Windows 95 CD-ROM drive problems

Hey guys,

I just installed a new drive in my great grandmother's computer. It's really old, and her old drive died. I went to a computer parts store and picked up an old CD-ROM drive and I installed it.

It's a Sony CDU55E. I got the drivers and all that good stuff, but the Windows 95 still won't recognize the drive when I put a CD into it. And when I go to the properties tab in my computer, it says I haven't installed any drivers or firmware...which I did. I also checked the jumper settings and it's correct. (The first time I set it to slave when it should have been CSel).

She's running a really old computer, and it's not possible for her to get a new one. At this point I don't know what to do, but I'd really like to try to get something to work. I appreciate your help in advance.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

BIOS is recognizing the drive correctly?

Also, what type of CD are you sticking in? Some old CD drives can't read certain recordable media (mainly in regards to CD-RWs). Try a regular store bought CD.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yeah, I assume the BIOS recognizes the drive. Before Windows started up it confirmed it by saying that "a new drive has been installed, Sony ATAPI CDU55E..." that whole deal.

I did use a CD-RW, but I also put in a game disk (a game that my grandmother often plays so it should recognize), and a regular store bought CD like you recommended.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

If BIOS doesn't recognize it, it could cause some issues. Let's just eliminate it as a problem though. (I doubt it is, but it never hurts to check)

When you boot the computer, You'll need to get into setup. Usually it's DEL during POST, but sometimes it's F1, F10, or some other button. See what the computer says. Look to see if BIOS sees the drive. Likely it'll just say CD-ROM or something.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Can you verify that the drive is working correctly (by trying it in another computer)?

Does the board+BIOS allow booting from cd? If yes then you could try using a linux live-cd of you choice and check if the drive is recognized by the kernel and access is possible.

Ah yes, does the corresponding drive letter appear in explorer or is the device only seen in the device manager?

Double Post:

Originally Posted by Sir VG

If BIOS doesn't recognize it, it could cause some issues. Let's just eliminate it as a problem though. (I doubt it is, but it never hurts to check)

When you boot the computer, You'll need to get into setup. Usually it's DEL during POST, but sometimes it's F1, F10, or some other button. See what the computer says. Look to see if BIOS sees the drive. Likely it'll just say CD-ROM or something.

Not really necessary because apparently the drive shows up in the windows device manager and win95 doesn't use the BIOS routines for disc access.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I couldn't remember if 95 used that, since nobody uses that OS anymore.

I'd say find a USB based drive, but unless that copy of 95 is OSR2 that won't work.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I appreciate your guys' help. I'll try to get over to her house as soon as I can (my car got stolen last night) so if I don't respond for a while, it's not because I haven't forgot about you.

FELIPE NO

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Can you verify that the drive is working correctly (by trying it in another computer)?

Unfortunately, I can't. Distance is a big problem, and I need to get this fixed as soon as possible.

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Ah yes, does the corresponding drive letter appear in explorer or is the device only seen in the device manager?

Everything appears in device manager and the corresponding drive appears in Explorer.

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I'd say find a USB based drive, but unless that copy of 95 is OSR2 that won't work.

What is OSR2 and how can I find out? The computer has two USB slots in the back, if that helps.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Have you checked the drive with a live-CD yet? If the system can do a boot from cdrom then a least this should work (because cd-booting doesn't depend on any drivers).

Another thing you could do is get yourself some current aspi drivers and isobuster and check if isobuster can access the drive. If it fails then either the drive is screwed up or you've got a driver/compatibility issue.

cya
liquid

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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Have you checked the drive with a live-CD yet? If the system can do a boot from cdrom then a least this should work (because cd-booting doesn't depend on any drivers).

So, let me verify: I use a Linux-live CD and start the system from the CD. Then, do I take that CD out, and insert whatever CD I want? My grandmother only plays games on the computer.

How ya doing, buddy?

To keep it simple: you should be already through if the live-system loads and the linux init process suceeds. Because that means:
- the BIOS can access the cdrom (thats verified by the boot-from-cd which only loads a small part of the system, mainly kernel + initramfs or something like that)
- as soon as the kernel is loaded the linux cdrom driver kicks in to load the rest of the system (that should happen before the init process) - if this works the drive has no hardware malfunction (or the hw only malfunctions when windows does access it - but I doubt that)

For that, what you want to do, you've to unmount the live-CD - and thats not possible for every live-system I know. So if you want to check other media as well then get a live-CD that features loading the entire data to the RAM (but I want to emphasize: this is not necessary because a succesful boot already tells you about the state of the hardware).

If the process fails and you're sure that the bios/board is capable of cdrom-booting (otherwise this process tells you nothing) then the drive is possibly faulty (I say possibly, because you can never be 100% sure).

If not and everything works then you've got a software problem. Maybe some old msdos-cd drivers are loaded due to config.sys/autoexec.bat - maybe you should check that too. Ah yes, now would be the best thing to try the aspi/isobuster thing I described prior.

How ya doing, buddy?

Some old of cd drive can only read the disc that be written in mode 1. just try to use magiciso to burn cd with mode 1.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?