PC CD-ROM drives

From: Glen Goodwin <acme_ent_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Fri May 3 23:03:38 2002

Richard Erlacher wrote:

> While the logical replacement has never been a problem, the rounded front
that
> fits the case is a virtually impossible thing to replace by the time the
drive
> needs replacment. They seem to require a rounded drawer front with no
bezel
> of the drive. Whereas the bezel can be removed easily enough, finding a
drive
> with that rounded front that fits, precisely, the slot in the plastic
> front-face of the box is a problem. The part number is seemingly never
> available more than 90 days after the computer is no longer an
off-the-shelf
> item.

I've seen very few HPs with this setup, but the Acer Aspire is famous for
it. Fortunately the Aspire has a couple of "normal" 5.25" bays so I just
leave the old drive in place and add a new one in an empty bay, or if I'm
lucky I have a drive yanked from a dead Aspire.

>
> No ATAPI CDROM has ever been a problem to replace under Windows 9X, to my
> experience.

Unless Win9X is hosed. Yesterday I worked on a Gateway P-III running Win
98, which wouldn't boot, but hung on the splash screen. Yanked the IDE
cable off of the CD-ROM drive and the system booted and all devices worked
perfectly. Tested the drive in another box; the drive was fine. Put
another drive in the Gateway -- no boot. Took CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT,
WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI out of the picture. No boot. Moved the drive from
master to slave. No boot. Replaced the IDE ribbon. No boot. Put the
drive on the same ribbon as the hdd, hdd as master, CD-ROM drive as slave.
No boot. Uninstalled and reinstalled the motherboard drivers. No boot.
Pulled the hdd, put in a new one, loaded Win98, and the system booted and
the CD-ROM drive worked. Put the original hdd back in -- no boot. Reset
the BIOS to default settings and made sure both IDE ports were turned on.
No boot. Verified that both ports were visible to Windows -- no boot.
Turned DMA off in Windows -- no boot. Ran a virus check and didn't find
anything.

Did I miss anything? (serious question). Finally I wiped and reloaded the
hdd and all was well. I've seen this five or six times in ten years. It's
something deep down in the Windows goo . . .

Apologies -- seriously OT.

Glen
0/0
Received on Fri May 03 2002 - 23:03:38 BST