'Devise not ready' CD-ROM Windows 98SE

I had to reformat my C: drive (no partitions) and reinstall Windows 98SE and everything worked well at first. Windows itself installed perfectly but after installing many programs suddenly my CD-ROM (drive F) stopped working. Devise manager says it is working fine but it won't read a CD. After inserting a CD the light goes on as if reading it - but then I get the message that the "devise is not ready. I've tried reinstalling/updating the driver but apparently it's the correct driver for that CD-ROM.

Drive F [CD writer] works properly.

Any help appreciated,

Fran

 

Can you boot to a DOS floppy that has CD support and access the drive.

Also, most times you don't need any drivers for Win98 to access a CD ROM.

 

tried rebooting to floppy and although I can access the drive I get the "Abort/Fail/Retry' option.

 

If neither Windows or DOS will recognize your CD ROM, it could be a defective CD or CD ROM Drive. Try replacing both.

 

Have you tried reading more than one cd?

 

I've tried that by 'updating driver" from a 'selected drive' but it says the driver is the correct one then does nothing. I don't want to delete anything untill I know for sure what I'm doing. Also when I startup I get a screen saying that there Windows has found 'new [unamed] hardware' and asks to install the driver. When I put in the CD it says it can't find one. REally weird as it worked fine yesterday morning so it's must be something I've loaded but didn't know about. I'm getting bleary eyed now so will try to work on it again tomorrow.