the two is missing. Right click UpperFilters and rename it to UpperFilters_old. Rename LowerFilters to LowerFilters_old. Close the registry editor.

Step 4: Reboot and give it a try. The renamed registry keys will be recreated on startup and hopefully correct the problem.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

64. That was fun, but still getting the same error message.

[PennDem]

65. At least you're having a good time!

I always enjoy a good challenge and you've certainly brought one.

I'm down to a final attempt before conceding to RoyGBiv's last advice of beating it to a pulp.


Restart the computer with the Windows 2000 installation CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.

Choose Repair a Windows 2000 installation, and then choose Recovery Console.

In Recovery Console, delete the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Cdr4vsd.sys file if you have one, and then restart your computer.

I'm going to refill my wine glass!

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

66. I going to have dinner and at least TWO glasses of wine

before I try this.

Be back in an hour or so.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

67. No go.

I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

I got in there and then I tried to follow directions - typical worthless microcrap stuff - using help/?

I typed delete and then the path that you gave and I got this error message:

"Delete only operates within the system directories of the current windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition or the local installation sources."

[PennDem]

68. You should be at a command prompt

That looks something like this: C:\windows\system>

At the prompt, type "cd\" without the quotes to take you back to the root C:\>

Then type "cd windows\system32\drivers" and hit enter.

You should see this prompt now: C:\Windows\system32\drivers>

When you have that, type "del Cdr4vsd.sys"

Hopefully you'll get a confirmation of one file deleted.

Type "exit" and then restart.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

69. No go.

I had to type 1 - cd didn't work and neither did c or d. After I typed '1' I got: c:\winnt>

Then I went through a bunch more gyrations and got 'access denied.' Then I went through a bunch more gyrations and got 'no matching files.' I can't remember what order it was in or what I did. I just kept trying combinations of typing the entire directory, parts of the directory, etc. that you gave me.

Oh, it asked for a password and I've never set one up so I just hit enter. :shrug:

Anyhoo, Costco's got a pretty good deal on an HP that sounds like it would work for me. Problem is, it's Vista. Crap. But, no one is selling XP that I can find so I guess I'm stuck.

Thank you for all your help, though. I do appreciate it and I enjoyed trying.

:yourock:

[PennDem]

70. Sorry, I'm rusty with Windows 2000

If you want to try the recovery console again do as before including the selection of C:\WINNT as the Windows installation directory by typing 1.

At the command prompt, change to the C:\Winnt\System32\Drivers folder.

To do this, type "cd system32\drivers" and then press ENTER.

At the command prompt, type "dir" and then press ENTER.

Now rename the following files if they exist so that they have an .old file name extension:
Aspi32.sys
Cdr4vsd.sys
Cdudf.sys
Cdrpwd.sys

For example, to rename the Aspi32.sys file to Aspi32.old, type "ren aspi32.sys aspi32.old" and then press ENTER.

Type exit.

Reboot.

Drive to Costco and buy your new computer!

[Duer 157099]

71. Well if you *do* replace it...

can I buy your old motherboard/processor? :-) PM me if so

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

72. I got back from Costco a couple of hours ago

with a brand new computer with Vista crap. Do you know it took me 5 minutes to figure out how to turn the danged thing off? And it doesn't really shut off. It just goes to sleep.

Sure, I'll PM you about it.

[canetoad]

73. I've been following this thread

with not a damn suggestion to fix your CD problem, so congrats on the new computer. Commiserations on Vista though. Can you downgrade?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

74. Not that I could find. I think a few months

ago microcrap was letting buyers downgrade, but now they insist that all the bugs are worked out and it's just honkey dorey.

[Shardik]

75. What did you get? Vista's been getting a bad wrap.

I've had it since before it was released and since the first SP it has been rock solid.

To turn your computer off, there is an arrow to the right of the "power button" thingie that you clicked on that will give you a menu of options from restart to power off.

If you aren't comfy with the Aero style, right click on your desktop and select personalize and then theme and pick Windows classic for a more familiar look and feel.

Give it time though, you may end up liking it.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

76. I got Vista.

As far as the computer, I don't know. It's HP with 4 something ram and something, something, something. Just a cheapo that Costco had. Oh, and 64 bit whatever the heck that is. I do know that some of my programs won't run including ZoneAlarmPro which irritates me. I love ZoneAlarmPro. :grr:

I also can't figure out how to check the C drive and look at programs that are installed.

[Shardik]

77. I used to love zone alarm as well.

Vista has MANY safeguards built in. You will still need an anti virus software and there are several out there. I use Windows Live OneCare mainly because it does a lot more than just antivirus and is relatively cheap and I can use it on all my computers with the same license. There are several freebies out there as well like avg: http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?tag=mncol;pop

To check your C drive, click on your Windows button in the lower left hand corner, look along the right hand list of the pop-up and select computer. You will see your drives there.

You can also chose control panel instead of computer and then click on programs & features which will show you everything installed and allow you to remove them if you want.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

78. I've got avast and spyware blaster

and just using the stupid microcrap firewall for now.

I used to use spybot search and destroy, but i don't like it much anymore. they seemed to have messed it up. :shrug:

And I have photoshop 7 that won't load for some reason. Still messing around with it. Maybe I'll get lucky and figure out what the problem is.

Do you know what the difference is between "program files" and "program files (x86)" is? That's got me stumped.

[Shardik]

79. One is for 64 bit programs.

I'm using CS3 Photoshop. What problems are you running into in the install?

There were problems at first with PS7 but MS claims to have fixed them. I don't believe Adobe worked on the compatability issue. Make sure your version of Vista is up to date (via Windows update in the menu).