When trying to install Windows, the on-screen instructions tell me to insert the Windows CD. But, then it stops. The laptop won’t recognize the CD.
I recently got a PCG-R505EL laptop from a friend with floppy and CD-ROM dock but sans hard drive. He claimed the hard drive went bad so he tossed it but ended up getting a new laptop rather than fixing this one.
So I figured I’d give it a shot. I got as far as putting a new hard drive.
I made some boot disks for Windows XP and Win2000 and ordered the Sony recovery CDs for this specific laptop.
Problem:
When I tried to boot up with the new hard drive installed, the screen remains blank and then spells out “GRUB”. I guess this means my friend had Linux or something installed.
So I decided to try to install Windows. When trying to install Windows, after I get to the last of the boot floppies, the on-screen instructions tell me to insert the Windows CD. But, then it stops. The laptop won’t recognize the CD.
So then I figured it might work if I restore the original BIOS. But I don’t have a clue where to look on the restore CDs. I went to the Sony website and they do have an installer program to reinstall the PCG-R505EL’s original BIOS but the program also requires that you run it on that computer.
So, here I am.
Any suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
You are right, GRUB is a boot loader and people use it for multiboot systems. But you shouldn’t have any loader installed on your hard drive, because as you mentioned it’s a new one. Even if your friend had Linux, it’s shouldn’t affect you in any way because his hard dive gone.
Make sure that the Windows CD you are trying to use is in good condition. I would try to boot the laptop from any other bootable CD, to figure out if the CD-ROM drive works at all. If you don’t have a boot CD, you can download and use Hitachi Drive Fitness test utility. You can download a CD image file from their website and burn it on a CD. After that try to boot the laptop from the CD you just burned. If it boots fine, you also can use this utility for testing the hard drive. If it will not boot, them you might have a problem with the drive itself or a bad connection between the laptop and the dock station. I would probably try to reseat the drive just in case if there is a bad connection between the drive and the dock station.
I’m not familiar with this model and not sure if you can disable/enable the CD-ROM drive in BIOS. Enter the BIOS (SETUP) and see if you can somehow enable the CD-ROM drive. To enter the BIOS try F2 or F3 keys on start up.
July 20th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
I tried the disk utility on CD-ROM but it didn’t work. So I tried the floppy disk version and it did work.
The hard drive checks out fine. I guess the CD-ROM drive is bad. I failed to mention that the CD-ROM and floppy drive are integrated into a separate docking station.
Any suggestions? I will contact Sony for an estimate on repairing the dock.
Hank.
August 22nd, 2006 at 11:09 am
I replaced the DVD/CD-RW drive but it turns out 2 of the 3 system disks were ‘funky’ in that they wouldn’t completely load during the installation process. So I tried making a copy of each of them and using the copy. It worked…weird.
After that, it was just a straight forward WinXP setup.
Thanks for your help.
October 22nd, 2006 at 1:41 pm
I have a TIME 8375 which worked fine until i upgraded xp pro sp1 to sp2.It now will boot up sometimes after 15 – 20 stop /starts,the fan comes on etc but no drive light,when it does boot up it runs normally until shut down,where it will not start again for 15-20 odd pushes of thoe start button.I managed to take out sp2 using add/remove & system restore but to no avail,also freezes when i put boot disc in to try to reinstall OS
October 23rd, 2006 at 7:37 pm
David,
I don’t think that your computer stopped working properly because of upgrading from SP1 to SP2, it’s just a coincidence. I think you have a failing memory module. Download Memtest 86+ utility and run it on your computer. If the memory fails test, reseat the module and if it doesn’t help replace the memory.
October 26th, 2006 at 5:13 am
I cannot open up my dvd rom . It just make a noise when I try. How can I fix it ? or remove the DVD rom. It looks like there is a slide, but don’t know how to remove it. My laptop is Toshiba Satellite A 45 S 151. Thanks,
October 26th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Nivile,
Here are instructions for opening up Toshiba Satellite A45 case (www.irisvista.com). Take a look at the step 6, it shows how to remove the DVD drive.
November 5th, 2006 at 3:55 am
As regards my question about laptop failing to boot up…thanks for the reply about replacing the memory…it did not work..any other thoughts guys,i’m getting close to throwing the whole thing out.
November 15th, 2006 at 5:35 am
Hi.
I have a Toshiba Satellite M50, it doesnt want to play any cd’s – no cdr or other – anymore.
On occasion it can play a dvd.
Initially when I try to play a cd I can hear abit of spinning but then nothing really happens.
I have downloaded new drivers from the Toshiba website and installed them but that didnt work either.
After that I read on a forum to reinstall the cd/dvd-driver, but now I get a message saying something like:
“I/O device error”
any thouhts?
November 15th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Richard,
Try reseating the DVD drive. Remove it from the laptop and install back in place. If it doesn’t help then probably you have a bad drive. I’ve seen a lot of bad drives with “I/O device error” message.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Hi,
Though my problem cannot be called boot problem, this is the best classification I could make.
