CDRW Drive Died...need help or suggestions

[sullen]

I finally gave up on finding a direct cable solution to transferring files from my old computer to my new one. I was using the old CDRW a
4X4X32 Acer. Last night I set it up to burn and went to bed. This morning when I got up the CD was out...underburn error! So I went to push the tray, erase and start over. The tray wouldn't go back in. I pushed it in manually and then hit eject. Nothing happened. I went to My Computer and selected eject, nothing happened. I restarted the computer, the drived showed up as the secondary slave, but when I got to Windows still no eject. I removed it from the Device Manager and rebooted, still nothing happened. What the hell do you guys thing happened to it? Everytime I reboot the light flashes, but it will not eject or read discs? Could it be unplugged somehow, light up when I reboot, and not work? I am dumfounded. Thanks for any help.

[zzyzzx]

Get a Plextor drive. You'll be much happier.

[jeex]

yeah, buy another drive you cheap bastard.

i got a 12x8x32x hp cd burner for $10, yes ten dollars

[tigerwolf]

its possible the drive is shot, but try a couple of things. right after post if you hit eject on the drive will it open? also try booting with a boot disk with cdrom support and boot to dos and see if the drive opens. how is the bios showing the drive?
And just for kicks, cus it won't take long, take the case off and make sure all the cables are secure. If its set as slave does the device that is set as master show up and work properly? also try changing the burner to master on the secondary. I assume you aren't getting any noises from the drive. If a disk is in can you hear it spin the disc up? Another thing to try is disconnect the drive and boot the system with it disconnected. then shut it down and reconnect the drive. Its possible something is messing with it. Or the motor could have went out on it, but generally the laser will before the motor will. When you pushed it in manually it went back in just fine?
Another odd thing here to try, is get a paper clip or something and put in the little manual eject hole and pull out the tray, then once you have it pulled out as if it had ejected a disc, boot the system and see if the system will pull the tray back in. Again listen to see if the drive is making any odd sounds. you might also contact acer about it and see what they have to say, though I imagine getting a good answer from them will be like finding the holy grail, but its worth a shot.
http://www.acercm.com/support/index.html

When the post comes up when you boot does it still show the drive the way it always has?

[sullen]

To the first two people to reply your "help" was much "appreciated". I already bought a new drive and moved it from the old machine into the new machine and put the old CDRW back in the old machine and was working from it. I have a Lite-On 24x10x32. So there!

As for my problem I tried just about everything. I tried booting with the tray open, tried putting a disk in, tried reconnecting, tried...tried everthing but getting totally consumed and messing with the bios and safe mode and crap. I am done messing with it. I just got frustrated and put the Lite-On back in and will use it and then put it back in the new machine. I have been trying to get all my stuff transferred since Wed. using the NIC, serial, and other connections to do it straight and finally decided on the CDRW and then it go screwed! So thanks for the ideas, if I ever get around to it I might try to figure out the problem, but will probably just junk it and replace for my girlfriend who is getting the old clunker.

[bbb]

The Liteon 24X CDRW is a great drive. Fast, reasonably priced, and dependable.

The time saved from burning cdrs will easily recoup the cost of the drive very quickly.

Dump the old 4x and don't worry about it anymore.

[Mirror_Image]

I had an old Smart & Friendly CD Racer 2x2x24 that went toes-up. The BIOS saw the drive, a DOS boot saw the drive, Windows saw the drive; neither DOS or Windows could use it, however. I replaced it with a Philips PCRW2010 20x10x40 and I love the new drive!

Of course, if my old drive hadn't cashed in its chips, I wouldn't have the new one (I'm a tightwad).