Member Avatar for Thomboy68

My PC is ten years old running Win 98 SE, and several years back I bought a CPU from Oregon to increase the speed, and this still works fine.

Unfortunately, the PCI Ethernet Controller is bad and I keep getting a message on start up, "needs new drivers for PCI Ethernet Controller or the software to make the device work." I may need a new PCI Ethernet Card, but I have a friend with 20 old ones in his garage.

My real problem is that the CD-Rom drive opens and closes, but won't read any disks.

I seem to remember that you can right click on the properties for the CD-Rom drive under hardware devices, and then click on something to use the default drivers, but when doing this, it is best to backup your system in case it fails??

My friend doesn't think Win98 has drivers built in to use for the CD-Rom drive.

Maybe I need a new or used CD-Rom drive??

Is there any way to check to see if the CD-Rom drives cam read disks, and then can I find the default drivers for the CD-Rom drive somewhere on board?

Thanks, Thom

  • 3 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 199 Views
  • 3 Weeks Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Thomboy68

Dani AI

Generated

A short, practical checklist to isolate why a tray will open/close but the drive won’t read discs — complements the points from , and with focused tests and safe next steps.

  • Confirm BIOS recognition first. On power‑up enter the BIOS/POST setup (key varies by board) and look for the optical drive on the IDE/ATAPI device list. If the drive is absent the problem is usually power/data or jumpers, not Windows drivers.
  • Reseat wiring and power. With the machine off, unplug and reseat the 4‑pin Molex power plug and the ribbon cable. Try a different IDE cable and a different PSU power connector. Check the drive’s jumper (Master/Slave/Cable‑Select) matches the cable position.
  • Test outside Windows. Boot from a known bootable CD or a Win98 boot floppy with CD support. If the CD is readable before Windows loads, the issue is at the OS/driver layer; if not, it’s hardware.
  • Try multiple media types. Test a factory‑pressed audio or retail install CD, plus a burned CD‑R/CD‑RW. If pressed discs read but burned discs don’t, the laser is likely weak.
  • Clean or swap. Use a lens‑cleaner disc first; if that fails and the drive still won’t read in another machine, replace it. If a known‑good drive reads fine in the same machine, the fault is the original drive.
  • Safety note: back up important files before changing drivers, BIOS settings, or swapping boot devices.

For an old Win98 system it’s often quickest to verify BIOS detection and then either clean or replace the drive — inexpensive used drives usually save a lot of troubleshooting time.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for sparkax

Win98 SE does have built in drivers for cd rom drives.
you may need to change the drive.

Member Avatar for avadhraj12

Yes i also think you need to change the cd rom drives.

Member Avatar for Thomboy68

Win98 SE does have built in drivers for cd rom drives.
you may need to change the drive.

Replaced the drive with a CDRW, and it works fine, but you are correct, there are drivers for the CD-Rom Drive.

Thom

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.