Great, I've got a busted CD drive!

Category: Geeks r Us

Post 1 by Click_Clash (No Average Angel) on Tuesday, 04-Oct-2011 16:32:56

Hi all,

For about the first year I had my desktop, I didn't have any reason to use the CD drive. But then, when I went to install JAWS 12, nothing happened when I inserted the CD. I went into My Computer, and it showed that there was no CD in the drive, even though there was. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks,
Becky

Post 2 by synthesizer101 (I just keep on posting!) on Tuesday, 04-Oct-2011 21:26:22

It is likely that your drive does not support DVDs. JAWS 11 and 12 install using dvds, so you have one of two options. First, you could get a usb dvd drive. Secnd, you could download the file from the internet, then use the CD to authorize it. I did the second option.

Post 3 by JH_Radio (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 04-Oct-2011 23:40:59

How old is your desktop? When you got it, was it a factory rig? or did you put stuff from older micheenes (like hard drives, CD Drives, etc in it? it could be corrupt drivers too.

Post 4 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Wednesday, 05-Oct-2011 10:35:13

If you have the 20 digit Jaws code you can authorize your jaws through www.fsactivate.com, I've done that many times without using a dvd or cd drive.
It's not a bad idea to have a UsB dvd or cd drive, and they should be pretty cheap by now. I keep one handy, just in case I still need to use a cd.

Post 5 by forereel (Just posting.) on Wednesday, 05-Oct-2011 19:53:23

Also when downloading Jaws it offers you to authorize it using ILM, so all you need is the 20 digit code. I don't think the new CD's come with the code installed on them anyway, because it is a simple thing to do it online. When Jaws comes up it says authorize , now using the internet. Now to fix the drive you can get them now for 20, and the install isn't to hard. Someone that works on things can do it for you easy if it isn't your thing, or take your computer to say Office Depot and have it fixed. I use mine all the time depending.

Post 6 by JH_Radio (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 05-Oct-2011 20:32:49

I personally prefer a custem place rather then office depo, bestbuy, etc.

Post 7 by JH_Radio (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 05-Oct-2011 21:35:51

Are you sure your drive is broken and its not just corrupt drivers or something like that?

Post 8 by Click_Clash (No Average Angel) on Friday, 07-Oct-2011 8:35:24

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info! I actually don't know how old the computer is. I got it refurbished from the Texas Center for the Visually Impaired. But it's old enough to have a floppy drive. I'll look into installing JAWS online, and I'll see if anyone I know can fix the drive. I'd rather not take it to a shop, because (1) I don't want to pay those kinds of prices, and (2) I don't want to have to unhook it and then hook it back up again because I'd need someone to help me do it.

Thanks again!

Becky

Post 9 by forereel (Just posting.) on Friday, 07-Oct-2011 23:16:28

Well download it from www.freedomscientific.com. You'll need sighted help, so have them click on downloads, than Jaws than the 32 bit version. Tell them to run it unless they want to help you install it. After it downloads it will have a voice that says to restart. When you restart it will talk and you'll be able to handle it from there.

Post 10 by Click_Clash (No Average Angel) on Saturday, 08-Oct-2011 11:01:46

Well, I just put a regular CD in the drive, and it played fine. Looks like I just need to get a USB DVD drive. Might do that next month. Thanks guys!

Becky

Post 11 by JH_Radio (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Saturday, 08-Oct-2011 18:27:20

Wow. A desktop with only a regular CD drive? I haven't seen those in years. I'm still curious how old your desktop is. I figgure its possibel that someone could have mixed different hardware's, therefor putting say an old drive in say an XP Michene box.

Post 12 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Sunday, 09-Oct-2011 6:57:28

I've seen refurbish, decent quality desktops on www.buycom for $160 .. if you need to have yours profiessionally fixed, you may want to look into just buying a used desktop, refurbished, for that kind of money, you'd get a better machine and it would probably cost about the same.

Post 13 by JH_Radio (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Sunday, 09-Oct-2011 14:02:46

try
http://www.buy.com
Oops to wildebrew.