I have this strange problem with my laptop. Whenever the laptop is powered on after shutting down for a while (more than 1hour) it takes more than 3-4 sometimes upto 6 minutes to even start the POST. But once POST is started laptop boots up fast and no problem after that.
And before POST is started literally nothing happens, no spinning noise, only thing that happens is the power on led glowing. Could you please help me in findingout why this is happening and solving the issue. I bought this just 4 weeks back.
November 18th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Pani,
I guess the laptop is still under warranty? I would suggest taking the laptop to a service center because if you open up the laptop you might loose the warranty.
Here’s something that you can try. Remove all devices and cards that you can access from the bottom of the laptop such as hard drive, DVD drive, wireless card, modem card. Start the laptop and check if it still hangs during POST. If the laptop doesn’t hang anymore, start installing devices back and test after each step. Find out with device is causing POST failure. If the laptop still hangs, you might have a bigger problem then just a failing device.
November 30th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Hi..
I am using a gateway MX6440. I get choppy images while trying to play any DVD, which seem to work fine of other pc/laptops/players.
I tried changing the drivers..and what not..Could this be hardware(dvd- drive) problem?
Thanks in advance
Ravi
November 30th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Ravi,
It’s hard to say if the problem is software or hardware related. If reloading the driver didn’t help it doesn’t mean that you have a bad drive. I would try reloading the operating system. You can use a recovery CD/DVD to reimage the drive back to original factory defaults. You have a good chance to fix the problem. If the drive still doesn’t work properly even after you reloaded the operating system, then most likely you have a bad drive.
December 1st, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Hi,
I have Toshiba Satellite A75-S229 and it does not recognize a CD drive at all. When I go to My Computer, under the disk drives, all I have is the C drive. When I try Run with d:\ a message pops up saying location unavailable. I don’t know what to do. I can’t play any CDs or DVDs.
Help please,
Dorothy
December 2nd, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Dorothy,
Here are some tips, they can help you to resolve the problem with a “disappeared” drive.
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Hi,
I went to the website and I tried to follow the steps, but my problem turns out to be that my drive does not even appear in the device manager and so I could not complete the steps. Any other suggestions? I’ll take all the help I can get.
Thanks.
Dorothy
December 4th, 2006 at 1:32 am
Dorothy,
Method 1 doesn’t require appearance of the CD-Rom drive in the device manager, so it didn’t work for you too?
You can try this. Do you have any bootable CD or DVD lying around? You can use Windows 2000, Windows XP CDs or the recovery DVD for your laptop. Try booting the laptop from one of these CDs. Insert the CD inside the drive, restart the laptop, press F12 on start up to select a bootable device and choose the DVD drive. Can you boot? If you can boot then the BIOS can see the drive and most likely the drive itself works fine. You might have corrupted software and can fix the problem if you re-image the drive using the recovery DVD.
If the laptop will not boot from a boot CD/DVD, you can try reseating the drive. Just remove it from the laptop and insert it back. It’s possible that connection between the drive and the motherboard got oxidized and it will work fine after you reseat the drive – follow steps 1-4 in this notebook disassembly guide.
December 4th, 2006 at 2:59 am
I have a HP notebook compaq nx9005. There is a combo drive CD-RW + DVD-ROM which looks to behave very crazy. The light on the drive still keeps flashing on and off, even if there is no disc inserted. I still can read most of the dvds and cds I have, but sometimes it does not see it on the first insert, then I have to remove and reinsert it once again. Would not be bad itself, but I have problems to install linux (opensuse 10.1 – I love that compiz xgl thing) from a verified and fresh burned dvd (worked 100% on my desktop just a hour before). I tried it more times but the drive fails everytime. Is that reading problem somehow related to that mentioned flashing of the light?
December 5th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Peter,
It sounds like you might have a bad DVD/CD-RW drive. Try reseating the drive, remove if from the laptop and insert back. Not sure if it’s going to help but in some cases a bad connection between the drive and the motherboard can be a problem.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:25 am
I just recently bought a Compaq Presario V5000.
I have been watching a number of DVD’s on it as of late, and it has worked fine.
Then While watching LoTR return of the King it froze and then started lagging as if it was skipping because it was scratched.
I changed the CD and the same things happens.
I also tried different DVD playing applications.
HP DVD play
Windows Media Player
Media Center
And the same thing happened in all of them.
So It must be the drive itself.
I thought of maybe Uninstalling the drive and reinstalling but I don’t know if that would work.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
December 7th, 2006 at 11:08 am
I am going to try to change a floppy drive into a cd-rom drive in an IBM 365X, and have read that I need a cd-rom cable? can I please get some help?
jennifercarroll
THANKS
December 15th, 2006 at 7:36 am
My dell laptop suddenly have problem playing DVD.There is picture but no sound although it seems to be playing.However,the player is doing fine when playing a CD.I have check all the potential solution offered by the help and support but nothing seems to be able to troubleshoot the CD/DVD player problem.Can anyone help me?
