Strange CD drive behaviour

[dreadosam]

Ok, until recently I haven’t had any major problems with my computer but for the past couple of weeks I’ve been having several problems and they all seem to be centred around my CD-RW drive and DVD drive.

The first strange occurrence happened when I tried to burn a compilation cd in WMP and it would only burn the first track (and also gave it a seemingly random track name and artist). Since then I have burnt lots of coasters in various applications and when I did manage to create a cd containing some files I wanted to back up, my computer would crash every time I tried to open it.

Yesterday something happened that has me really confused; my mate brought a game round and whenever I tried to run the setup my computer would start to install Photoshop?! And the latest thing to happen was when I ran Adaware (which has always been fine) I kept getting a message telling me that there was no cd in the drive.

If anyone can help me with any of these problems it would be much appreciated.

Sam

[jmichna]

Sounds like an infection (virus, trojan, etc.) to me. If it was just file corruption, you'd be getting file errors (like "missing xxxx.dll" or "corrupted xxxx.xxx" file).

Do you do peer-to-peer file sharing? Open any attachments on emails recently? Install a program sent to you by a "friend"? What is your PC's security like? Do you run an AV program, and keep the virus defs up-to-date?

Try to assess what's going on. Use an on-line scan if you can get to it.

[dreadosam]

Thanx for your reply.

Yeah I use McAfee whith automatic updates, my first thought was to do a virus check, but it found nothing.

[thronka]

do youhave any cdrom cache programs installed? If so, they are not letting go of the cache file.

[dreadosam]

Not as far as I know. Like what?

[thronka]

Liek CDExpress that comes with some computers. They make a cache file on the HD with the cd contents and it uses that cache instead. Sometimes it will not release that file and causes the cdrom not to read right. What chipset do you have? If you have hte ALi chipset, then you need to update your drivers.

[dreadosam]

Sorry, dont know much about computers, I dont really know what you mean by chipset. How do I find the info you need?

[dreadosam]

It also seems that things which run from cd - like games, are running slower.

[Xtreeme]

Dw SisoftSandre it will tell you under mobo info once installed. You'll see onc eya install it. Tell us what chipset then.

[dreadosam]

Cheers. will do.