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Definitly not normal

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  • Definitly not normal

    First off I don't know what topic this should be under so I thought it to be most closely related to an HD....Once upon a time I had a 44X CD-ROM drive. I went to go install a game called Balder's Gate. This game was 6 cd's! Well when it was installing the 5th cd the setup kind of crashed on me. All of what it had copyed to my system was gone? Its like it automatically deleted it. Anyway, I decided to install it again the same thing happened to I was like whatever screw it. Then I noticed whenever I read ANYTHING from this 44X cd-rom drive my computer would get really slow and really lagged. You know the usual high pitched sound of the cd-rom spinning the cd at an ultra fast speed? Guess what. I didn't hear anything, instead when I put my ear up against it I heard just soft clicking and scratching sounds, it sort of reminded me of the sounds that came out of slower cd-rom drives such as 4X, 6X 8X anything above that you can kind of hear. So I was wondering what was going on. I put that same cd (not the game) into my burner and it read the data (copying a large file from cd to hd) a million times faster and I heard the high pitched sounds which was reading at 40X......Now I was like what's going on and that's when I noticed that I had no cd-rom drive in my computer (the icon) I pressed the eject button and it didn't open the cd-tray. WOH my cd-rom is dead. I instantly thought was it balders gate? So being I'm so stupid I decided to install balder gate with my burner it crashed on disk 5 but my burner still reads at normal speeds so I was like I'm not trying this again I don't want my burner to die. I took out a 40X cd-rom drive out of my mom's machine which was working fine and popped it in my computer....I now have a fast cd-rom drive......But stupid old me test out Balder's Gate again and installed it...THE SAME THING HAPPEND... my cd-rom drive doesn't read at 40 it reads at like 4 again....but this time its not dead.

    Wasn't the sole purpose of a cd-rom drive to read data? Is there a way to fix it like opening it up or something? I don't want to buy a new drive but I want it reading normal again. Its a complete hardware thing I'm sure of it. Lets just think next time I go to install windows. Will it take literally several days? Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks

  • #2
    Umm, You have DMA enabled?
    The reason a diamond shines so brightly is because it has many facets which reflect light.

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    • #3
      Yes of course. I told you its not a software issue. Its a physical CD-ROM drive problem. COuld it be the fact that both these drives were generic drives? Was it a mistake for buying generic cd-rom drives at computer shows?

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      • #4
        I would try swapping out the IDE cables and try the drives on another motherboard. It could be a problem with your motherboard or cables that are causing corruption of the data when you read your CD. There might be some instructions on the 5th CD that tries to rebuild the info from the previous 4 CDs. When it attemps to rebuild it might choke on the corrupted data. That may be why it consistently chokes on the 5th CD. This is just a guess, as I have never used Balder's Gate. I have never seen a confirmed case where commercial software alone causes a hardware failure, but I have seen failures of IDE devices due to shorts and such in the MB. Try the drives on a different MB with different cables and see if they come back to life. Also, try the software on a completely different system if one is available.

        Hope that helps...
        JM
        Have you hugged a Midget today?

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        • #5
          I will definitly try that......as I am building a slow computer (K6/2-500 lol) for my little brother.I hope its not a problem with my mobo.....its not even a few months old...in fact I have it because I had a problem with my FIC AD11..so I upgraded to this one......I know for a FACT its not IDE cables cause I switched the standard cables with rounded cables that I bought off coolerguys.com. I'm just hoping the drives are in fact dead. Have you ever heard of cd-rom drives failing like this?

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          • #6
            I have not personally, seen a cdrom die. All the ones I have used were pretty robust. I did have a cdrw & cdrom that looked like they were faulty, but came back to life when I put them on a new motherboard. Turns out that the MB was fried. I would imagine that the failure mode would at least partly depend on the brand. So there isn't necessarily a way to know how they are gonna die when they do.

            JM
            Have you hugged a Midget today?

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            • #7
              I've had a couple of ROM's die on me which is usually caused by the laser dyin'. :(
              It may very well be that the laser is overheating in your's by that particular time. :?:
              <center>:cheers:</center>

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              • #8
                I didn't think of that. Good save, Wiggo. :thumb:
                Have you hugged a Midget today?

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                • #9
                  Sounds like a very logical explanation wiggo. But would this result in my cd-rom drive reading nothing at all? Or just reading more slowly.....like I said before it transfers data like a 2-8X cd-rom drive soudns like one too lol no joke!

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                  • #10
                    I'd say that it could result in slower reading to start of with till corruption gets so bad thru the laser overheating that it will stop. :smokin:
                    <center>:cheers:</center>

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                    • #11
                      Does this happen to all cd-rom drives or should I say CAN happen? Or is it just generic drives that it happens to. Cause like I said my 44X was slow and it just died all together.......heh....

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                      • #12
                        Well quality in most cases plays a role but can happen to any over time though the Creative CDROM's have been a bane for me as as soon as the warranty is out they die. :(
                        <center>:cheers:</center>

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