hi - i removed the CD drive from an old Dell PC and replaced it with a HP CD-RW drive (also old) that i got on eBay. I haven't tried installing a driver since the PC recognizes the new drive as a CD-RW and says one isn't required. I haven't installed any burning software yet, but figured I could use the drive as a regular CD drive until I locate the software.

Here's my question - whenever there's a CD in the drive, the drive keeps spinning and the light stays on the whole time the CD's in the drive, whether or not I'm actually trying to access the CD. It's not supposed to do that, is it?
Someone at work says their's does the same thing, and that it's because they put it in later after they bought their PC.

If it's not supposed to run constantly, what do i do to fix the problem?

Thanks!

You dont say if the drive will READ a disc thats inserted into it or not, or even play a normal audio disc etc.

Drivers are not needed for any type of ROM drive, as the comp only recognises it as a ROM drive, its only burning progs that will recognise it as a burner and use it as such.

Make sure that you have allowed the BIOS to recognise the new ROM drive.

Also make sure the data cable is seated correctly, and is the right way round in the, i.e. pin 1 of the data cable going to pin 1 in the ROM socket.

And no a ROM drive shouldn't spin all the time, it will for a time at boot up, with or without a cd in the drive, also whan a cd is entered into the drive it should just read it then stop, untill its accesed by a program or explorer etc then stop again.

colin.

Hi,

The drive is a Philips 4801/45. It reads data CDs ok, but I didn't have the burning software installed until today. But I was able to format a blank CD-RW and copy a file to it (and delete it from the CD), so I guess it's working ok. I asked someone at work about the drive spinning the whole time the CD is in it (even if I'm not accessing it), and he thought that it might be something that a firmware upgrade would address. But the PC it's on is using Windows ME, so that could be part of the problem too. But since I'm only planning to use the CD-RW drive for copying files, it won't get a lot of use. I'm still planning to use the regular CD drive for games and such.

Eeek !! WinME! Although I dont think this is your problem.

Seeing the words HP and Dell in the same query cause me concern. Especially HP as they do silly things like use the least compatible hardware they can so customers have to go back to them for future upgrades.

Consider odd things like:

Was the HP cd rom drive on its own IDE cable ?
Have you tried changing the drive jumpers from Slave to CS (or vise versa)
Tried changing the IDE cable ?
Tried a new drive ? How much are they like £15 ? ($20) ?
Have you tried placing the drive on a pedestal, facing towards it in an easterly direction and praying to HP (the God of incompatibility) ??

Hope this helps.

Q


edit: PS - Thinking about it, Windows ME should remain on your list of possible causes.