Thank you
December 16th, 2006 at 8:27 am
Mei Chi,
Check the DVD player settings, make sure the sound is not muted. Do you remember when the sound stopped working? Restore the computer to that day using Windows system restore utility. It might be an issue with your DVD playing software. Download another media player (for example – VLC media player, it’s free) and test if sound works fine in there.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:57 am
My Packard Bell Easynote cannot locate my CD/DVD ROM drive. I have trouble shot this problem extensively without success. Whenever I insert a CD it spins but is not read. I think my machine recognises the harware but the software is missing. I have tried reloading using the installation disc but I’m not sure the drive is reading this either. The device is longer listed under ‘My Computer’. Does anyone have any advice please?
December 22nd, 2006 at 10:50 am
hi. i am not computer guroo.this is my problem i will try to explain as best i can.i have an dell insiron 5150 laptop ,at boot up it comes up a black screen with the curser on the left flashing .nothing else.it was working fine for 3 years, windows xp,80gb hard drive 1gb ram tried changing the ram and the harddrive no change.pluged in new battery no change any help is great thanks in advance dennis
December 22nd, 2006 at 11:59 pm
The laptop that i am working on experiences severe screen flickering dureing bootup. After the laptop completely boots up and the programs load in the taskbar the screen flickering stops. Additionally the screen will flicker and jump right before the screen saver comes on. The user also has problems when he video conferences as the entire laptop freezes and has to be restarted. I have run Spyspot search and destroy to remove and adware as well as Norton disk utilities which found no errors or bad sectors in the HDD. All of his video setting look correct and the driver seems to be working and up to date. The Specs on the Laptop are as follows:
Make: Toshiba
Model: Satellite A-25
Opperating system: Windows XP
Any advice on what additional steps need to be taken?
December 23rd, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Jeremy,
What if you boot the laptop into Safe mode, would it flicker too? May be you have a faulty video driver, try reinstalling it. Check the BIOS version; make sure it’s the latest one. If not, upgrade the BIOS. You didn’t provide the full model number for the laptop, so I checked the BIOS change history for Toshiba Satellite A25-S308. There is a fix in the version 1.40 and it says: “This BIOS applies a workaround for an Intel CPU errata that could cause unpredictable application behavior and/or system hangs”. I don’t know what Toshiba mean by that, but it could be somehow related to your problem.
December 23rd, 2006 at 9:01 pm
Dennis,
Remove the hard drive from the laptop and start it without the hard drive installed. Are you still getting the same flashing cursor or the laptop goes into normal boot sequence – looking for a boot device? Do you get Dell logo when you turn on the laptop or it goes directly to a black screen with the flashing cursor?
December 26th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
I have a Dell Inspiron 8500. The other day I turned it on and it wouldn’t finish the boot process. I got through the Windows Welcome screen and my desktop background boots up, but then nothing else. No start menu bar, no icons, nothing. Just kind of stalls out. I can move my mouse around though. Tried to reinstall windows w/ no avail. Safe mode didn’t work either.
December 26th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Connie,
So you reinstalled Windows and the laptop still boots to the background without the start menu and icons? Very strange. The failure description you provided in the comment 29 tells me that most likely you have a software related issue. Just in case test the hard drive, you can use Hitachi DFT utility.
December 27th, 2006 at 10:05 am
Hi,
My neice’s Toshiba 2590 CDT won’t boot.
When you start it, it immediately starts ScanDisk and gets to 40% then there’s an error that says:
“ScanDisk detected an invalid long filename entry on this drive but was unable to fix it.
To fix this problem, run Scandisk for Windows.”
Then ScanDisk continues and the progress bar shows 41%. After a long time at 41% another error shows up that says:
“ScanDisk encountered a data error while reading cluster 470270.
ScanDisk will try to continue past this error. When ScanDisk offers to perform a surface scan on this drive, choose Yes.”
Then the progress bar sits there at 41% and nothing happens. I’ve had it sit there for hours at 41%.
I tried starting the computer step by step and I get to “Load all Windows drivers”. I choose yes. It loads msmouse.vxd, pwrsave.vxd and pwrserve.vxd then I get the error message:
“While initiating device VKD
Windows protection error.
You need to restart your computer.”
I’ve found a microsoft repair page here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263318 that shows the exact problem that I see, but of course, I can’t replace the keyboard with another one to test it.
The computer won’t start in Safe Mode.
We don’t seem to have the Toshiba restore cd either. It looks like my neice lost it. Otherwise, I’d have tried restoring it by now.
Thanks.
December 28th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
I have a Dell Latitude CPi laptop (pII). I recently upgraded it to windows 2000 and added a wireless network card. When I was downloading a firewall it froze and would not respond. I removed the battery and power cord however it now won’t boot up. When I push the power button the jpower indicator will turn on for about 5 – 10 seconds but there is not other sign of life. I have removed the battery and power cord and left it sit for about 1 hour, still nothing. Any ideas?
