NagoyaHammer.com

Ok, technical question here:

I have a new laptop pc wot I got a couple months ago, and it’s very nice and stuff, but it doesn’t have an optical drive. Generally this wouldn’t be an issue, but I need to install the school textbooks and they’re on CD. So, I bought a cheap external cd drive off Amazon, and tried to use it. The computer detects it ok, and I can look at the contents in explorer, but once I put a disc in it, it starts spinning and just won’t stop. This seems to affect the entire system - once a disc is in, spinning starts, and everything slows to a crawl. Even mouseclicks take a second or two to register, and actually installing anything (or copying) from the drive is useless. It seems to be functioning, just really really slowly (like, two hours to install a piece of software. I gave up at that point and stopped the process.) As soon as I eject the disc, all is well again, system returns to normal.it seems that this is a Thing with Windows 10 (cue Apple owners nodding sagely and passing comment about how this kind of thing wouldn’t happen with a Mac... ) but although other folks seem to have the same problem, I’ve yet to find a solution.

After a good deal of digging, it looks like my best bet may be to install drivers in compatibility mode.

But...

I can’t find any drivers for the external cd drive (it’s a cheap crap Chinese knock off* and has no manufacturer’s website that I could find). Even a generic windows 10 cd drive driver would be fine, but actually finding one that I can install (and thereby select “install using compatibility mode”) has proven impossible.

So, what to do? If anyone even has an installable cd driver I’d be more than happy to try that at this point, even if if it’s not specific to my actual drive. Other than that, does anybody have any ideas?

Help me naghammerers, you’re my only hope...

*no disrespect intended to China. Many fine things are made there. This is not one of them.

There shouldn't be any need for a specific driver, Windows 10 should have something you can use.

First, click on the search icon on the windows control panel and type in Device Manager. Click on the option that pops up to open said Device Manager.
Find the CD/DVD Rom option on the menu and expand it. Right click on your CD drive and you'll see an option to update the drivers.

If that doesn't work try Uninstalling the drive (same screen as the update drivers button) and then reinstall it.

And if that doesn't work, try hitting it with a hammer. It is quite possible that Windows is running fine and the Drive itself is bad, or the CD is scratched.

Ah, my apologies. I see my post was unclear. Thank you, though, for offering what would normally be good advice. The problem is not that I don’t have a driver for the cd drive. I do, and Windows reports the drive as working just fine (in defiance of the evidence.) What I want to do is force windows to install a driver in compatibility mode. And that’s the problem - if I actually involve Windows in the process at all (eg “search for newer drivers”, or whatever) it insists on telling me that I’m up to date and everything is fine. I want to manually remove the current driver, and install another one (or even the same one, tbh) but take care to do so in compatibility mode.

However, in order to do this, I need an executable driver file, which I cannot find anywhere.

Tis a bit of a bugger...

First thing to confirm is whether the problem is your PC or the drive...! Have you tried using the drive on another system?

howdy, o mighty (but helpful!) threadomancer!

actually, yes - I did try the drive on 3 different pcs, with the same problem each time. Eventually I just went down the bfi route, and set up the cd to install, then left it to its snail's pace. Many, many hours later, my cd was installed. Hooray. Now I never have to use the damn thing again.

Oddly, when I did the same thing for a different CD, it was muuuuuch faster (about 10 mins, as opposed to 3+ hours), but then for a different CD again, it was the mahoosive 3+ hours.

Very odd.

But hey ho, I dont have any plans to use the drive again, and it was cheap and got the job done. eventually.

Thanks for the input, though, Justin. It's much appreciated. How's life treating you these days, anyway?

Hey mate, sorry just saw this. Life is OK, although Texas is blowing up with COVID (as is all of America), so that sucks indeed. I am supposed to have been transferred to Singapore to start a new 3 year assignment by now, but 2020 had other ideas and that now looks like it'll be a 2021 start. Depending on how things pan out, there's an outside chance I may be back in Nagoya for a few months if Singapore don't start processing visas by the end of the year as Japan is the only place my whole family can enter with no visa issues....