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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?"
If it works in "DOS" that means your computer can probably boot off one of these CD's. Try booting off a Linux CD. If it works, install a Linux partition. If the CD-ROM drive works under linux, erase the Windows partition and Voila!
Working CD-ROM drive. (Also, improvement in speed and security).
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
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
My parents computer was having this problem. It occured when I have the CDRom in Master Mode on the second IDE port with a slave HD.
A couple years back I had a couple slot loading DVD's fail. The second seemed like a mechanical problem, so I opened it up and found a floppy disk, scraps of paper, and some thin plastic toys that belonged to my two year old. Same errata with my bride's drive. YMMV
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Q. What resources aside from MSKB and google searching do slashdot readers use for troubleshooting strange problems?"
A. I just post a question to ask slashdot, and have all the geeks trying to avoid troubleshooting at their jobs do it for me.
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.
As an aside, I installed Veritas' CD/DVD burning software (or possibly the packet writer software) that came with the company's new Sony USB2/Fireware DVD rewriter and st one point in the installation it said that it had to disable the built-in XP burning software, was that okay? Hell yes! Nicest thing a program has ever offered to do.
Ahem. In Soviet LA, it happened when you had your CDRom in Comrade Mode on the second IDE port with a Comrade HD.