Cd-rom Problems!

**Wolfmight** · 08-15-2003, 03:48 PM

I dont know what's wrong, so i decided to look for help here.

I have:
CDRW Lite-on LTR-12101B
DVD-Rom 1 0X (not sure what brand it is)

I have A CD-RW drive and a DVD drive. They both seem to be reading very slow for some reason (takes a long time just to recognize any disk) and i dont know why. Would this be a lack of power, or would they just not work at all with a lack of power? I have a 300w power box on my computer.

Let's see, here's what all i've checked:
The IDE Pins are ok, IDE Cables are ok (I tried switching to a new backup one i had anyway.. no help)
I Tried cleaning the laser useing cleaning software (CD with the little brushs on the bottom) to clean the disk... didnt help. (The cleaning tool is new also.. never used it untill now)
I've checked the drivers and they are ok.. there's no update for them ether.
I checked the Master/Slave jumpers and they are correct.. i also checked how the IDE cables are connected and they are also correct. (Middle connector is Master, the Upper is Slave.. the one far away at the bottom connects to the mobo)
I used a Pressurized Air Duster on the CD trays and inside to blow any dust out of the drives.. no help still.

Oh yea, they perform slow in DOS also (not just windows..) because i tried booting from my different Windows Disks and they all took Forever on both drives.

Got any suggestions?
They drives work, there's just some setting or something that's slowing them down.

**boyzeee** · 08-15-2003, 04:30 PM

check ya DMA settings, right click "my computer" then properties>hardware>device manager and then in " IDE ATA/Atapi controllers click secondary IDE channel>advanced and make sure that it has "DMA if available" is selected and not PIO ONLY. also in your bios see if you have an option to select Ultra DMA for the secondary channel.

**Wolfmight** · 08-15-2003, 04:40 PM

"DMA if available" is already set for both devices in windows and I dont have an Ultra DMA option in the BIOS. There is a Enhance ATAPI Performance option though, does this have anything to do with the cd drives? It's disabled right now and my motherboard manual says: Please note, enableing this function may cause your ATAPI devices to become unstable.

**boyzeee** · 08-15-2003, 05:13 PM

yeh enhance atapi is similar to ultra dma, if you find you have issues just turn it off but you shouldnt do. have you just started having these problems? if so have you installed any programs or drivers lately that may be causing the issue? what windows you running? have you tried updating the bios? alot of cdrom/dvdrom drives are able to have the Firmware reflashed goto manufacturers site and see. they both not very fast drives, the liteon is max 32x and i presume the dvd is 10x so maybe they just seem slow?, if you can give the motherboard type and revision, also what bios ie award or amibios i will do a search for latest bios and have a look at the manual.

**Wolfmight** · 08-15-2003, 05:31 PM

I recently installed a Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 card and that's about it..
I have a Gigabyte modle GA-7ZXE mobo. (dunno which version bios)
I already tried flashing and upgradeing the Liteon CDRW's fireware and got no help.
I tried taking out components that might be useing too much power such as my ATI Wonder VE card, etc.. the 2 cd drives still ran abnormally slow.
This has just happened all the sudden.
I have an APC Back-UPS unit that protects the system from Burning Up from overloading power surges, so i dont think both drives just burnt up somehow.

**Wolfmight** · 08-15-2003, 05:48 PM

oh btw, they both have read errors.. I mean, i tried to install some programs today on my Liteon cd drive and it kept giveing me an cd read error or something.. then on my dvd drive it just barely finished installing.. I remember awhile back the programs would install like waaaay faster. it's not a problem with defragmentation ether cause i run Defrag (perfect disk 6) once every 2 weeks.

**boyzeee** · 08-15-2003, 06:24 PM

this might sound a little way off but i had a similar problem (dvds locking up, installing from cd slow, copying discs failing) with my mates pc to the point where i actually sent the drives back to LG as they were under warranty where they found nothing wrong with them. i reinstalled windows etc etc and it ended up being the onboard sound shagged! i had to disable it and put a pci card in and the problems went away. have you installed a pci soundcard? if so you must disable the onboard sound in bios as it will cause conflicts. most programs access ya sound card and if it faulty can cause a bottleneck as program is running faster than the sound. also the GA-7ZXE has a via chipset, go here for sound driver and also here2 is the latest via 4in1 driver for agp/ide from giga-byte. just click site to download from, save it and run. hope this helps