December 31st, 2006 at 2:37 pm
I’m at a loss here – (see comment 29) – I get to my desktop – still no icons, I can move the mouse around and I can do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to get to the Task Manager.
I tried to open a utility through Tast Mgr. but it stalled out there too.
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:11 am
Toshiba Satelite A60 power up problem:
This is the laptop of my friend. He had a problem with the laptop: Laptop switched off after 20 minutes.
He broght it to the service. They told him that they have to replace the mainboard. Costs: approx. 350 Euro . He made the decision not to repair the toshiba A60. The costs for identfing the problem was about 60 Euro !
After het got back the laptop the problem was more worse now.
Now the laptop do not boot !
Problem: Switch on the power supply. It is OK
Dc in led: Green
battery charge led: Orange for charging. is OK
If I switch now laptop on there happens more or less nothing
1) the power led (keyboard) is now blue
2) the power led (front) is now green
3) Harddisk starts only for 1 second
4) no screen display
5) Fan don’t start
6) I can only open the dvd disc drive
but nothing more.
After 1 minute the power on lights goes off
Thats it
Thanks for your help in advance.
Bernhard
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Connie,
Did you actually reinstall Windows operating system from the CD provided by Dell? Did you load XP from sratch?
What if you start Windows in safe mode (Press F8 on startup and chose safe mode) will you get the desktop icons?
I don’t know what’s going on. It sounds like a software related issue and from my experience reinstalling Windows fixes this problem.
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Laptop Freak:
I re-reinstalled Windows and it worked. What I thought was a reinstall originally was not – I guess it only replace a few files instead of doing a complete reinstall.
Reinstalled Windows from scratch and that fixed the problem! YEAH! Data was saved – now I have to figure out how to get my internet working again on that laptop!
Thanks!
January 6th, 2007 at 4:29 am
Per a problem I was having with my Toshiba A65-s1067 laptop overheating and causing problems with windows I decided to upgrade the BIOS. According to Toshiba the BIOS upgrade changed some settings that would help with the overheating issue. So, I downloaded the updater version 1.9 from Toshiba directly and followed all the precautions because I know how easily the computer can be messed up during a BIOS flash. I ran the Windows based FLASH executer provided by Toshiba – my first mistake – and about 10 seconds into the update Windows came up with an information box saying that services.exe unexpectedly terminated and the computer would be restarted. I tried everything to keep it from rebooting, but to my dismay after 45 seconds the laptop restarted without being completely done with the BIOS FLASH. Of course, now I have a brick that just beeps an error code at me (Long-Short-Long-Short) and turns back off.
From the Laptop Freak: this comment has been published here.
January 13th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Great website. Gave me the courage to dismantle my Toshiba Satellite A75-S211 to clean the heatsink and fans. Lots of dust. Heat problems fixed! (BTW To anyone reading this, don’t forget the heatsink compound on the CPU!)
This machine has the infamous Matshita UJ-820B DVD/CD drive. I think it’s gone “west”! Drive is recognized by the computer as DVD-RAM Drive (D:). Sofar so good. Problem is it can’t find any discs (playback or record); won’t access in boot sequence even after switching on in bios; indicator light stays on at all times (disk in or out). This was working a month ago.
(Have taken it in and out at least ten times which should eliminate “seating” problem.)
Given the price of a new one and, for me difficult access to parts, how can I be sure a replacement will solve my problem. A tough question, I know, but any comments at all would be appreciated.
January 13th, 2007 at 7:04 am
I have a 2 year old laptop(presario r3000). Today when i restarted my laptop, there was nothing in the monitor. The hard disk runs but there is nothing in the display. I dont have have much knowledge about computers. What to
do?
January 13th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I have an older IBM Thinkpad 756CSE (Type 9545.
When I plug the AC Adapter in I get a yellow light to the left and a green ligh which I presume shows that the system is ready to operate.
When I toggle the power switch there is absolutely no reaction
January 13th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hi, I have a toshiba portege 3410 notebook with a reformatted drive and cannot get the Amacom baby pcmcia dvd rom or my iomega usb cdrw to be detected in DOS. I have a USB floppy from which the bios allows (legacy emulator) a floppy boot to DOS, but cannot re-install windows without CDROM or even via the parallel port Zip drive as the port is not detected! its a port replicator dock with the parallel port and works fine with my old 3110 portege so am ata loss as to why the 3410 should be different. I reloaded the 3110 via three zip disks as had CDROM detection problems too!- I have a drivers disk with the amacom drive on floppy but the `shining technologies` software in Dossetup.exe doesnt seem to do anything. It asks for source path/directory but there is no help on exactly what it wants you to type in and the website is useless! – please can anyone help!! Last resort would be to remove hard drive – but will probably stuff the laptop trying that as too fiddly for my sausage fingers!
