CD ROM Problems

[AlanHo]

A friend who is under the illusion that I know about computers, asked for my help. He has subscribed to Virgin Broadband - who have sent him a modem and installation CD which he cannot get working.

The problem is that the installation CD will not play in his CD drive from Auto play and is not recognised by Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer says the drive is empty - insert a disc.

I tried a selection of CD's in his drive including music, other programmes and Windows 98 - they all fired up OK on autoplay but the Virgin disc stubbornly refuses.

I tried the Virgin disc in my desktop and laptop computers and it worked fine in both. It is just his computer that will not accept it - despite accepting all the other CD's we tried.

I have looked at device manager - but all seems OK.

Where do I go from here ?

.

[-pops-]

You mentioned a Windows 98 disk. Is this a W98 computer? It may be that the disk requires a later version in order to function.

[AlanHo]

The computer is several years old and came loaded with Windows 98 - complete with genuine Windows 98 disc. He has not kept it updated with any MS patches - the machine is caught in an old time warp except for adding McAffey a couple of years ago. I am surprised that the clock in the task bar didn't have Roman numerals.

As I said - I have tried a number of CD's of various vintages in the CD drive and all have worked fine - it is just this Virgin that seems to not want to be violated.

The drive is a Yamaha CD burner by the way.

One thing I did notice - but this is hardly relevant to the problem - is how slow an 8 year old Win98 computer is compared with mine. Even loading Windows Explorer seemed to take an age. I haven't stared at an egg timer symbol for so long in years.

[-pops-]

I'm thinking that the Virgin disk was designed for other than W98

From the Virgin BB web page:

Your computer - minimum specification

The vast majority of computers purchased in the last 3 or 4 years will support a broadband connection, but here's a list of the things you will need:

* A spare USB port

* CD-ROM drive

* 32 MB system memory

* Pentium 166 MHz processor or equivalent

* 200 MB free hard disk space

* MS Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 or XP

or alternatively Mac OS 8+

* USB port

click here

Wont work on W98, only W98SE.

[AlanHo]

Thanks pops - obvious innit now you point it out. You've saved me a lot of messing about.

I feel a bit inadequate now for not spotting that one.

My excuse is that on the sleeve of the CD the minimum PC spec is given as

30 Mb of disc space

Windows 98/98SE/ME

Pentium 166 MHz or compatible

32Mbes of memory

Which his computer complies with. Why their web site should differ I don't know.

Addition to this post with edit....

I now doubt that the problem is Win 98. I can imagine that the software may not work on Win 98 - but surely it should read a CD and then refuse to run the programme once loaded. I have tried a number of CD's on his machine - some for software or drivers that will only function with Win XP - and they have all been OK.

The problem became academic about an hour ago because my friend responded to my sarcasm about his machine and him seeing mine in operation - by ordering a new Dell computer which will arrive in 7 days time. He suddenly recognised just how slow his computer is and how much he is limited with storage space.

Some good will come out of the problem because I was horrified to see that he was storing all his data files in the Windows folder and he has never taken a security back-up - even though he runs his music selling business from home and uses the computer to store his correspondence and account records. I will help him set up the new computer and show him the rudiments of safe computing when he gets it.

I am still curious though - my next line of attack is to copy the Virgin record onto another disc (using Nero on my computer) and see if that will run. Just in case his disc drive is sensitive to the actual disc rather than what is stored on it.

More anon.