CD drive not responding / PC very slow performance

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strumbalot

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Hi:

I am running an eMachine T1862 computer with WinXP. Everything on it is just the standard equipment that eMachines provided. About a year ago I got a virus and ended up having to format/reload the pc. My friend also installed some new RAM to replace the old that had died. Since then I have been having two problems. One is that the CD drive does not read CDs nor will it write them. The device manager says it is working properly and that no new drivers are available. When I put a CD in the drive never shows anything being present. I don't recall this being the case though when I first got my pc back from him... could this mean the drive just died?

The second problem I am having is that my computer is VERY slow... excruciatingly slow. I realize its not a powerhourse pc but it was always good for what I need it for. It takes several minutes to open Windows Explorer, just opening control panel I get the flashlight. Any suggestions? could the RAM he installed not be compatible w/ the pc?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Nickie
 
First off go into display manager, and open IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Click on secondary IDE Channel and go to the advanced settings tab. Make sure it's set for the CD to run at UDMA2 not PIO. Try reinstalling the chipset drivers. Try swapping your cables.

The slowness could be due to virus, trojan, or some kind of malware program. Since the installation is a year old, it might just be too many registry orphans, or too many running processes. Hit ctrl+alt+delete and look at the bottom edge. How many processes are running. Are your temp internet files getting deleted ocassionally? You can go to internet options/advanced tab in control panel. Scroll down and check the box that empties the temp internet files each time the browser is closed. You still will have to delete cookies manually. Also try defragmenting your hard drive and paging files. Get a program like CrapCleaner and clean up all your old log files histories etc.

It could be your memory is having a problem. I don't have enough info to make a guess as to whether it is the right or wrong memory, or whether he reset the memory cas latencies, interleave settings etc. in the BIOS correctly when he changed the memory.

If the CD needs to be replaced, just get a cheap one from the store. You don't need to buy it from eMachines. The curved face plate that raps around (if it's a typical emachines case) snaps off and should fit on the new one.
 
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