January 13th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Hank,
You wrote:
1. Drive is recognized by the computer
2. It can’t find any discs
3. Won’t access in boot sequence even after switching on in BIOS
4. Indicator light stays on at all times
I don’t think that’s a software issue. Looks like you have a bad drive. Of course, you might have a faulty controller on the motherboard but from my experience it happens rarely. I would go with the drive replacement.
January 14th, 2007 at 5:47 am
Thanks for the input. Kinda what I thought. So I’ll start with the drive and if that don’t solve it I guess I’m on to my motherboard.
BTW the prices for the drives are all over the map. Some used, some rebuilt, some “new”. Any idea what’s up with that. Is it obsolete (already?)
Any suggestions there? Can I substitute?
January 15th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Hank M,
Sure you can substitute. Here’s a list of drives for your Satellite A75 laptop:
DVD/CD-RW Drives:
K000015770, K000015780, K000015790, K000015800, K000025480
DVD Super Multidrives:
K000015860, K000015870, K000024880
DVD Double Layer Multidrives:
K000025200, K000029620, K000018830, K000020480, K000025640
Any of the listed above drives should work fine with your laptop. Search on the internet and find the best deal.
January 17th, 2007 at 12:23 am
Here’s my question. I’ve got a Toshiba A75-S2112. I ran into some trouble a few months ago with the DVD+-RW Super MultiDrive. Windows stopped detecting it completely. The drive wouldn’t show up in the Device Manager, My Computer, or anything. Today, I decided to try and figure out all I could about the specific problem I’m having. I restarted the computer, went into the BIOS, and searched for it in there. The BIOS won’t even detect the DVD drive, the only drive it’s detecting is the C: drive, my hard disk drive. I’ve tried updating the DVD drive’s Firmware with the download from Toshiba.com, but that won’t work unless the installer can detect the drive. A friend of mine has the same computer, and I was wondering, if I borrow her drive and it doesn’t work either, what does that mean for me? I’ve got about $1200 into my laptop so far, and I’m not looking to spend much more. But I would like to have it running as good as it was before. I’d like to make sure it’s not a motherboard issue before I spend another $110 on a new DVD multidrive.
January 17th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Hi,
I have a HP Notebook nc6230 with Windows XP professional. I want to work on Windows Server 2003, so I tried installing the Windows Srv 2003 on my external Hard driver connecting through a USB cable. After I finish the initial installation ….
This question has been published here.
January 18th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Managed to find a brand new Matshita UJ-820B (K000015860) multidrive on eBay for $99. Arrived in only 4 days, wow!
Anyway, plunked it in and it was instantly recognized by my machine and sofar has passed the playback tests on both CD and DVD. Haven’t tried record yet, but this is already a big relief.
I know the Matshita drives have some issues. Still it’s hard to believe the old one was faulty. It looked perfect and certainly not abused. Wonder what goes wrong with them.
Anyway, problem solved. Thanks for the help. I now have a working drive and a cool running machine (used http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/ToshibaA75/satA75_1.htm) thanks to your input.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Nick,
It means that you have a problem with the motherboard, probably a bad controller. You’ll have to replace the motherboard.
BTW, Toshiba issues a 12 months warranty extension for this model. You can fix your laptop for free even if it is not under warranty anymore. Check out comment 7 and 8 in this post.
January 19th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Hi, I have a HP laptop which was purchased in April/May 2005.
I was wondering how I could tell if PC games saying “DVD rom -only DVD compatible” would work on my laptop?
On the disk drawer it has three symbols which state “RW – DVD and ReWritable”, “DVD. R/RW”, and “compact disc rewritable ultra speed”.
Thanks
January 20th, 2007 at 1:30 am
hi,,,,
i had an compaq laptop which is older ofcourse…
i used to have win 98 in it as operating system and my cd rom i snot wrking now..it got sm hardware prblm..i want to upgrade now to xp…how can i do this without a cd/floppy..can i use lan connection in order to laod it with xp…please help me guys..!!
January 20th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
HI, I have a Fujitsu Siemens Alimo A1645 and I have a very strange problem. My laptop refused to boot, as if there was no power going into the laptop. After many attempts I finally got it working. I then went onto backing my system up with a cd and as soon as it started reading the cd it suddenly turned off. I couldn’t get it going again, so I thought that it must be something to do with the DVD/RW Drive. I took the drive out and it started working again perfectly! Just to make sure I tried the drive again in it and it just kept playing the same old tricks. Is there something wrong with my drive or my laptop?
January 21st, 2007 at 9:55 am
firstly i would like to thanks for your forum which helps us to solve the problem.
i have acer travel mate 4270LMI. i have a problem in my laptop. i have DVD/RW and it was wokring fine. oneday i try to read a scratch cd but it could not. after that it does not read any cds. but it reads dvd, audio cds, driver cds/dvds. it only does not read recorded cds. when i insert recorded cd it opens blank as iff to write into the cds and sometimes as audio cd. can u suggest me any solution.
