On Monday 28 May 2007 14:47, Joe Hart wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Nigel Henry wrote: > > On Monday 28 May 2007 00:24, Hugh Lawson wrote: > >> Nigel Henry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >>> I mean we're not talking about big bucks here. It's just annoying when > >>> something stops working for no apparent reason. > >> > >> I may have missed an earlier post, but here goes anyway. > >> > >> I had the same problem a few days ago. I opened up the computer and > >> pressed against the IDE connectors where they plug into the drive, and > >> into the motherboard. > >> > >> Although I felt no give at all, the drive started reading CDs again. > >> > >> It was an iffy thing and I was ready to buy a new drive, because this > >> is a CD that has a collection of solitaire games that get played every > >> day. > >> > >> -- > >> Hugh Lawson > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Hi Hugh. Yeh I've gone that way already, unplugging, and replugging both > > ends of the ribbon cable, and changed the cable for another one, but > > still no joy. > > > > Although the drive is being detected, I think in reality it has bitten > > the dust, kicked the bucket, gone out to lunch (permanently). > > > > I really hate throwing stuff away, but I suppose you just have to go with > > the flow sometimes, and throw it into the trash. > > > > Thanks for the suggestion. > > > > Nigel. > > Nigel, I agree with your assessment of the problem, but it strikes me > funny that a DVD-ROM drive does the same thing. AFAIK, all DVD drives > can read CD's, so it leads me to believe that something might be wrong > with the controller (most likely build onto the motherboard). Can you > try using a different IDE port (like maybe make the CD a slave to the > primary HD or if it is already, set it to be a master on the secondary > IDE port? > > When having problems like this, having another machine lying around to > test things with is a very big plus. Even if it is an old clunker that > you found in a rubbish bin somewhere (read ebay). > > Joe
The DVD-ROM problem is different. I can't even boot the machine up with it installed. I tried booting with Lennie, and FC2, and got loads of respawning messages while booting, along with 5 minute delays. I gave up trying to boot up, as each 5 min delay, was followed by more respawning, and more 5 min delays. The CD writer is master on IDE1 (IDE0 has 2 harddives on it), so I'll try changing it to slave, so that it uses the other controller on IDE1. Meanwhile, and sometime later, I've decided not to try the Sony CD-RW drive on the Slave controller of IDE1. Thinks! If some serious fault in the drive has knackered the Master controller on IDE1, the last thing I want to do is do the same to the slave controller. So. I replace the CD-RW drive with the new DVD-ROM drive, changing the jumper on it to point to slave. Reboot the machine, putting the Dynebolic live cd in the drawer. Great. Now the live cd boots ok. So far so good. Reboot into Lenny, but there are some permissions problems now, and /dev/cdrom is still pointing to /dev/hdc, rather than, as it should be /dev/hdd. Ok. Reboot into FC2. I can mount data discs ok, and music cd's play ok, so no problems with the DVD-ROM drive, now jumpered as slave on IDE1. Reboot, first into Etch, and sort out the permissions problems for /dev/hdd, then reboot into Lenny, and do likewise. I had to delete the /dev/cdrom link to /dev/hdc, and create a new one pointing to /dev/hdd. /dev/hdd had to have permissions added to "others" read, and write, to match those in /dev/hdc. Enough rambling. Its getting late. It's sufficient to say that the master controller on IDE1 appears to be trashed. If the Sony CD-RW CRX230E had anything to do with it, I've no idea, but don't want to try the same drive set as slave on the other controller, just in case that's so. The new DVD-ROM drive set as slave on IDE1 works ok, so I'm back up and running after a bit of fun with permissions. Thanks for all the replies from you folks. Nigel. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
