Freecom CD writer causing system to fail

Yes it certainly seemed to be trying to boot from it. Anyway I've now checked the BIOS and the sequence is 1, Diskette Drive; 2, C Drive; 3, IDE CD-Rom device. Presumably the first is the floppy disc drive and the third is the internal CD Rom. No mention of USB.

I've contacted Freecom but haven't had a reply yet.

Thanks anyway.

Peter

Thank you for your reply.

It's a Dimension 4600 with a Pentium 4 2.66ghz, 40gb hard drive, 512mb Ram and USB2. It has Windows XP.

The CD RW is a Freecom FX1 with USB2 but only a Windows98 driver. I didn't really think it could be the driver - as I said it worked initially.

I don't see how it can be relevent but I had just downloaded the free Zone Alert firewall programme and was playing around with the settings at the time. I first noticed something wrong when I couldn't get into Internet Explorer and  thought it was Zone Alarm which was causing trouble, but it was the CD writer.

Peter

That looks interesting. I've printed it off and will implement it as soon as I can. I'll keep you posted. Thank you very much.

Peter

Right, I've done that and so far so good. The cd writer works and I've reset the computer and it booted up ok. I'll have to wait a day or two to be sure the problem of the screen freezing doesn't re-occur.  I'll keep you informed on that one.

I emailed Dell Euro with the problem (as well as Freecom) but just got a reply explaining that they don't support issues with third party hardware - fair enough I suppose. Anyway I emailed back, directing them to that article and pointing out that it could be caused by the factory settings of the pc.

Thank you a great deal Micmaxe, I'm impressed.

Peter

It's a Dimension 4600 with a Pentium 4 2.66ghz, 40gb hard drive, 512mb Ram and USB2. It has Windows XP.

The CD RW is a Freecom FX1 with USB2 but only a Windows98 driver.

Message Edited by micmaxe on 12-14-2003 04:50 PM

Oh dear, spoke too soon. Computer just shut itself down. Big blue message " A problem has been detected...Windows has shut down to prevent damage ...etc...If problem persists...remove any newly installed hardware......"

I'm going to send another message to Freecom, it's obviously an issue for them.

Thanks anyway.

Peter

Thanks for your messaage. Two things.

Firstly, I've misled you and myself. I'd forgotten just what happened when I installed the driver (my age I suppose) but when I think back:- I didn't need to install the driver, my computer did it automatically without my having to insert the floppy provided. So it detected one of its native drivers after all! Fancy my forgetting that. So that isn't the problem.

Anyway, I switched the computer on this morning to look for messages and there is an automated message asking me to inform Microsoft about yestedays 'minidump' as it called it. Did so and quickly got a reply directing me to download an update for Roxio CD Creator which must have caused that problem. Have now installed it but don't have time now to do anything further.

I wonder if CD Creator could have been causing all the trouble. I should get a response from Freecom today.

Thanks again. I'll keep you informed.

Peter

This is good news, hopefully this update will resolve the problem.

Unfortunately the saga continues. CD Creator opened up ok but there is definitely a problem with the installation of the CD rewriter. In device manager it is showing one of those "yellow nasties". I did the troubleshoot which told me to uninstall and reinstall, which I did more than once and using different usb ports, but with the same result. Does that mean there is a conflict with another device? It seems incredible to me that what is effectively an expensive,  new and previousy unused peice of hardware shouldn't work in a brand new up-to-date computer.

I've had a reply from Freecom but haven't heard since I informed them of the latest developments.

Peter

It is possible there is a resource conflict of some sort. You may want to try disconnecting all USB devices other than the drive to see if it makes any difference. You may also want to disconnect all USB devices, uninstall all USB entries from Device Manager and restart the computer. Windows should detect and install the necessary drivers upon restarting. If none of this helps, try looking at the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles to help troubleshoot the problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310575&Product=winxp

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;133240

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307970&Product=winxp

Problem solved, but thanks for all your suggestios Micmaxe. I eventually got Dell E-Support to help me. They initially said they didn't support third party hardware but when I convinced them it was the computer settings at fault they suggested that I cleared the NVRAM, which I did and it worked.

All the best, Peter

Thanks for posting back with your solution. Glad to hear you got it sorted out. Have a great day and be well.