January 21st, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Sabrina,
I’m not a gamer but from my understanding “DVD rom -only DVD compatible” means you need a drive able to read DVD disks. You have DVD-R/RW (you can read/write DVD disks) and you’ll be fine with this drive.
January 28th, 2007 at 8:21 am
I am having problems with trying to safely “Unplug or Eject Hardware” (LG GSA-2166D Super Drive). I am using windows xp pro. The message states that there is another process using this device; but I do not see a light on the drive to indicate its in use. How can I determine what process is using the drive? P.S. the drive is having problems reading dvd-rom but can read cd-rom disc. Any thoughts or suggestions.
February 1st, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Hello,
I am asking for your assistance due to a problem I have with my dell latitude CPx. I recieved the laptop free of charge due to the fact that the previous owner knew it had a problem but wasnt sure what it was. As soon as i turned the laptop on i knew what the problem was. But thats not important. What is important is that this laptop does not have a attached cd-rom drive. I was forced to clean off the hard drive with the thinking that my Iomega Zip CD-RW would work in DOS when i wanted to reload windows. But it is not recognized through dos. I have turned on the USB controllers and everything in the bios. But there is still no help. Please help, and if i need a certain file please direct me towards the right site.
bryant
February 4th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Well, I tried substituting the drive, (see post #45 above), and it did nothing. The other drive works, I’m positive, as does the one in my computer, I tried it in my friend’s laptop, and it worked fine. Well, now Windows is giving me error messages when I connect my external USB DVD drive. . . I’m getting sick of this computer now, it’s got cracks in the case, my laptop sits on the desk for about 95% of the time, I don’t know how they got there, the DVD drives don’t work, internal OR external, and the fans have developed an annoying noise. Anybody know where I can get a decent amount back on a trade in or anything?
February 4th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Oh yeah, I’ve tried to get the issues fixed by Toshiba, but since i have no reciept or anything and the serial and product numbers are both worn off of the sticker on the bottom of the computer, I can’t get anything from them. Is there anything I can do?
February 6th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
hi may name is sam.
i have a dell laptop Pentium m latitude d600.everything works good except i have no sound or something with the drivers something.i have no clue whats going on,can you please help me,i don’t know what to do,or how to troubleshoot the problem .every time i try to run I tunes a pop up will pop up and say, I tunes has detected a problem with your audio configuration audio/video playback may not operate pronely. o im using window’s 2003.thank you
February 6th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Nick,
Do you have any Toshiba authorized service center in your area?
Any Toshiba motherboard is programmed with a DMI string which has all information about the laptop (name, model number, serial number). It’s possible to read this information from the DMI string with a special utility available only for certified Toshiba technicians. If you bring your laptop to the authorized repair center, they can get the serial number from the DMI string. It takes just a few minutes.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
I hope you can help.
I have a Toshiba Sat Pro 4600 that was given to me for Christmas well its been fitted with a Sony DVD W/CD RW combo (DW-Q58A). When I first started it the I’d get the PXE E61 media test failure,check cable message and the drive wouldn’t appear in computer and I couldn’t open it.. if I didn’t get the error essage then the drive would appear, Windows XP would say it was working correctly but it wouldn’t open CD Roms, well now I’ve pdated the BIOS, I get the message everytime, but the drive will always open and any disc will spin up but the drive does not appear in my computer or the device manager, hope can help currently stuck in Cambodia.
Gav.
February 8th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Gavin,
Most likely the Sony DVD/RW drive you are using is not compatible with your laptop, it’s configured differently. You’ll have to find a compatible drive or use an external USB drive. Just in case I want to mention that you will not be able to boot from an external drive but it will work fine in Windows.
If you want I can find a list of compatible CD-RW/DVD drives, but I cannot help you with DVD/RW.
February 25th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I dropped my laptop from about 3 feet onto a concrete driveway and it seems to work okay except that I cannot open the DVD drive. The laptop fell onto the right corner near the drive. Any suggestions on how to open it? Thanks for your help. Kathy
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:12 am
I own a fujitsu siemens Amilo A7640W. Recently, my cd/dvd-rom station doesn’t recognize any cd’s or dvd’s. It makes three ticking noises and then stops reading the disc. I did burn quite a lot dvd’s in the last couple of weeks, like 15 in the last month. Did I use it too much, can I fix it in any way?
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:07 am
My Toshiba satellite 1800′s dvd-rom isn’t working, well I guess it is working to say that the computer knows it’s there and there aren’t any conflicts when I check my device manager. Here’s what happens, when I close the door with a cd or dvd in it the light will blink a couple of time and then stays solid and I try to access it, it then tells me to please insert disk into drive D:
also if I restart my laptop with the dvd rom door closed the boot up process with freeze untill I open the door and then it continues fine. what could be causing this?
