I’ll try to help, but I’ll need some more information, first.

What operating system and version number are you using?

Have you tried all of the trouble-shooting tips outlined in the article?

Which game had you most recently installed? Some newer video game discs include "SafeDisc" copy prevention software that hooks into your CD-ROM device drivers so that it can verify you have a legitimate disc. This can cause some problems with your drive if the SafeDisc software has become corrupted, is conflicting with other software on your system, or just doesn’t like your particular hardware configuration.

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Dustin D. Cook, A+
dcook32p@htcomp.net

Two days ago, out of nowhere my CD-Rom stopped working correctly right after I had taken out a game. It will still eject and all, but when I try to put any type of CD into the drive it will just spin a little, like it is unable to read the disk, then eject out the tray after a couple of minutes. As well, when I try to click into My Computer to open up the drive, the window will just freeze up until I eject the tray. Anyone have any ideas of how to fix this????

1. Watch the POST screen. Does the computer detect your hard drive and CD/DVD-ROM drive(s)? If not, make sure the drives are jumpered correctly and all cables are secure. Try different cables if that doesn’t work.

2. Can you boot off a bootable CD? Most Windows CDs are bootable. If you can boot off a CD but not the hard drive, the problem is related to the hard drive. If neither boot, there’s something else wrong with the system.

3. If that’s not the problem, the usual fix is to boot off a DOS boot floppy and execute the command FDISK /MBR to fix the hard drive’s boot record.

4. If all of that fails, go into your computer’s CMOS setup and find the option to load the BIOS defaults (it’s also sometimes called “Failsafe settings” or “Safe settings”.) Some obscure setting in your CMOS setup may be keeping you from booting. The failsafe settings will sacrifice some performance, but if they get the system running, you can go back in and change settings one at a time to safely gain performance.

Failing all of that, you’ve got a hardware problem–either your motherboard or hard drive are bad. At that stage, I’d contact your vendor for replacement.

Besides, his comment has been here since June. He’s probably not reading here anymore.

Why don’t you go troll somewhere else, hmm? Every comment I’ve seen so far is either very negative or not worth reading.

Solution,

Press F7 while windows boots up. Go into safe mode.

Continue. Should load.

Go into display properties, now change it to 16 bit, and 800×600 resolution and see what happens.

Otherwise try to reinstall video adapter driver.

Or install a PCI Video card and have that run as the display adapter rather than the onboard display.

You could reinstall windows(pop in the cd, reboot system, you will lose all information on your hd save on disk whatever you need or upload), XP has an option to delete existing partition and recreate partition to incorporate the entire HD. i forgot what the other os’s did.

I got this (really cool) new game CD (Max Payne) and this machine (a new one I put together) will read the CD, but it won’t run the install program. I double click on it and nothing happens. I’ve had no other problems with any other CD’s. I can explore the CD and open and view files, but that install program just won’t run. I cleaned it well too. When I put that same CD in a different machine, wala, it autostarts and runs and installs just like it’s supposed to. What would be the cause of a drive that can read the CD but won’t execute an executable??? I can find no guidance anywhere and I’ve been looking for 2 days. This game needs this machine, which is why I want to solve this problem. Like I said, other games/programs run fine off this drive. Could it be something about the format of the CD-rom?