Mart,

Many thanks I will try a cleaning gadget first and then the replacement
drive if all the connections are sound.

Richard.
..
"Mart" wrote in message
...
OK Richard, two things you can try with your CD-ROM (although my *guess*
is that it probably is failing especially if it's more than just a few
years old!) is to run a (commercial) CD lens cleaner in your CD-ROM. This
is normally available from your local record shop (Tesco?) and should only
cost a couple of quid or so.

Secondly, remove the side-cover from your pc and confirm that the cables
are firmly seated in their sockets at the back of the CD-ROM - AND on the
motherboard! - They *may* have vibrated loose.

Failing that, a new CD-ROM - or better still a CD-RW, to allow you to burn
your own CD's - is probably the best solution. Again, replacement CD-ROM's
are quite cheap and CD-RW's are not very much dearer. No particular
recommendations for brands - all probably made at the same factory in
Taiwan (or China), just different badges. Scan the shelves at Tesco - or
Google g

Mart



"Hawkins" wrote in message
...
Hi Mart,

Scandisk ran with no problems in safe mode so that puts my worst fears to
rest!

Starting from the WinMe floppy went OK.
The first result was CDR101 : Not ready reading drive E.
Second CD actually read its contents OK.
Put the first one in again an hey presto it showed its contents.
Put in another CD and got the same error message again.
Then at another try all was OK.

I then restarted ME and tried the Scrabble CD again. It hung for a while
with the activity light pulsing slowly. I was on the point of giving up
when the CD drive sprang to life and the game loaded.

So does this mean the CD drive is on the Blink, literally, or is there
any further treatment I can give it ?

Thanks very much for your spot on diagnosis so far.

Richard.
.
"Mart" wrote in message
...
Taking the second point first, try running Scandisk in Safe Mode as
'other background running processes' can often cause Scandisk to recycle
in Normal Mode.

To boot into Safe Mode :-
There is an 'Official' (documented) MS method for WinMe - as per a
search for 'safe mode' in Help and Support Centre will find - by holding
down or 'stabbing at' the Ctrl or the F8 keys as the pc boots from cold.

A further couple of methods are by using the Shift key as above, or when
your machine is running in Normal Mode, run msconfig.exe and on the
General tab, select Advanced and check the 'Enable Startup Menu' box.
(Not forgetting to disable it when you've finished g)

Regarding the CD's being unable to be read issue - the CD-ROM *might*
just be failing and *probably* unrelated to the Scandisk issue. You need
to check-out the CD-ROM in Real Mode DOS.

To 'see' it in Real Mode DOS, Boot, using your WinMe Startup (floppy)
Disk in the A: drive.
Select option 2. Start computer with CD-ROM support.

Let the screen information scroll until you eventually see a line which
should report a drive letter for the CD-ROM - but note that it may not
necessarily the same letter as you would expect to see in Windows.

For example, you may see the CD-ROM becoming the E: so the screen should
show:
Drive E:= Driver MSCD001 UNIT 0
Your CD-ROM Is Drive E

When the boot disk finally settles down, you will be presented with an
A:\ prompt.

Now put a (data) CD into the CD-ROM and at the A:\ prompt, type "E:"
(no quotes and note the colon after the letter E) Then Press Return.

Now, at the E:\ prompt, type "DIR /P" (no quotes and note the space)
Then
press Return.

You should see a listing of the CD contents. - Try several CD's

Come back with your results. Give EXACT errors reports - if any.

Mart


"Hawkins" wrote in message
...
Neighbour complains that she can no longer load her Scrabble CD. I
manage to get it to start via the Run box but it will not start from
its normal shortcut and other CDs cannot be read.
I started to do some long overdue housekeeping and when I got Scandisk
it would start, recycle many times but would not progress to the end.
Is this a indicator that the hard drive is going south or should I do
some other checks to be certain ?

Richard