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I was attempting to load Vista in my Toshiba A35, and I came up with the Blue Screen of Death, stating something about my BIOS not being ACPI compliant. Instead of dealing with that now, I attempted to reload XP on my machine. The problem is that I just replaced my old DVD drive with one of the same model, but used. Now, my machine won’t recognize the CD/DVD ROM drive in order for me to load XP at boot. When I did have a working laptop, Windows recognized the new CD/DVD drive, and I was able run programs from it (though they wouldn’t autoload.) Is there any utility to use in order for my “dead-in-the-water” laptop to start recognizing this drive? If this helps, I did update my BIOS to 1.80.
March 5th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Annemajije Visser,
Sounds like a bad DVD drive but I don’t think that you overused the drive, 15 DVDs/month is not a lot at all. You’ll have to replace the laptop drive OR buy an external USB DVD drive and save some money. The main advantage of the external drive – you can share it between many computers and it’s not as expensive as the laptop drive.
March 5th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Kris,
Probably it’s just a bad drive, you’ll have to replace it or use an external one as I mentioned in the previous comment.
March 14th, 2007 at 9:09 am
is there a way that i can hook up my laptop to a destop so that i can use the cd drive off of my destop?? I have a Compaq Evo n400 can some one plz help me??
March 15th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
John Johns,
No, you cannot.
March 28th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I have an Acer Aspire 3003WLCi that is having problems running DVD’s. It started when trying to play Madden 07. I was able to play a few times but now I put the disc or any dvd’s in and the screen gets very dim and locks up. If I try to start the computer with the disc in, it will not boot. The computer will still play and burn cd’s, but as soon as I put a DVD in, it craps out. I have sufficient specs to run the programs. I have tried updating the drivers and firmware, as well as making sure the boot order was correct. The CD/DVD-ROM is a Philips SCB5265. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I would really appreciate some help. I have a toshiba laptop, its fairly new, havent had it a year yet. The problem is my cd rom will not work. It does not read anything, run anything, i have troubleshooted the problem and eveything. Please help!
June 25th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Have a toshiba satelite P15 and just purchased an ipod
shuffle. when I plugged the transfer “dock” into the usb
port the whole computer shut down. I can’t reboot at all! HELP!!! How can I get my computer back. Will not use ipod anything once it is up. Anyone with a similar problem?! Thanks in advance-Bill
July 5th, 2007 at 5:51 am
Hi, I was wondering if anything had been found out as to my ipod shuffle crashing laptop post. Am I writing too early? Please don’t post this if I am. Thanks again in advance for any help. Bill
July 25th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
My DVD Drive in my Compaq Presario V5000 laptop just crapped out, its not reading any kind of media I am putting in. I downloaded a vista lookalike but its still running on Windows XP, do you think that is the problem, or is the Drive just bunk now lol.
This question with a possible solution has been published here.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I own a Sony Viao, mdl# PCG-GRT100K. Been playing games on this system and all was working correctly. After a proper shut down of the system with the game disk still in the cd-rom, I attempted to start the game the next day. I recieved an error message requesting that the disk needs to be in the cd-rom drive. A system check indicates that the drive is working properly, but it will not recognize any disk that I install. Any suggestions?
August 26th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
James McCarthy,
You can try this.
1. Open the DVD drive and clean the laser with an alcohol wipe. You might have a dirty laser.
2. Uninstall the DVD driver in the device manager and reboot the laptop. The operating system should install the driver again when you reboot the laptop. Reinstalling the driver might help.
3. If the DVD drive disappeared form My Computer, check out this post.
4. Remove the DVD drive from the laptop and install it back. It’s possible that connection between the DVD drive and motherboard got oxidized and the drive is not making a good contact with the motherboard. Reseating the DVD drive might help.
If none of the above mentioned methods work, probably you have a bad DVD drive.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:50 pm
To: Laptop Freak
Thanks for the information, will try out your suggestions this weekend. Will post the results.
September 4th, 2007 at 9:11 am
To: Laptop Freak
Your suggestion #2 worked. Cd-rom is back in action. Thank you very much for the the assistance.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:59 am
This one has me stumped. One of my clients brought in a Gateway mx6440 with what looked like a virus. I told her if the data on the laptop wasn’t important, we can do a full system restore. She said “fine”.
Upon loading a new Windows XP Pro disk, it kept hanging when scanning hardware. I am now using the Gateway system restore DVD and it started, but is hanging where it says “Please Wait…”. (I’m fairly certain this is where it is scanning the hardware also.)
I have tried new memory, new hard drive.
Any help is appreciated.
John
September 17th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
John Munson,
Does this laptop have a wireless card? Try loading XP without the wireless card installed, maybe it’s bad. Try removing the modem card too.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:41 am
I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 which wont boot, not even to the bios, and just starts with a black screen and flashing cursor. Any ideas ?
October 18th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Lofty,
Can you get to the BIOS screen if you remove the hard drive? Maybe you have a faulty hard drive?
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 am
No, even with hard drive removed I just get the blank screen and flashing cursor as soon as I press the power button
November 21st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I have a nine month old Toshiba Satellite Laptop A105-S4384, that came with Windows XP Media Center Version 2002 Service Pack 2.
