Computer Problems

[randomlyblanks]

Two questions:

1. On my semi-new compaq presario 5304 the CD drive will no longer open. The light flashes and then the computer freezes. Any dopers know of the problem and how to correct it?
2. On my old computer, which is a pentium 100 win 95, it had originally had an external CD, but when I bought it the person kept the drive. It still has all the CD drivers and such and remembers it as drive D:. Is there any way I can clear out all the remnants of the drive?

Thanks!

[tcburnett]

*Originally posted by poogas21 *
**Two questions:

1. On my semi-new compaq presario 5304 the CD drive will no longer open. The light flashes and then the computer freezes. Any dopers know of the problem and how to correct it?

**

Does the keyboard lock up or does the drive attempt to open and fail to do so? If the drive just won’t open you probably have a CD in crooked. The computer must think the CD drive is OK or it wouldn’t load the driver during boot-up.

** 2. On my old computer, which is a pentium 100 win 95, it had originally had an external CD, but when I bought it the person kept the drive. It still has all the CD drivers and such and remembers it as drive D:. Is there any way I can clear out all the remnants of the drive?

Thanks! **

Yep. Go to ‘system’ in ‘control panel’ and delete it.

[Una_Persson]

*Originally posted by tcburnett *

** 2. On my old computer, which is a pentium 100 win 95, it had originally had an external CD, but when I bought it the person kept the drive. It still has all the CD drivers and such and remembers it as drive D:. Is there any way I can clear out all the remnants of the drive?

Thanks! **

Yep. Go to ‘system’ in ‘control panel’ and delete it. **

I think to be more specific, you must go to the Device Manager tab under the “System” icon, and delete it from there?

And most all CD drives have an “emergency open” function. There should be a small hole on the front face of the drive, into which one can stick a toothpick or other small, non-conductive device to force the door open. Try that and see if it opens.

[handy]

Yeah, try what they said first & then restart the computer, it should see the drive again & intall the right drivers.
Be sure there is NO cd in the drive. If you have a dirty cd or a crappy cd in it, it may also cause this effect.

[randomlyblanks]

I was able to fix problem 1. on my own. I had already tried the manual release, nothing. So I opened up the computer and disconnected the IDE cable. On the next start up, the drawer opened fine. Turns out it was one of my sisters CDs that was INCREDIBLY dirty. Now that’s fixed. I’ll try out #2 soon.

[Odieman]

Also check to see if it’s loading drivers for it in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files.
Go to run and type sysedit and you will be able to see what’s in it.
Keith

[astro]

*Originally posted by poogas21 *
**Two questions:

2. On my old computer, which is a pentium 100 win 95, it had originally had an external CD, but when I bought it the person kept the drive. It still has all the CD drivers and such and remembers it as drive D:. Is there any way I can clear out all the remnants of the drive?
   Thanks! **

Per Odieman run sysedit form the Start-Run tab on the desktop(program is actually located in c:\windows\system\sysedit.exe). For the autoexec.bat file place the word “rem” in front of the statement that has the word “mscdex.exe” in the line then save the file. Go to config.sys and place the word “rem” in front of the line that has the “device=” statement that loads the cd driver and save this file.

Then after you restart the system with these changes if the CD drive is still being seen as an active drive in the system panel (it shouldn’t be) delete it then.

[handy]

I won! it was a dirty cd.

You could have waited longer, though & the computer would come up with a message saying that the cd was probably dirty. It may take several minutes for that to occur.