cd rom has stopped operating no light nothing

Initially my cd rom door would not open then once open would not close then
the green light came on and stayed on eventually it stopped altogether and
now wont even show up in device manager or anywhere else except once in MS
DOS safe mode. After numerous attempts to relocate and fix it i still cannot
find cd rom,i want to reinstall a few things off my disk but as i cannot get
the cd rom to work its impossible. In microsofts own help / troubleshoot
application there is a number of possible causes shown to a problem and after
checking one of them then go to ''next'' the page is blank! so theres another
reason to get the windows 98se disk started. Unfortunately i dont have a back
up floppy ......any help would be most helpful.

cdroms are mechanical and fail, try another cdrom if you can borrow or buy a
cheap one

--
Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de
spybot http://security.kolla.de
AVG free antivirus http://www.grisoft.com
Etrust/Vet/CA.online Antivirus scan
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.pandasoftware.com/ActiveScan/
Catalog of removal tools (1) http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/
Catalog of removal tools (2)
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/n...aspx?CID=40387
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before use
Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters
_
"rebelarouser" wrote in message
...
| Initially my cd rom door would not open then once open would not close then
| the green light came on and stayed on eventually it stopped altogether and
| now wont even show up in device manager or anywhere else except once in MS
| DOS safe mode. After numerous attempts to relocate and fix it i still
cannot
| find cd rom,i want to reinstall a few things off my disk but as i cannot
get
| the cd rom to work its impossible. In microsofts own help / troubleshoot
| application there is a number of possible causes shown to a problem and
after
| checking one of them then go to ''next'' the page is blank! so theres
another
| reason to get the windows 98se disk started. Unfortunately i dont have a
back
| up floppy ......any help would be most helpful.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q237948
Troubleshoot CD-R_W

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=218617
Troubleshoot CD-ROM or DVD-ROM

I guess, a first try would be...

(1) Boot to Safe Mode. (Hold F5 as you boot, or hold CTRL for the
Startup Menu, & select Safe Mode from that.)
(2) "START, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager tab".
(3) Open the CD-ROM branch, by clicking it's plus sign.
(4) Highlight each drive in that branch, & click "Remove".
(Safe Mode may reveal the presence of a "ghost".)
(5) Close up, & boot to Normal Mode.

Hopefully Windows will find the correct drivers, & all will be well.

As cquirke once said, "Control Panel, System, Performance tab". Are you
in "compatibility" mode? Then, try his site...
http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/doscompat.htm

Also...
http://support.microsoft.com/default...79&Product=w98
Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks
(130179) - The Performance tab in System properties shows that one or
more of the hard disks in your computer is using MS-DOS Compatibility
mode. MS-DOS compatibility mode may be in use either for the file system
or for virtual memory. You may receive the...

Also...

To see whether the CD-ROM is physically functioning, it can be run
independently of Windows...

Get a Startup Diskette from
http://www.bootdisk.com/ , if you don't already have one from "Control
Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab". Test the Startup
Diskette. Boot it, put in a CD and "DIR" the CD. It will say which
letter is the CD. (Otherwise, it is likely one letter higher than
normal.) That is, "DIR X:", where "X:" is the CD-ROM letter.

If you cannot boot the Startup Diskette, you must be sent into BIOS. If
the CD-ROM does work in DOS after the Diskette has boot, it is likely
there is a problem with the Windows 32-bit drivers or settings.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"rebelarouser" wrote in message
...
| Initially my cd rom door would not open then once open would not close
then
| the green light came on and stayed on eventually it stopped altogether
and
| now wont even show up in device manager or anywhere else except once
in MS
| DOS safe mode. After numerous attempts to relocate and fix it i still
cannot
| find cd rom,i want to reinstall a few things off my disk but as i
cannot get
| the cd rom to work its impossible. In microsofts own help /
troubleshoot
| application there is a number of possible causes shown to a problem
and after
| checking one of them then go to ''next'' the page is blank! so theres
another
| reason to get the windows 98se disk started. Unfortunately i dont have
a back
| up floppy ......any help would be most helpful.

Two separate Windows Update criticals took your Troubleshooters away,
for security reasons.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q188867
Troubleshooting Windows 98 Startup Problems. This article contains a
link to what it says is the equivalent of the Windows Help
Troubleshooters...
http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/tshoot
That's it. But, here is how to get them back when offline...

First, "START, Find, F&F, Tshoot.inf"; R-Clk it & select "Install". If
you still don't have the Troubleshooters...

(1) "START, Run, RegEdit"
(2) Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\{4B106874-DD36-11D0-8B44-00A024DD9EFF}

Compatibility Flags 0x00000400 (1024) Dword value 400

by
(a) Clicking plus signs, beginning with "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE",
(b) & ending with "ActiveX Compatibility".
(c) Finally, click "{4B106874-DD36-11D0-8B44-00A024DD9EFF}" itself in
the left pane.
(d) Now, you see "Compatibility Flags 0x00000400 (1024)" in the right
pane.
(e) "Registry menu, Export Registry file".

This will create a ".reg" file of the entire Key that is open...
all the items in the right pane & all sub-keys in the left pane (if
there is a plus sign). Give it a name & location of your choosing, even
to the Desktop or My Documents. Then, to undo the following, you will be
able to simply click that file, to Merge it's contents back into the
Registry.

Actually-- name that one "NoTrouble.reg". It will look like...

....Start.....
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\{4B106874-DD36-11D0-8B44-00A024DD9EFF}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400

....End.......

(f) Close RegEdit. You now have an "undo" .reg, named "NoTrouble.reg".
(g) Make a copy of it called "Trouble.reg".
(h) Open "Trouble.reg" in Notepad. Change the "dword" to look as
follows... all zeros...

....Start..of "Trouble.reg"...
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\{4B106874-DD36-11D0-8B44-00A024DD9EFF}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000000

....End.......

CAREFUL: That "HKEY" is one line, with TWO spaces only. One between
"Internet Explorer", & the other between "ActiveX Compatibility". Make
sure it looks that way in Notepad, before you click to Save. Also, you
must have an empty line at bottom.

Now, "Trouble.reg" gives you the Troubleshooters. "NoTrouble.reg" will
give you security by taking them away. Remember to undo it, after you
are done looking at the Troubleshooters.


(2) By default, when a ".reg" is clicked, it will Merge into the
Registry. To alter the default behavior: "START, Settings, Folder
Options, File Types tab". Scroll to & click "Registration Entries",
click the "Edit" button, select "edit" in the window & click the "Set
Default" button. Now, when you click a ".reg" file, it will open in
Notepad for examination. To merge it into the Registry, R-Clk it &
select "Merge".


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"rebelarouser" wrote in message
...
| Initially my cd rom door would not open then once open would not close
then
| the green light came on and stayed on eventually it stopped altogether
and
| now wont even show up in device manager or anywhere else except once
in MS
| DOS safe mode. After numerous attempts to relocate and fix it i still
cannot
| find cd rom,i want to reinstall a few things off my disk but as i
cannot get
| the cd rom to work its impossible. In microsofts own help /
troubleshoot
| application there is a number of possible causes shown to a problem
and after
| checking one of them then go to ''next'' the page is blank! so theres
another
| reason to get the windows 98se disk started. Unfortunately i dont have
a back
| up floppy ......any help would be most helpful.