Need Hardware Help!!!

I am having a problem with a piece of hardware I bought, and after reading this, I thought I'd turn to the AO community for suggestions, etc...

Quote:

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By debwalin in "New Box"
...STAY AWAY from Gateway. I had a Gateway for about 8 months, and the compatibility issues I had were ridiculous, everything from peripherals, to hardware, to software. I bought an Epson printer to go with the computer, and it took me over a month to get it installed, because the drivers were incompatible with the computer, and nothing ever worked like it was supposed to.
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=222401

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I recently bought a refurbished CD-R from s0ny through Ub1d.com. After installing it in my "older model" g@teway, it failed to work. I called s0ny, and to spare you all (and myself) the horrible, painful deatails, they are refusing to fix it before I pay them $120 (nearly twice what I paid for the drive).

So, what I'm asking is this:
>>Is it a problem with the compatibility of my computer and the drive or drivers?
>>What should I now do with my $70 cup holder?

Any help would be most appreciated.
Thank you one and all...

Well, I have only worked with a couple of gateway machines, but I never had that many problems. Chances are the problem is with the CD-R. Get a friend to test it in a different machine. Also, how old is your gateway model. It may have some compatablity issues.

you need more specifics man. are you getting any error codes? if so what are they. is your bios finding the cdrom at all? is it finding it but not reading data once the operating system is loaded? what operating system are you using? have you tried to install the most up to date drivers from the sony website? have you double checked your jumper settings? post more info and i will try to help, otherwise, can not do much for you.

VanEck is on the right track, and I agree with souleman. I haven't had many problems with Gateway, and they seem to be decent computers, even if you have had a bad experience with them.

The gateway was purchased in 1998 or '99, and I am running win98.
I installed the CD-R properly,the jumper settings are correct, and it is being recognized by the BIOS. The problem is that it neither reads nor burns CDs. I tried putting in the factory CD that came with the drive, and if I try to access it, it tells me the drive is not ready, as if there were no disk inside at all. When I try to burn a CD, I get the same type of error message that says something like"you must first insert a blank CD into the drive." I even went as far as to buy a single, certified CD as sony suggested I do, and it still does not see it.
I hope that helps. If you need more info, let me know...

hmm, well i highly doubt that it has anything to do with the gateway. it comes down to a windows problem, or plain bad laser in the rom. i would try to unintall all drivers, then downlaod the latest from sony. give it a try and if it still does not work, it may be the drive is bad man. it could also be bad ide cable to. do you have on the first or second controller? is it slave or master? when you put in a disc, do you hear it spinning at all as if it is attempting to read, or is it just silent?

VanEck, thank you for being so thorough.
The ide cable is brand new.
My computer came with a CD-ROM and a zip drive, both on the sceond controller, so I piggy-backed the CD-R as a slave off the hard drive .
And, when I put a disc in it tries to read it, to no avail.

if it is trying to read it, but cant, it sounds like a bad laser to me man. but it is hard to say. when i take hardware calls here at work, i always go to the machine instead of trying to do it over the phone. hardware is a hands on type thing so do not take my word for it. if it is a refurb, it may just be fux0red. i never recommend refurbs. it is worth the extra bucks to know you have a new and hopefully working item. however, i would not give up on it jut yet. try switching it around with say your zip drive or other peripherals. just make sure the jumper settings are correct. aslo, what you might want to take a look at is the jumper on the hard drive. if it is the gateway defualt hard drive, i am guessing it is a western digital, caviar, or seagate most likely, and they usually come with the drive jumper set to a defualt "single" setting instead of master. you want to be on master if you have the rom slaved to it now. good luck man.

It might be where you have bought the hardware that is the problem Ubid your getting off a reg. person they couldve screwed you over its happen b4.

Well, I've already decided never to buy anything from Ubid again, even though I bought it directly from them, not a random person.

Thanks to everyone for your help

Have you tried hitting it? Jiggling the cord? Yelling at it? Putting duct-tape on it somewhere? Try all of the traditional fixes!

SSJVegeta-Sei

you might want to try and reinstalling the software also see if there are any patches for the drivers. You also might want to think about taking it off the slave and run it as a master. try these steps and see if it helps. I had a hell of a time getting my sony to work to but I followed these steps and got it to work.

Also try playing with the options in Control Panel - I knew one guy who's CD-R never worked until we un-checked one of the boxes in its hardware profile.

SSJVegeta-Sei

Dood,
After the traditional methods are done (see above)
get another CD rom and see if it works. Put this one in another Puter. I had this exact problem with an HP burner- It was the burner. So I got a yamaha and it works, but I do not recommend it for use under windowz 2K. It always buggs out and will not work unless I restart/ sometimes reboot.

The key word in you post was "refurbished" there’s always a risk when buying refurbished hardware. Hopefully its just a compatibility problem and not the drive its self.