Hello - I am new to this forum and new to computers.I would be most grateful for any help I can get.

A few days ago, while my computer was starting up the cd rom tray came out and stayed out. On the starting up screen it said Boot from Cd Rom Failure.
I put a cd on and pressed the button the tray goes back in and then it comes back out again.I have looked in Device Manager and the CD rom is listed and also the Rom Controllers. It does have a yellow dot. The thing is that everything worked well up until a few days ago. I must admit I did uninstall a few programmes and when told that some files could be shared with other programmes and so did I want to still remove them I did say yes to all.

thank you

MaxP

Well it looks like maybe one of the programs you unistalled was sharing some file with the CD rom drivers. All is not lost though, you can try booting into 'Safe Mode'. Hit the crtl or F8 key right after the post screen or computer company logo. Choose 'Safe Mode' on the menu. When in safe mode bring up Device Manager and check the CD there. IF it is there select it and remove it. Reboot. Windows should then find and reinstall the necessary files for the CDrom. Also first check and see if it is set to autodetect in BIOS setup (F1 or Del on most computers at power on).

Post back with more questions or how it went.

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mjc
To ME or NOT to ME....

Thank you mjc. I went into safe mode removed cd and its drivers. In BIOS setup there was no autodetect.I Rebooted the computer and there is no change.

Thanks

max

In the BIOS setup where the drives ar listed there should be a way to configure the drives and one of the choices should be auto or autodetect. You may have to scroll through several choices to find it.

Also in Device manager in the properties box for the Cd drive what does it say under status?

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mjc
To ME or NOT to ME....

Thank you for coming back mjc.

In the Bios Features Set up list there doesn't appear to have auto or auto detect.In fact there is no mention of drives. The list has, to name a few:
Virus Warning
CPU internal Cache
Quick power self test
Boot Sequence
etc, etc, etc.
I get to the Bios Feature by pressing the Del button on start up. Hope I got it right.

On Device Manager the Cd rom is listed, but not the Rom Controllers, These do come up if I use the Hardware install Wizard. Hitting the properties button, brings up the words CD ROM. There is no mention of status.

I am sorry that I did take so long in coming back to you . Its Sunday morning and I have been running around doing all that I have to on a Sunday morning. All done and I'm free to devote all my time to the computer now.

Thank you again mjc, I am really grateful to you

Max

PS. Where is the Mountain State?

Hmmm, haven't seen a BIOS setup that doesn't have some way to configure the drives. It may say something like IDE Primary Master or Primary (first IDE channel, usually a hard drive), Secondary (the second IDE channel) or something like that and the the first line of that section should have a set of choices like User, Cd-rom and a few others one of which should be auto. This setting will let the computer detect the CDrom drive in BIOS and if there is a configuration problem in BIOS then reset the configuration, instead of using a preset configuration. Properly configured from BIOS is the first step in getting Windows to properly detect the drive.

What version of Windows are you using and a few other system details would be helpful, I should have asked for them first, but I got ahead of myself.....

The Mountain State is West Virginia, USA

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mjc
To ME or NOT to ME....

I am running win98 the early version. Hd is 5Gig,98 M ram, AMD350 clocked up to 400.

I shall tell you exactly What I am doing. On start up I press Del which takes me to:

Rom Pci/ Isa Bios

List is as follows:

standard cmos set up integrated periphifs
Bios features setup *
p m setup supervisor password
pnp/pci config user password
load bios defaults ide hdd auto detection
load setup defaults save exit setup
exit without saving
I press bios features setup. Is this the right place to go.

I also went in to the standard Cmos setup just to have a look and the primary Master has - user against it but the secondary Master has none. The cd rom drive, the floppy and the hard drive all have thier own separate connectors.

Thank you again for your help mjc. Thank you also for telling what the Mountain state was. I have never been there but they tell me that its almost Heaven!! I look forward to your reply.

max

Do you have the Win98 CD?

Put it in the cd-rom and see if it will automatically start when boot up. The drive is getting power, right? Since it doesn't seem to show any where in the BIOS and Windows doesn't recognize the drive, it maybe bad, so check with a bootable CD(Win98). Also one of the cables could have worked loose.

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mjc
To ME or NOT to ME....

Thank you mjc.

The cd rom drive's tray comes out and stays out, so I can't load anything.
The device manager does list the cd rom so wimdows must know its there.
However when I tried to load the drivers selecting the matsummi driver it loads only 50% and then it asks me to put the win98 disc in, of cource this is not possible as the tray does not go back in. I now feel that it needs a driver. I could be wrong. I will try to get a driver on a floppy.
I will try this and get back to you.

Thank you again mjc.

maxP

I'm beginning to think that there may be something mechaniclly wrong with the drive, the try staying out.....

How old is it?

I did a little checking and you should be able to find one for about 30-35
pounds.

You could try cleaning it, but since most cleaning techniques require inserting something into th drive and hhving it spin some if the tray keeps pooping out....

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mjc
To ME or NOT to ME....

You were so right !!! It was the cdrom drive.I shall now tell you exactly what I did.

I borrowed a cd drive, put it in and switched on and everything stopped at "booting from cd rom", I then rebooted , pressed del and went to the bios boot sequence.The list had - cdrom,c,a. c etc. I thought I selected c, but infact I selected c, a, scsi. This time it finished the boot sequence went on to open the win98 desktop and I noticed the light flashing on the cdrom drive. I put a cd in and it worked. I then tried my old cd rom drive and the old problem returned. I now conclude that it has got to be the old cd drive of mine and it will be binned with due ceremony. It will not be missed.

I have no idea of the tecnicalities of what I did, but it works. I will get a new drive in a couple of days. If you have any recomendations I would be most grateful to you.

Thank you for all your help. You have been fantastic mjc!

maxP

Basically stay away from any hing that seem to cheap to be true, because it probaly is, you know a 56x for $25 US because it is probably a Liteon or Afreey, both of which are known to have high failure rates. 48x-56x by one of the major electronics companies, all have about similar features and fairly good reputations.

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mjc
To ME or NOT to ME....

Thank you mjc. I'll get back to you shortly and tell you all about it.

All your help is much appreciated and many thanks again.

maxP