help diagnose dvd/rw drive failure?

[anthony baldwin]

James Takac wrote:
>
>
> On Dec 19, 2007 9:52 AM, anthony baldwin 
> <anthony.baldwin01 at comcast.net <mailto:anthony.baldwin01 at comcast.net>> 
> wrote:
>
>     anthony baldwin wrote:
>     > Greetings,
>     >
>     > Earlier today I loaded in two CDs, one after another (Chau Soda
>     / Soda
>     > Stereo)
>     > into my dvd drive and ripped them with Grip and everything was
>     beautiful
>     > and groOvy.
>     >
>     > Then, just moments ago, I loaded in a dvd that I had written to
>     back up
>     > some materials
>     > for my business, and, the drive failed to read the disk.
>     > Then, it failed to eject the disk.
>     > It did not respond to pushing the eject button, nor to
>     > sudo eject.
>     >
>     > I ran sudo eject -v and got the following:
>     >
>     > tony at ool-45788232:~$ sudo eject -v
>     > eject: using default device `cdrom'
>     > eject: device name is `cdrom'
>     > eject: expanded name is `/dev/cdrom'
>     > eject: `/dev/cdrom' is a link to `/dev/hdc'
>     > eject: `/dev/hdc' is not mounted
>     > eject: `/dev/hdc' is not a mount point
>     > eject: `/dev/hdc' is a multipartition device
>     > eject: trying to eject `/dev/hdc' using CD-ROM eject command
>     > eject: CD-ROM eject command failed
>     > eject: trying to eject `/dev/hdc' using SCSI commands
>     > eject: SCSI eject succeeded
>     > tony at ool-45788232:~$
>     >
>     >
>     > I force ejected the disk with a paperclip, and inserted a cd to
>     see if
>     > the drive
>     > would then respond, and it failed to read the cd (Maná - Amar es
>     Combatir).
>     > The device physically responded to neither the eject button or sudo
>     > eject, and
>     > sudo eject -v gives me the above input.
>     >
>     > I tried all kinds of & sudo mount /mnt/cdrom and sudo mount
>     /media/cdrom
>     > and sudo umount /media/cdrom and sudo umount /dev/hdc and whatever
>     > else to get the drive to read, mount, unmount or eject,
>     > etc., etc., all to no avail (no media found, regardless of what
>     I shove
>     > in there...
>     > not even the slice of bologna...okay, kidding about the bologna.)
>     >
>     > Any ideas regarding why my dvd drive was working beautifully
>     this afternoon,
>     > and, now, is suddenly, for all appearances, dead,
>     > or how I may further diagnose and/or resolve said issue?
>     >
>     > Thanks in advance,
>     > Tony
>     >
>     >
>     Also, btw, the machine is dual boot with Dapper and Feisty.
>     The drive behaves the same under both.
>
>     /tony
>     Hi
>
>
> I've noticed the odd occasion when a bad disk will cause a crash re 
> the drivers that read from the drives. I'd suggest rebooting and 
> trying to read some known good disks. Hopefully all will go well. If 
> it does then retry the disks which have failed to read in the past. If 
> when you try to read them they fail to read again and give you the 
> same symptoms, then the disk is likely the culprit
>
> James
>
This did work.
I had already attempted to do a sudo reboot a couple of times to no avail,
but, that doesn't seem to turn the hardware off completely,
so, I did a full sudo halt, and then brought the machine up
from a dead standstill by pushing the power button, and the problem 
resolved itself.

thanks
tony

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