CD drive "Device is not ready"

[Tripredacus]

Windows 98 FE, having issues with CD drives. Same behaviour with both an IDE and USB CD drive. The drives are detected in Device Manager. They get drive letters in My Computer. Both respond to the Eject command, but when trying to access either drives it immediately will say "Device is not ready" without any attempt to read from the drive. I have reinstalled the chipset drivers and there has been no change. USB mass storage drives work fine.

I can still do the old boot into Safe Mode and remove all of the controllers and drives and reboot/reintall, but besides that is there any other thing I can look at that would effect CD drives in general?

[D.Draker]

3 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

besides that is there any other thing I can look at that would effect CD drives in general?

First thing that comes to mind: Alcohol 120%, Daemon Tools, basically all virtual CD drive software and mounting, emulation tools, virtual drives.

Daemon Tools 3.47 works in Windows 98 SE, that's for sure.

[Klemper]

On 4/5/2024 at 10:36 PM, D.Draker said:

virtual CD drive software and mounting, emulation tools, virtual drives

Yes, they do interfere, and win98 first edition is well known for its incompatibilities. For me, it refused to work with Teac, but worked with Philips perfectly fine.

Did you try another CD drive?

 

[Tripredacus]

A USB CD drive counts as another CD Drive?

I'm also having some foggy memories of having to do something with ASPI from my time at Iomega to resolve issues with ZipCD.

I will check for disk emulator/mounters.

[Tripredacus]

My ASPI memory had to do with Adapter controller cards and not specifically with the CD drives. 

I tried 2 other drives, one works but it has mechanical problems, so perhaps it is actually the drive and not something else. I tested using a Windows 95 CD-ROM boot disk. I'm out of IDE ODDs here, I'll have to dig through the stockpile at home and see if any of those work.

[D.Draker]

On 4/7/2024 at 3:13 AM, Klemper said:

For me, it refused to work with Teac, but worked with Philips perfectly fine.

 

4 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

I tried 2 other drives, one works but it has mechanical problems, so perhaps it is actually the drive and not something else.

Win 98 FE is rather picky with its drives, its been known for decades. Probably SE is much more compatible. But then again, I'm sure you have the reasons to use the First Edition.

 

[Tripredacus]

The CD Drive that gave me the error had been used with this OS for over 20 years now, so it isn't like it is some brand that wasn't compatible. But this computer has sat being unused for a very long time and if the CD drive was the only thing that failed in that period I should count myself fortunate. I can see it being picky about the USB CD drive, which is known working on other systems. It turns out I have about 30 IDE ODDs at home so hopefully one of them will work.

This computer uses Win 98 FE just because that was the newest OS that was available at the time it was installed. Perhaps it may have been technically true that SE had come out by then, but that was back when I was a farmer and didn't have a wider access to software once I later entered the computing industry. I never needed to update it because everything worked and my next computer ran XP so I didn't have any issues with compatibility.

[Tripredacus]

An update to this topic, there is still a problem but only in Windows. I have replaced the ODD with another and confirms it works in DOS with CD-ROM boot disk. I have also replaced the IDE cable AND even recapped the board. It does not give the "not ready" message anymore, but now it will either sit forever to read the disc, or the computer will do a hard freeze. It no longer created bluescreen if I try to read a disc and then eject it. Autorun on music CD will cause a program to open (WMP) but it stops responding. The trick of having the disc in the drive on boot up will make it show the disc label and icon in Explorer, but it still can't be read.

[Dixel]

Probably I missed, Is the CD drive fully functional? They do have odd issues when their grease is dry. I'm now lazy and lost interest in CD drives, but earlier I did a partial disassemble to replace the grease. Especially the area near and the parts around the lens.

That said, you need to be very cautious with the lens, cover it with a piece of cellophane, don't let the dust fall onto it.

[Tripredacus]

The current drive works in other OS such as DOS, in-as-much as it can run a DIR on it. If you read my posts it should be clear that this is not a hardware issue and I am not looking for hardware solutions.

[defuser]

Try checking just in case in XP on the same computer, if possible. If there is no problem there, you will have to search in more depth for what the problem might be. 98FE itself is hardly directly related to this problem.

You can also switch to PIO mode and change the settings for the drive in the BIOS. Usually, there are different options for xDMA, 32-bit mode, and others. Go through all of them. Also check whether the jumpers are installed correctly on the CD drive itself.

Third-party patches and drivers are often used for the disk subsystem as a whole under Win9x. I don't know what effect this might have on CD drives or whether ESDI_506\AHCI drivers are associated with it at all, but it's possible that everything and some exotic errors are possible (especially for early devices). So you can still check on the original clean system (Excluding all drives larger than 128GB).

PS: I looked at it now and yes, the AHCI driver is directly related to the DVD-ROM drive, which I now have under 98FE. Before that, there was an old PC with an ESDI_506 driver from Rudolph and another drive. The problems you write about were not observed in both cases. If only the CD itself is damaged\dirty and poorly readable. But this is also evident in XP. Therefore, it is worth checking to exclude hardware problems, at least.

PSS: The fact that you have a different behavior under DOS, just the same, hints at the drivers...

It is also possible to oxidize the contacts on the memory strips if the computer has been idle for a long time.

Edited July 5 by defuser

[D.Draker]

I too had a problem with one of my drives and Millennium. CD drive BIOS update solved it. Flashed from within DOS environment, of course.

[D.Draker]

On 7/5/2024 at 7:25 PM, defuser said:

Therefore, it is worth checking to exclude hardware problems, at least.

When I touch something from 25-35 years ago, I first recap all with Epcos (a new name for the Siemens capacitors). Everything else ...hmmmm, simply don't waste your time,