David, if you've done nothing else to cause any changes, I'd say the CDRW lens is either dirty, out of alignment or the unit is terminal.

My approach would be to make sure all the connections and jumpers are kosher, ensure that the BIOS is seeing the drive, then, if the problem still exists, run a cleaning CD which should fix a dirty lens.

You could also blow the drive out with compressed air through the drive door, or disassemble it to make sure there's no foreign matter, like a dislodged drive label, in there.

Failing all that, it might be time to get a new drive.  

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David G Nasser 

  Subject: [PCBUILD] CD-RW Problem


  Greetings,

  I've been running a self-built desktop system in my home for
  3+ years. It is built around an Abit BH6 board, runs W2k Pro
  sp4, is generally stable.

  I have a couple hard drives on the first IDE channel.

  I have a an old Samsung SW-206 CD-RW as Master and an older
  BCD 40XH CD-ROM as slave on the second IDE channel.

  The CD-RW, which used to work OK will no longer recognize a
  CD volume. I insert a CD, the read light blinks, but no
  volume/files are detected. I've shuffled several CD's from
  the CD-ROM to the CD-RW: they are all recognized by the CD-
  ROM, none are recognized by the CD-RW. It's as if there were
  no CD in the CD-RW device.

  W2k says the CD-RW "is working properly". I have
  uninstalled/reinstalled the (Windoze) driver, and tried 3
  different ribbon cables, checking the connections very

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