Hi Michael--

A shot in the dark. Your problem exhibits *some* of the symptoms I had
with a customer's CD ROM drive (hers was sluggish and took forever to be
read from). To try the fix, go to Control Panel>System>Device Manager,
choose the Settings tab under Properties for the specific drive listed.
If "DMA" is checked in the Options area, clear the check box. You may
have to reboot to enjoy any benefit from this tip. This made all the
difference in the world for my problem.

HTH
Dave Gibson
[log in to unmask]

> Date:    Sat, 5 Dec 1998 21:06:25 -0500
> From:    "Michael A. Wosnick" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Help with CD ROM that won't start
>
> Hello all,
>
> I am having a baffling problem with my CD Drive. It plays audio CDs just
> fine, and some of my data CDs autostart just fine. But I have had
> intermittent problems with some of the data CDs that do not start, and do
> not allow me to start them manually (i.e. when I try to access the drive
> with a CD in it, I get an error message saying that the drive is not
> accessible).
>
> Now I have purchased a new program on CD and every time I try to install it,
> the CD drive light goes on, the HDD light goes on, and that is the end of
> it. I get hung every time. The only escape is a hard reset. I have tried
> over and over, but to no avail.
>
> I know the CD is not defective, since I can get it to autostart just fine in
> another computer. So, there must be something wrong with my drive. But since
> some CDs work, and all audio CDs work, it can't be a universal fatal
> problem.

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