At random, my DVD drive seems to lose its mind.  ;-)  It will work sometimes but 
not others.  I place a CD or DVD into the drive and nothing happens.   Windows Explorer 
will state that there is nothing in the drive (there is!), or it'll find the disc 
and it'll be empty, or, sometimes (rarely) it'll work correctly.

Also, during a 3D game (Black and White, for example), the computer locks up with 
a steady HDD LED for about 5 minutes before giving control again for about 10 seconds 
before locking up for 5 more minutes...etc.

It does not do this during normal use of the computer (I.E., 3D rendering, video 
editing, websurfing, etc.) and seems that it only does this during games.

Anyone got a clue what's going on?  I'm stumped.

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: DVD drive intermittenly losing access. Sunday, January 18, 2004 at 12:11 am Posted by MSR (196 messages posted) It's a drive problem, or the media you are trying is damaged. If the problem is as bad as this you could try a cleaning disk but mostly you have to clean the lens with alchohol (not whisky!). The lens could be out of alignment ,the spindle may require lubricating or the clamp may be greasy. If the drive or pc is still under warranty return it for repair. Replacement drives are quite inexpensive these days and easy to fit. If you take the drive apart, remove it from the power supply first. On Saturday, January 17, 2004 at 10:46 pm, DanielSan wrote: >At random, my DVD drive seems to lose its mind. ;-) It will work sometimes but >not others. I place a CD or DVD into the drive and nothing happens. Windows Explorer >will state that there is nothing in the drive (there is!), or it'll find the disc >and it'll be empty, or, sometimes (rarely) it'll work correctly. > >Also, during a 3D game (Black and White, for example), the computer locks up with >a steady HDD LED for about 5 minutes before giving control again for about 10 seconds >before locking up for 5 more minutes...etc. > >It does not do this during normal use of the computer (I.E., 3D rendering, video >editing, websurfing, etc.) and seems that it only does this during games. > >Anyone got a clue what's going on? I'm stumped. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: DVD drive intermittenly losing access. Sunday, January 18, 2004 at 8:58 am Posted by HC (935 messages posted) Try this on the IDE controller for the DVD drive set the Transfer mode to PI0 only, if this cures stops the errors then the problem may be either your motherboard chipset IDE or DMA device drivers or the drive firmware may need updating The how to access these settings is here http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;310751& Cheers HC On Saturday, January 17, 2004 at 10:46 pm, DanielSan wrote: >At random, my DVD drive seems to lose its mind. ;-) It will work sometimes but >not others. I place a CD or DVD into the drive and nothing happens. Windows Explorer >will state that there is nothing in the drive (there is!), or it'll find the disc >and it'll be empty, or, sometimes (rarely) it'll work correctly. > >Also, during a 3D game (Black and White, for example), the computer locks up with >a steady HDD LED for about 5 minutes before giving control again for about 10 seconds >before locking up for 5 more minutes...etc. > >It does not do this during normal use of the computer (I.E., 3D rendering, video >editing, websurfing, etc.) and seems that it only does this during games. > >Anyone got a clue what's going on? I'm stumped. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum