MAJOR CD BURNER PROBLEM!!!

[pure_nox]

Hi, i have a Hp comp (Ugh) and my cd burner which came with the system has been acting strange. At first i thought it was a virus or bug in my machine causing my cd burner not to work, i noticed that the "busy light" goes from orange to a red color and then completely stops working. Possibly, it might be damaged but after reformatting and doing everything over again my burner still continues to do this and when i go into MY Computer, both the burner and my other dvd drive are not there, it's like my comp doesn't even recognize them! ODD!! I have Win ME, due to the fact i had problems with XP Pro cause of my motherboard but i won't get into it, anyways, i'm using the ME Operating system. So, if anyone knows what i can do to solve this problem, please, i'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

[SeanC]

Welcome to TechIMO!

Are the burner and DVD drive on the same IDE chain?

I suggest ensuring that the master/slave settings are correct on both drives. One is master, one is slave.

If possible try separating them if onto separate IDE chains. That may help.

Try replacing the IDE cables.

If it still doesn't work then I think the writer is toast.

Sean

[embj]

I have one question....is it a Philips? If so that is your problem right there. Philips drives are crap.

And as Sean said...Welcome to TechIMO!!!

[pure_nox]

you know, to be honest with ya i think it is a Philips LOL!!! well, both drives are using the same ribbon, master is the burner and the dvd drive is the slave, the burner did work and then quit, after reformatting, worked then quit, do you think maybe i should go into flashing my bios? I'm honestly hangin on a limb with this computer and really sick of it. lol! hopefully this bit of info might help out

[embj]

Yep, what is the model of the Pavilion? You might try flashing the firmware of the burner. Also, a BIOS update might help with your problem of XP.

[pure_nox]

an XT936 model pavilion

[embj]

Ah....I've got an XT983. I haven't been able to get the thing to even work. It looks like it is about the same thing. The only differences that I notice are the processor (mine came w/ a 1.4ghz Athlon Thunderbird), OS (mine had XP Home), and yours had a DVD-ROM.

I mean the mobo is the same. That mobo is made by Trigem. It's a SantaFe KL133. Emachines also uses another modified version of them so that tells you that it is cheap.

I bet that CD burner is black and the tray of it has very sharp corners. If that's the case it's a Philips.

This is the page about it on an unofficial eMachines support site: http://www.e4all.info/motherboards/santafe.htm

It's not exactly the same thing as the one in the HP doesn't have an AGP slot. You could try to download one of the BIOS's from that site but, I wouldn't risk it. Don't try HP because they don't have anything for it. The BIOS's on that site are all in, I think Korean.

So if it's not the pins on the drives I think your drive is dead.

[pure_nox]

it was the burner after all, i used a left over spare parts burner i found and it works like a charm, the comp now recgonizes both of my drives. could've been because i overburned a couple of cd's, maybe it screwed up the laser or somethin, i appreciate all the help that you gave me, i could've done something stupid when the real problem was the burner itself! Also, i'd never risk overburning again!

[cowgirl_up]

Hello, I have been reading some of the posts on here regarding the hp xt983 and the cd rom problems and I'm having the same problem. My cd rom drive has just disappeared. It's nowhere to be found and I have no idea how to fix it because I didn't really understand the directions given?Could someone translate that into computer dummy language lol? Thanks,