Ultrabay DVD-ROM/CD-RW power problem

[mr.blitz]

Hello there...

More problems from me i'm afraid.

The DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive in my ultrabay slot of my T42 is not recognised in windows. There is a small green light above the ultrabay that is on constantly when the drive is inserted, and goes off when the drive is removed. The light on the drive drawer that normally flashes on startup and reading does not come on whatsoever, and i cannot eject the drive either.

Does this suggest that there is power getting to the ultrabay? and that the problem i am exeriencing is with the drive itself?

I ask as i am debating whether or not to buy a new drive to put in the bay, and obviously would not do so if the light denoted something more serious.

If i were to buy a HDD caddy for the ultrabay as well as a DVD-RW would i be able to hot-swap these two devices from within XP? Is there some specific peice of software i would need to run before removing either device?

Many thanks for any replies.

[RealBlackStuff]

Sounds more like an IDE-interface problem.
Run PC Doctor from within Windows: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-52871
If the problem is with the CD/DVD drive and the rest is OK, you can hot-swap any time without special software.
Why else do you think they call it hot-swap?

[Harryc]

Uninstall the DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive in devicer manage and reboot.

[mr.blitz]

i ran a full test with the software you suggested, and everything passed, obviously the cd-rw did not test as it is not recognised, so i am still none the wiser.

About an hour ago the CD-RW powered up, mid windows session, was recognised by windows, and seemed to operate fully. The system went to sleep, and on waking it the CD-RW was not working again. Very odd. I did not remove or change anything.

Does this sound like an IDE problem?

Is there any software that will test my IDE interface without actually having anything operational plugged into it?

Thanks,

[mr.blitz]

The CD-RW/DVD-ROM is not present in device manager.

It does not seem to consistently work.

But the power light above the drive is on...always. Unless i remove the drive.

You see?

[mr.blitz]

in device manager under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' i have:

Intel (R) 82801DMB Ultra ATA storage controller -24CA
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE channel

does this suggest that my IDE is functional?

[rkawakami]

It's possible that there's a microswitch inside the Ultrabay which is giving you problems, although I can't say for sure that it is the root cause of the malfunction. If you can look along the side rails inside the bay you may be able to see a small piece of plastic/metal that would move/depress when a drive is installed. Either that, there's a loose connection either at the IDE connector or somewhere within the drive (or motherboard). I guess that the best thing I could suggest is borrow another Ultrabay Slim optical drive and see if it does the same.

The following information comes from the Hardware Maintenance Manual: The LED above the Ultrabay is a "status" light. Green means that an Ultrabay Slim device is in use. I believe that refers to the hardware in the laptop detecting a device and not any OS. Blinking green means that the device is in the process of being detached. The LED goes off when the device is ready to be attached or detached.

Device Manager should show the drive under the "DVD/CD-ROM drives" heading as you suggest. The entries for Primary/Secondary IDE channels means that Windows is able to "see" both IDE channels so I think you're good there.

[mr.blitz]

"The following information comes from the Hardware Maintenance Manual: The LED above the Ultrabay is a "status" light. Green means that an Ultrabay Slim device is in use. I believe that refers to the hardware in the laptop detecting a device and not any OS. Blinking green means that the device is in the process of being detached. The LED goes off when the device is ready to be attached or detached."

When i flick the switch to eject the drive the green light does not blink...it just goes out when i pull the drive out of the laptop. Is this unusual? Should i notice it blinking prior to removal?

The only thing that i notice when examining the drive in detail is that the whole assembly seems very loose, the drawer and its constituent parts are so free moving as to be almost falling apart. Lots of movement in all directions up, down, left, right etc.

I think i will just have to return the drive and see what happens when i put a different one in. If the same happens i will have to return the T42.

I have only owned it for six hours and i love it so!!

I will definately be getting another, if this one goes back.

Out of interest, is the Radeon 7500 chip the best in the T42 line?

[rkawakami]

I'm not near a T4x system at the moment but when I flick the release lever on my T23, the Ultrabay status light immediately goes out. It also does not go back on until I push the eject handle back into the system (with a drive installed). At the same time that the status light goes out, the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in Windows XP system tray disappears. When the handle is pushed back in, the drive's light blinks and I can hear what I assume is the laser carriage moving/initializing. The system tray icon also comes back. At no time does the Ultrabay status light blink. The T4x HMM says that if you are using Windows 2000, the status indicator does not blink. I guess that the same could be said for XP since the T2x HMM mentions that if you are using either Win2K or XP, the LED won't blink.

[mr.blitz]

Ok...thanks for the blinking light help!

I just got totally hacked off with the T42 and after looking intently in and around the drive bay i shouted very rude words and SLAMMED! the cd-rw/dvd-rom back into the ultrabay...at which point it came on!

I tried it again...and again...and it seems that if i push the drive into the ultrabay with force it works...at least for a while...then it must come loose and the connection breaks off.

Thus i conclude that i have a bad connection somewhere, as was suggested earlier, either in the drive, the bay or the board. I am hoping that the looseness of the drive in general means that my loose connection is more likely to be in the drive rather than the system.

But we will see.

Thanks for your help this evening.

[poshgeordie]

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