[thechat] CD Drive Ceases To Read CDs

[Luther, Ron]

Chris Marsh noted:

>>I'm not sure if this is an appropriate forum for this post, so if not
>>feel free to mpoint this out to me.

Hi Chris,

'mpoint'? Izzat like 'mport'? Or more like 'mprobable'?  ;-)


>>A friend of mine has a a PC with an internal CD burner. He told me that
>>some time ago it stopped reading *some* CDs, but not all; seemingly
>>randomly. Now, it will not read any CDs at all. 

IANAHH, ("I Am Not A Hardware Head"), buuuuuuuut ... I thought I saw 
a tech note yesterday that the new version of Mandrake has the ability 
to "toast" a CD drive ... something about some hw mfgrs misusing 
a 'for future use' portion of the spec to rewrite their firmware ... 
Mandrake issues that command which blanks the internal command set 
and no new software is loaded in ... thus "toasting" the drive.

[Finally! ... A linux "feature"! ... must be Redmond envy.]


I think I thaw it on TheRegisther. 
<tweety voice>[I did! I did thaw it on TheRegisther!]</voice>

Here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/33648.html


HTH,

RonL.
(Of course ... that's probably no help at all if they are not running 
the new 'drake.)