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CD-ROMs Failing In Win2k & XP Boxes?
jptechnical writes "I have an interesting hardware/software development brewing. I have a friend with a computer shop down the way and he has had a rash of nearly a dozen Win2k & XP boxes come through with disabled or missing CD-ROM drives. They work in DOS, and are bootable, but are either disabled, not functioning or simply missing in Windows' device manager. Does anyone know of a virus that may be causing this? I cannot find any common vector from system build to software installed or anything. MS says reformat, but where's the fun in that? What resources aside from MSKB and google searching do slashdot readers use for troubleshooting strange problems?"
i have had this problem with badly cracked versions of XP
buy it, or find a corp version without a crack
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking - H.L. Mencken
Common Vector is a technical term for "Common significant identifying traits."
When you determine the common vector for a system failure like this you find the "common" symptom that points to a common problem and therefore can be fixed.
~foooo
Tips:
When searching for a Microsoft document, don't use the Microsoft search engine. It's terrible. Use Google, with as part of the search parameters.
I agree. It sounds like a virus.
Certainly the first thing to do is to discover if the BIOS is seeing the drives, which it is if you can see the drive in DOS.
If it's not a virus, suspect human involvement. Maybe someone ran the same program on all the computers. Such as a screen saver, for example. It would be very much like someone with no computer experience to run a screen save they got off the internet and to forget that they did it.
Just don't install Mandrake if you've got a LG drive.
Reference for above comment for those that didn't pay attention last time around.
And the followup story with the fix.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?