help! dvd-r drive and cd-r drive both are "not accessible" yet a regular cd with the same cable is...

[whistleclient]

yesterday i put a dvd into my dvd-r drive and for some reason when i double clicked on the drive it comes up "drive not accessible, drive is not ready".

i changed ide cables. i changed the ide channel. i changed power cables. nothing.

i put in an old cd-r drive and switched the cables. put in a regular cd. same thing-- "not accessible".

i changed ide cables. i changed the ide channel. i changed power cables. nothing.

finally i put in a regular old cd drive with the same exact cables. it can read cd's! what's up? why doesn't my computer like writable devices?

 

[Acme]

Did you check the master/slave/cable select jumper?

 

[whistleclient]

yeah, i tried that, thanks. the weird thing is it was working for 2 months, then suddenly stopped. this is what else i tried:

I reseated all cables.
I tried a different CD/DVD disc.
I tried a new drive cable.
I tried a new power connector.
I tried switching the drive cable to a different IDE channel.
I installed an old CD-ROM with the same exact cables and it worked.
I installed the DVR-105 in a new computer and it still didn't work.
I reinstalled the newest version of ASPI.
I reinstalled windows 98SE.

 

[Acme]

When you are troubleshooting it is always a long shot that there are two broken devices all the sudden at the same time. But that doesn't mean it is impossible. As Sherlock Holmes said in The Beryl Coronet, "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever you have left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." What I'm getting at is, how do you know the old CD-R drive isn't dead too? You didn't mention whether you reinstalled it in another machine to make sure it is still a "known good" drive. Also, what was the OS of the other computer you tried the DVR-105 in? Have you tried installing it in anything newer than 98SE?

We'll figure this out...

Acme

 

[Acme]

oops ... DP

 

[whistleclient]

acme,
thanks for your help. this is driving me nuts.




i've installed 3 drives on the same cables: 1 dvd-r, 1 cd-r, 1 cd-rom.

both recordable drives don't work in the same manner (device not available)
both recordable drives are recognized by name ("Pioneer dvr-105..."), but under device manager they're under cd-rom's, not recordable drives.
however, the regular cd-rom DOES work.

- the other computer i installed it under was 98SE also. i don't actually have any other operating systems, although I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade to XP.

- i don't know enough about ASPI to understand if it's to blame.

- could my ide controller just have a problem with recordable drives?

- the weird thing is that the drive was working for 2 months before this happened-- it's not a fresh install. also, it stopped working suddenly with no apparent cause-- no other hardware was installed, etc.

 

[Acme]

If it was working and then died, and the same symptoms are occurring in two similar type drives, then I would start looking at Windows or hardware drivers. It has been nearly half a decade since I played seriously with 98SE so I don't know how much help I can be on specifics. Did you run any kind of updates to your drivers before it croaked? I know this is a tough question unless you're one of those people who burns lots of CDs. Or maybe this would be a better way to ask it -- when you reintalled 98SE, did you install a bunch of patches and drivers before you installed the DVR-105? Do you see what I'm getting at here?

For what it's worth, I've been using XP for quite a while now with lots of different hardware and I've never had to do much more than just plug in a drive. It's like magic.

Acme