UPGRADING REPAIRING PCs

• Make sure the drive shows up as a working device in System
Properties.
• Try a CD that you know works.
• Restart the computer (the magic cure-all).
Troubleshooting Optical Drives 139
• Remove the drive from the Device Manager in Windows 9x,
allow the system to redetect the drive, and reinstall drivers (if
PnP-based system).
Failure Reading CD-R and CD-RW Disks in a CD-ROM or
DVD Drive
If your CD-ROM or DVD drive fails to read CD-R and CD-RW disks,
try the following solutions:
• Check compatibility; some very old 1x CD-ROM drives can’t
read CD-R media. Replace the drive with a newer, faster,
cheaper model.
• Many early-model DVD drives can’t read CD-R and CD-RW
media; check compatibility.
• CD-ROM drive must be multi-read compatible to read CD-
RW because of lower reflectivity of media; replace drive.
• If some CD-Rs but not others can be read, check media color
combination to see whether some color combinations work
better than others; change brand of media.
• Packet-written CD-Rs (from Adaptec DirectCD and backup
programs) can’t be read on MS-DOS/Windows 3.1 CD-ROM
drives because of limitations of the operating system.
IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM Drive Runs Slowly
If your IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drive performs poorly, check the following
items:
• Check the cache size in the Performance tab of the System
Properties Control Panel. Select the quad-speed setting
(largest cache size).
• Check to see whether the CD-ROM drive is set as the slave to
your hard disk; move the CD-ROM to the secondary controller
if possible.
• Your PIO or UDMA mode might not be set correctly for your
drive in the BIOS; check the drive specs and use autodetect
in BIOS for best results.