The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Disk Drive Problem

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by The_Guitarist, Nov 3, 2007.

  1. The_Guitarist

    The_Guitarist Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Ok, so my disk drive (Slimtype COMBO SOSC-2483K ATA Device) just stopped reading cd's. For no reason at all that I can think of. Which isn't exactly a good thing. So I was wondering what might be the problem. And if you need any additional information just tell me.
     
    The_Guitarist, Nov 3, 2007
    #1
  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    7,197
    Messages:
    28,841
    Likes Received:
    2,166
    Trophy Points:
    581
    These things do wear out. How old is it? Have you been using it a lot? Can you still see it listed in Device Manager?

    Replacement is probably the best course of action. That combo drive looks to conform to the standard "slimline" optical drive form factor so you can replace it with must current notebook burners. The one thing to check (Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers) is that the burner uses its own IDE channel. Check each IDE channel for a current transfer rate of Ultra DMA mode 2.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Nov 4, 2007
    #2
  3. The_Guitarist

    The_Guitarist Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    It's a little over a year and a half old. And I checked for the "Ultra DMA mode 2" and I saw it. So the only option is to change the drive? That sucks. :(
     
    The_Guitarist, Nov 4, 2007
    #3
  4. Padmé

    Padmé NBR Super Pink Princess

    Reputations:
    4,674
    Messages:
    3,803
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Just curious, John. One of mine says mode 2 and the other one says mode 5. Is there any problem with that? :confused:
     
    Padmé, Nov 4, 2007
    #4
  5. The_Guitarist

    The_Guitarist Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Ok, it's definitely not the drive itself because I just went into safe mode and it worked fine. So is there anything else I should try?
     
    The_Guitarist, Nov 9, 2007
    #5
  6. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    7,197
    Messages:
    28,841
    Likes Received:
    2,166
    Trophy Points:
    581
    The channel with mode 2 is the optical drive and the one with mode 5 is the hard disk.

    If it's OK in safe mode then it must be a software / driver problem. You can reset the driver by going into Device Manager and uninstalling the IDE channel with mode 2 speed and then going to the top of Device Manager, right clicking and selecting Detect new hardware (or whatever it says).

    If that doesn't flush out the problem then start at the links on this Microsoft page (I presume you are running XP). I recall that some software can appear to disable the optical drive but I can't remember the details (although Roxio comes to mind). You can used Start > Run >MSConfig to disable anything which loads at startup and may mess up the ODD access.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Nov 10, 2007
    #6