PCG-F590 wont see any CD in drive

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My Vaio DVD ROM stopped working. I did all relevant tests but couldn't get
it to read any CDs. I decided that the laser was trying to but wasn't
focusing on the disc.

I posted here to try to ascertain which drive would go in and eventually
found that any slimline drive would go in. Then I replaced it with another
from a slightly earlier PCG-F370 which was working when I took it out of the
370 and the 590 won't see any CD I try to put in it

However I set up the BIOS, however much the BIOS recognises that there is a
CD drive there, the OS won't see anything in the drive. I tried setting it
to CD, to NONE then CD, to AUTO but the OS wont see anything in the drive.

I CAN put a CD in the drive and it does spin and try to read it but it
doesn't seem to be able to see that there is a drive there to tell me to
open Windows Explorer as XP usually does. My Computer can occasionally see a
drive but, as I say, never sees anything in it. Usually on reboot the BIOS
completely loses sight of the drive and windows explorer doesn't even
acknowledge that there is a drive there

(BTW I DID put what I came to the conclusion was the non-working drive in
the 370 just to fill the hole and it either wasn't working as I suspected,
or it also simply isn't seen in the same way as this, - earlier, - one isn't
seen in the 590: Now it behaves like it behaved in the 590, with the laser
trying to focus on the disc and clicking a few times to show that it is
either not focusing or that the servo isn't working: Is there something
obvious going on here which I cannot see?)

When the BIOS doesn't see it, no drive shows up in Device Manager, all it's
drivers are supposed to be internal to XP so there shouldn't be any problem
with reloading drivers. DM does however show the existence of a secondary
IDE channel which is working properly (not sure what this means).
 
If you can, check the strapping on the CD unit. It might be a
master-slave-CS problem.
Terry
 
news.rcn.com said:
My Vaio DVD ROM stopped working. I did all relevant tests but couldn't
get it to read any CDs. I decided that the laser was trying to but
wasn't focusing on the disc.

I posted here to try to ascertain which drive would go in and
eventually found that any slimline drive would go in. Then I replaced
it with another from a slightly earlier PCG-F370 which was working
when I took it out of the 370 and the 590 won't see any CD I try to
put in it

However I set up the BIOS, however much the BIOS recognises that there
is a CD drive there, the OS won't see anything in the drive. I tried
setting it to CD, to NONE then CD, to AUTO but the OS wont see
anything in the drive.

I CAN put a CD in the drive and it does spin and try to read it but it
doesn't seem to be able to see that there is a drive there to tell me
to open Windows Explorer as XP usually does. My Computer can
occasionally see a drive but, as I say, never sees anything in it.
Usually on reboot the BIOS completely loses sight of the drive and
windows explorer doesn't even acknowledge that there is a drive there

(BTW I DID put what I came to the conclusion was the non-working drive
in the 370 just to fill the hole and it either wasn't working as I
suspected, or it also simply isn't seen in the same way as this, -
earlier, - one isn't seen in the 590: Now it behaves like it behaved
in the 590, with the laser trying to focus on the disc and clicking a
few times to show that it is either not focusing or that the servo
isn't working: Is there something obvious going on here which I
cannot see?)

When the BIOS doesn't see it, no drive shows up in Device Manager, all
it's drivers are supposed to be internal to XP so there shouldn't be
any problem with reloading drivers. DM does however show the
existence of a secondary IDE channel which is working properly (not
sure what this means).
Click to expand...

Your description suggests that there is a mainboard problem that is
toasting drives - overvoltage or something along those lines. Are you
sure that the cabling is correctly installed - that one end to either
the drive or the mainboard is not shifted or loose or inverted or
shorted or ???

Q
 
I thought that on these laptops there was only one way of putting this drive
in? I certainly put the drive in the same way it was inserted on the 370:
Possibly I should try putting it back in the 370 and see if it works there
if no one has any ideas on how I can get it working on the 590 which is my
main computer
 
Your description suggests that there is a mainboard problem that is
toasting drives - overvoltage or something along those lines. Are you
sure that the cabling is correctly installed - that one end to either the
drive or the mainboard is not shifted or loose or inverted or shorted or
???

Q
Click to expand...

Here is where it gets really baffling: I put the non-working 370 drive back
in the 370 and it works perfectly, without configuration and immediately

I then put an old IBM Matsushita DVD in the 590 and it also works
immediately and without problem or configuration beyond telling the BIOS
that there is a CD ROM in there.

Since any Slimline DVD or CD ROM should work in this 590, I wonder what on
earth is going on?
 
just been posting on these sites with a similar problem, cant find any
definite answer. cant read or regoniseanything, according to all tests its
fine. mine is a novetech wildfire around 18 months old. it has a sony
drive in it
 
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