I am presently on my third CD ROM and this one is acting the same as those before. It will not eject. I can hear it humming as though trying to open, but it won’t. Anyone able to tell me what’s wrong and how to correct it?
To quote the typical handy shotgun response, what OS are you using? As in, if you’re using a Mac, the odds for it being a software problem are a tad higher than if you were using a Windows platform (after all, who uses the ‘eject’ command to eject their discs?).
Also, I’ll assume that by CD-ROM, you mean the actual drives and not discs. In which case, I have no frickin’ clue. Sounds like a faulty drive to me, but if you’ve gone through three of 'em…
Actually, if it is on a Mac, you have to unmount the CD (Command-Y, “Put Away”, or else drag it to the trash can), which, assuming your drive is functioning, will cause it to eject. Pushing the button will not eject a mounted CD. (This is consistent with other removable media. You can’t eject a Zip, Jaz, SyQuest, floppy, Bernoulli, or other removable cartridge from its drive while mounted either.)
If, for some reason, you have SHARED the CD (or your OS has the hiccups and thinks you did), you may not be able to unmount / eject a CD (or other removable media to which this happens) until you unshare it. Try Control-clicking it and select “Sharing” submenu of “Information”.
If the CD is properly unmounted and the Mac cannot eject it, try inserting a straightened paper clip into the small hole that’s generally to the right of center on the bezel surface of the drive.
Oh KK got to it before me. Well, you see, every cdrom drive on the market (except the one in the psx2) has a hole in front that is used to eject it. You should use that & clean the cdrom drive, just in case.
Well, gee, duh, I never woulda thought that hole in the front would actually open. You mean I can really push a button on the front and it will spit out a cd (provided, of course, there is one in there)?
MY OS is Win98SE. I have a 500 MHz AMD-K6-2 processor; 128 Megs of RAM; Creative Labs 8432 CD-RW; and a CD-ROM that won’t open.
USEFUL ideas would be appreciated. Most other comments will get a response, but I don’t promise what kind.
I don’t think that handy was giving you a smart-ass response here. based on the information you gave in the OP, he and the rest had to assume you were a novice and they answered in kind. No offense was meant, I am sure. Handy is one of the most prolific contributors to SDMB and his comments are always very well thought out. Let’s start again, okay?
Quasi
I don’t think that my answer was a smart-ass remark.
There actually is a tiny hole right on the front of the cdrom drive, you put a pin or paperclip into that thing & the door opens.
If I wanted to give a smart-ass answer, Id say read the manual, thats what its for.
It has been brought to my attention that I may have misconstrued the response by handy to my CD ROM problem. Please accept my apology. I am new at this and must learn the ways of the message boards…
Now, I still have the problem with my CD Drive. As I said, my OS is WIN98SE. I have 128 Megs of RAM with 75 to 80% resources free. The Creative Labs 8432 CD-RW drive is internal and is functioning properly. I purchased the last CD-ROM drive approximately six weeks ago. It had been working fine until about one week ago, when I pushed the button on front and it refused to open. It hums, but nothing happens. Yes, I can push a paper clip through the tiny little opening in front and open it manually, but when I close it again, it still will not open.
Suggestions? Need more information? If so, I will be glad to supply it, if I can.
Three CD-ROM’s and they’ve all behaved the same way? While it is possible the CD-ROMs are all faulty I’m starting to guess that the problem lies elsewhere.
-
Are you rough on your CD-ROMs? Use them as cup holders? Have a cat that plays with the tray? Do you shove the tray to close it or press the button? (I know shoving the tray looks cooler and is more fun but use the button anyway.)
-
Is there anything obstructing the door? The bezel to the case in the way?
-
Is the computer in a particularly dirty environment? (And I don’t mean leaving your laundry on the floor but rather something like an industrial area.)
-
How is it mounted in the case? Sometimes the wrong screws impinge on the internal electronics and mess things up (had it happen to me…the ‘right’ screws were nearly indistinguishable from the ‘bad’ screws…the result is my CD would not eject.)
-
Are the plugs to the CD properly seated? The power connector can be a bit tight to plug in.
-
Is it always the same CD that wouldn’t eject in all of these cases? Is the CD noticeably warped? Is it one of those silly tiny CD’s or oddly shaped promotional CD’s?
-
Does the CD never eject or only after hard use? When you first turn on your PC drop a CD in and immediatley eject it. Then drop one in, leave for five minutes and try ejecting.
-
Try ejecting the CD from DOS mode. Boot your comuter to DOS (NOT Windows!). See if the CD will eject then. Perhaps Windows is for some reason tying up the CD drive. If it ejects fine under DOS then your problem is Windows and not the CD drive.
-
Scan for viruses. I’ve never heard of one that holds on to CD’s but who knows. There are thousands of viruses out there and they can do pretty much anything the programmer wanted them to do.
-
Dang…so close but I can’t think of a 10th issue.
Let us know how it goes.
Note: Since Jeff forgot that item 3 on his list was, in fact, ‘Hi Opal,’ his list is judged to actually have 10 items.
I’ve considered most of the issues you brought up, Jeff. The CD drive worked fine for a month or so, then one day it just wouldn’t open. No, I don’t use it for a cup holder although in the last few days I have considered using it for a frisbee. It leads a very sedate existence and gets very little use at all. I use it most for installing new applications; occasionally for playing music cds. I’ve wondered if the cd burner software might be interfering, but I’m not sure–I guess I am trying to avoid removing and uninstalling, hoping the answer will be something simple…My suspicions have been that Windows or something else is sabotaging it.
When you hit the eject button, does the LED on the CD drive blink? If it does, then the problem is mechanical - maybe tray misaligned? If it doesn’t, then its software or electrical (power connector?)
Yes, the yellow led lights up for about three seconds when I push the button; I hear it humming, then it stops. It’s a puzzlement. Not to mention frustrating.
Hm… I had similar problems/symptoms with an old HP external CD-RW drive. Same thing with the light changing colors, etc. It was definitely a software thing as a) the problem could be replicated and b) the problem didn’t occur in DOS.
Assuming Creative Labs can create products as shoddy as HP’s (a daunting task to be sure), I’d check for both new drivers and new firmware. Though the driver update probably won’t fix it, try it first. If that fails, try updating the firmware (if available).
-
Is your CD drive layed flat or is it on its side? If on its side the CD may have slipped from its tray and blocked the door from ejecting.
-
Try to End Task all operations. Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and select an item in the list and click on End Task. Do this over and over until there is nothing in the list except for Explorer and Systray. Leave those two alone.
-
Hi Opal! (Don’t know why…just thought I’d extend my list per KKBattousai’s example).
How are the CD and CD-RW drives set up on the IDE cables - do you have them both on the secondary channel (the correct way) or is one on the primary channel with the hard drive(the not so correct way)? Do you have them jumpered correctly as far as master/slave goes? You may need to look at the instructions for the CD-RW drive to see what the configuration is supposed to be.
I messed up the cabling when installing an old HP CD-RW drive and it caused sporadic wierdness with itself and my DVD-rom drive.
I am assuming that both the drives are IDE and not SCSI.
In MY COMPUTER, select the cdrom drive, click eject from the menu. Does that work?
The IDE cable is plugged correctly. The CD-RW is the master and CDROM is the slave. It has been working properly in this configuration for several months, so I don’t understand why all of a sudden the CD ROM won’t work unless it is a software problem.
I went to MY COMPUTER and used the eject command: the CD-RW will eject, but the CD ROM will not.