ok, a few days ago i bought a CD-Burner for my computer, i do not know how to install these things, so i got my neighbor(who knows how to install drivers) to do it

i just got it back tonight(happy birthday to me, litirally)

now i put the Nero installation disk into the CD-ROM, and its not reading the disk, as a matter of fact its not reading any disks!

which drive should i put the disk in, the CD-ROM or the CD-RW, maybe i did not put it in the right one

if it is the CD-ROM that has to be used, WHY DOESENT IT WORK, my CD-ROM does this crap sometimes, somebody help me, please:o :o :o :o

Hi. Either drive should do the job if working properly. Have a word with your neighbour as to what was done and check-out the items in Device Manager for conflicts or yellow exclamation or question marks.

Which version of Windows is running on the PC.

From what you posted it seems this is not a new problem.

im using Windows 98

CHECK
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1. Hardware
a. Make certain all wiring is connected to the correct sockets and pushed fully home.
b. Hard Disk Drives should be PRIMARY Master & Slave and CD-Drives should be connected to the cable in the SECONDARY IDE socket. CD-RW with its jumper set as Master, CD-ROM with jumper set to Slave.

2. The BIOS’s hardware configuration settings as seen in the “BIOS Setup” programme’s display.
[“Press Delete to enter Setup” (or similar) should be displayed during Startup]

a. Go to “Standard CMOS Setup” and set all the “Hard Disks” to “Auto”.
[This auto-detects and configures your drive’s parameters correctly at every startup]
This makes sure they’re correct every time, even if you switch your drive arrangement arround.
Only drive’s with parameters correctly set will work.

Below is an alternative [which I'd advise against].
It can be done manually [by typing in the values] or by “Static Auto-Detection”, which automatically detects them and sets them permanently. If you CHANGE YOUR DRIVE ARRANGEMENT you must re-do this to correct the parameters to suit the new arrangement.

b. Go to “PNP/PCI Configuration” and check that:
“PCI IDE 2nd Channel : Enabled” [or something like it] is set.
This enables/disables the SECONDARY IDE Controller, which should be used to control your CD-Drives.
Apparently some systems get confused if this is enabled and nothing is connected.
It seems to work in conjunction with the settings noted in “c” following.

c. In my BIOS I have set:
In “Integrated Peripherals Setup Menu”
“Internal PCI/IDE : Both” [enables both the primary and secondary IDE controllers]
“IDE Primary Master : Auto”
“IDE Primary Slave : Auto”
“IDE Secondary Master : Auto”
“IDE Secondary Slave: Auto”

d. To check if your hardware is functional, boot a Windows 98 Startup disk “with CD-ROM support" and access a Compact Disk in the drive from a DOS prompt.
Just before the system boots from the Startup disk, but after the memory check, you should see the results of the detection of all your drives.
During the boot from the startup disk a “RAMDrive” is created which uses a drive letter and sets the allocation back by one letter.
If you get the CD-Drive letter wrong a warning will be displayed when the system is unable to access the disk because it’s looking at the wrong drive.

3. The Operating systems resource allocation, drivers and configuration settings.
a. Resource allocation is checked out in “Device Manager”.

That’ll do for now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!