After I installed the Toshiba Windows Vista upgrade, I started getting BSOD’s on a regular basis.
The BSOD problem finally got so bad, I put in the Toshiba restore disk and went back to Windows XP.
Ever since then, the MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-841S DVD/CD-R drive will not read any disk but the Toshiba restore disk.
For instance when I try to re-install Norton Ghost 12.0 , I get an error message the reads:
The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error
I subsequently used the Toshiba restore disk three more times to see if it would clear up the problem, and it didn’t.
Toshiba support told me to go to this Microsoft web site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891894 and follow the instructions to remove the Upper & Lower filters from the Registry.
That didn’t help with the problem, so I did a Google search and found this link:
Toshiba Support – Optical drive stops working after upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista (WinDVD Creator)
http://tinyurl.com/334cjs
When I downloaded the file, my optical drive started reading program disks again for just a few hours, before it reverted back to showing the “The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error” message.
I tried re-installing the Optical drive fix for Windows Vista and it didn’t fix the problem like it did before.
Do you have any suggestions for me?
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 am
My daughter has an Acer Aspire 3100 which fell over a couple of weeks ago. It sounded just like an HDD failure to me so I bought a replacement drive and fitted it. I then tried to restore the system using the restore disk that I had created when originally setting it up for her. Everything seemed to go fine until it got to a point where the message at the bottom of the screen said it was loading Windows – when it hung – no activity at all. I immediately assumed it was a problem with the boot disk and tried a Window upgrade disc – similar result, I scrounged a Dell XP system disc from work – no go. Then I popped the old HDD into a remote enclosure to see if it worked – and it did, nothing wrong with it – so it wasn’t the HDD… My local laptop shop had a look and said – it’s the motherboard or the video card (but the Acer splash screen appears when you try to boot it). So, as a last thing to try I set the BIOS to boot from a USB HDD and connected the original hard drive, in its new remote housing, and the thing immediately booted not to Windows but to DOS! It says Windows 98 but it comes up with the C prompt. It says there is only one file on the disc… So I am utterly confused! Can I save this machine?
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Roger Stone,
I think this could be connection related issue. I posted my suggestions in this post:
My laptop fell over and will not boot now
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
My Acer Travelmate 4060, the harddrive makes a weird noise and suddenly the screen goes blank loose all my work. I did my backup recovery disks and bought a new harddrive; I tried booting from the disk but no-go, the screen comes and says no operating system found.
I had to put back in my old harddrive. Iam so frustrated with this laptop. Please help!
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Shandy,
Did you change the boot order in the BIOS setup menu? Are you sure the laptop boots from the recovery disc? You’ll find some suggestions in this post.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:01 am
I got a virus and downloaded free anti-virus software. It found the virus on windows files and asked me if I wanted to delete it. I did it and now windows will not boot. I’m trying to do a repair (recovery didn’t work) from the windows XP CD because I have important files I need to retrieve. The computer starts the windows installer CD in DOS mode from the D drive but windows installer itself won’t recognize the D drive during the installation. It needs the CD to replace deleted files. Any ideas?
May 7th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Jimmy,
You can back up all important files using these methods. After all files are transferred to a safe location, reinstall Windows from scratch.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
ok so i wanted to see if a game i have worked on my IBM r31 so i put the disk in the dvd drive and basicly nothing happened, so i looked in my comp icon and i could not seem to find the game in there ether all it has in my comp is shared documents and IBM preload(c:) it doesnt seem to be recognizing the dvd drive is there a way i can fix this problem??
Thanks,
Evan
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
after rebooting my time laptop model no.8375 my sound device didnt work and i dont get a sound from my laptop
i cant find a new sound card driver for my laptop,pls. can anybody help me with my computers problem.tnx
January 31st, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I have a Toshiba M35X S149 Laptop. CD R/RW DVD R only. Can read & play OK, but cannot write to the CD. Diagnostics check-out OK, but when I attempt to write to the CD either with standard Microsoft program or with Roxio, neither can find the device. Problem started back awhile ago. Motherboard has been replaced due to other problems, so the device has been reseated in the meantime. Drivers are up-to-date.
Any help before I go to E-Bay & find a “new” CD / DVD device??
Thanks–Dan
December 14th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
My laptop has had a similar problem, yesturday all disks could be read, they were fine and my computer was working perfectly. Now every disk i place into the drive is undetected. When i press on the dvd drive or cd drive it says to insert disk, even though it has already been inserted.
This happens with all disks, games, music, movies… all disks
please tell me there is a solution to this problem
ASAP
Thankyou
March 30th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
HAI IAM CHARAN MY HP NOTEBOOK MODEL V6000 DOSN’T SHOW THE DVD DRIVE ICAN REPLACE THE DVD DRIVE BUT IT CAN’T SHOW IN THE BIOS & OS HOW CAN I SOLUE THE PROBLEM PLEASE ANY ONE HELP ME
April 28th, 2010 at 8:58 am
nice fix. Thanks