CDRW drive and CDR drives quit simultaneously

HP 8200 CDWriter drive in W98SE
I don't use this drive very often, but it usually makes data CD's with
few coasters. I use EasyIso, a nice small executable.

I was making backup data CD's yesterday, made several fine. I reboot
before each try, much better success.

The next new Imation blank CD became a coaster. I rebooted and tried
again, same result. Then the next time I inserted a CD and clicked on
the CD drive in Explorer, I got a "drive not ready" screen. From then
on, that's all I get, regardless of the disk contents in the drive.

My original CD Drive, a Mitsumi, normally works fine. When the HP
started giving me the screens, I tried the Mitsumi and get the same
screen now, so both of them seem to have started the same issue at the
same time.

At cold boot, the HP drive light comes on briefly as normal in the
bootup process. Normally, the drive light is on continuously if a disk
is present. Now, the light comes on when I open the drive door, blinks a
few times after the door is closed, that's all, even with a CD present.

The drive is still connected, properties are normal in Device Manager.
I tried to run a cleaner disk, but of course can't operate the drive to
clean it.

The drive is 5 years old, but has not had much use, so wear IMO is not
the issue.

Advice?

TIA

If the drives are connected to the same IDE cable, try disconnecting each
one in turn and see if the other operates OK on its own.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"m" wrote in message ...
HP 8200 CDWriter drive in W98SE
I don't use this drive very often, but it usually makes data CD's with few
coasters. I use EasyIso, a nice small executable.

I was making backup data CD's yesterday, made several fine. I reboot
before each try, much better success.

The next new Imation blank CD became a coaster. I rebooted and tried
again, same result. Then the next time I inserted a CD and clicked on the
CD drive in Explorer, I got a "drive not ready" screen. From then on,
that's all I get, regardless of the disk contents in the drive.

My original CD Drive, a Mitsumi, normally works fine. When the HP started
giving me the screens, I tried the Mitsumi and get the same screen now, so
both of them seem to have started the same issue at the same time.

At cold boot, the HP drive light comes on briefly as normal in the bootup
process. Normally, the drive light is on continuously if a disk is
present. Now, the light comes on when I open the drive door, blinks a few
times after the door is closed, that's all, even with a CD present.

The drive is still connected, properties are normal in Device Manager.
I tried to run a cleaner disk, but of course can't operate the drive to
clean it.

The drive is 5 years old, but has not had much use, so wear IMO is not the
issue.

Advice?

TIA

If both drives are on the secondary cable, you might want to try slaving one
of them with your hard drive.

--
Regards


Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo



"m" wrote in message ...
HP 8200 CDWriter drive in W98SE
I don't use this drive very often, but it usually makes data CD's with few
coasters. I use EasyIso, a nice small executable.

I was making backup data CD's yesterday, made several fine. I reboot
before each try, much better success.

The next new Imation blank CD became a coaster. I rebooted and tried
again, same result. Then the next time I inserted a CD and clicked on the
CD drive in Explorer, I got a "drive not ready" screen. From then on,
that's all I get, regardless of the disk contents in the drive.

My original CD Drive, a Mitsumi, normally works fine. When the HP started
giving me the screens, I tried the Mitsumi and get the same screen now, so
both of them seem to have started the same issue at the same time.

At cold boot, the HP drive light comes on briefly as normal in the bootup
process. Normally, the drive light is on continuously if a disk is
present. Now, the light comes on when I open the drive door, blinks a few
times after the door is closed, that's all, even with a CD present.

The drive is still connected, properties are normal in Device Manager.
I tried to run a cleaner disk, but of course can't operate the drive to
clean it.

The drive is 5 years old, but has not had much use, so wear IMO is not the
issue.

Advice?

TIA

m wrote:
HP 8200 CDWriter drive in W98SE
I don't use this drive very often, but it usually makes data CD's with
few coasters. I use EasyIso, a nice small executable.

I was making backup data CD's yesterday, made several fine. I reboot
before each try, much better success.

The next new Imation blank CD became a coaster. I rebooted and tried
again, same result. Then the next time I inserted a CD and clicked on
the CD drive in Explorer, I got a "drive not ready" screen. From then
on, that's all I get, regardless of the disk contents in the drive.

My original CD Drive, a Mitsumi, normally works fine. When the HP
started giving me the screens, I tried the Mitsumi and get the same
screen now, so both of them seem to have started the same issue at the
same time.

At cold boot, the HP drive light comes on briefly as normal in the
bootup process. Normally, the drive light is on continuously if a disk
is present. Now, the light comes on when I open the drive door, blinks a
few times after the door is closed, that's all, even with a CD present.

The drive is still connected, properties are normal in Device Manager.
I tried to run a cleaner disk, but of course can't operate the drive to
clean it.

The drive is 5 years old, but has not had much use, so wear IMO is not
the issue.

Advice?

TIA

Thanks to all, swapping/connecting drive cables not easy for me.

Since the drive lights/drive door operate, and since both stopped AFAIK
at about the same time, is there anything in Windows to look for?

Long ago I disabled autoplay. Tried some fixes, can't enable autoplay.
How to do it?

Also, s tip like My Computer/CD drive- right click context menu shows
"play"- mine does not, how to get that back?

Thanks

What does it show in Device Manager?
Reset configuration in drive properties. A reboot is required.
I noticed when at AVGs manual download update page that something is
mentioned about updateing EasyCD drivers if you use AVG.
So an AV program could cause problems.
Burning large files/data works better if the AV program is turned off.
Plus doing it that way ended the reboot after a burn like you mentioned.
Hope this helps?

"m" wrote:

m wrote:
HP 8200 CDWriter drive in W98SE
I don't use this drive very often, but it usually makes data CD's with
few coasters. I use EasyIso, a nice small executable.

I was making backup data CD's yesterday, made several fine. I reboot
before each try, much better success.

The next new Imation blank CD became a coaster. I rebooted and tried
again, same result. Then the next time I inserted a CD and clicked on
the CD drive in Explorer, I got a "drive not ready" screen. From then
on, that's all I get, regardless of the disk contents in the drive.

My original CD Drive, a Mitsumi, normally works fine. When the HP
started giving me the screens, I tried the Mitsumi and get the same
screen now, so both of them seem to have started the same issue at the
same time.

At cold boot, the HP drive light comes on briefly as normal in the
bootup process. Normally, the drive light is on continuously if a disk
is present. Now, the light comes on when I open the drive door, blinks a
few times after the door is closed, that's all, even with a CD present.

The drive is still connected, properties are normal in Device Manager.
I tried to run a cleaner disk, but of course can't operate the drive to
clean it.

The drive is 5 years old, but has not had much use, so wear IMO is not
the issue.

Advice?

TIA

Thanks to all, swapping/connecting drive cables not easy for me.

Since the drive lights/drive door operate, and since both stopped AFAIK
at about the same time, is there anything in Windows to look for?

Long ago I disabled autoplay. Tried some fixes, can't enable autoplay.
How to do it?

Also, s tip like My Computer/CD drive- right click context menu shows
"play"- mine does not, how to get that back?

Thanks