Hardware Tips & Troubleshooting

CD-ROM

The maximum a floppy disk can contain is 1.44 MB. To play a game with around 200 MB you are stuck with 100 over diskettes. The CD-ROM is a revolutionary invention that allows up to 625 MB at one time. However, it is read only, which means you can't store in anything.

Buttons Fun

Although most CD-ROMs comes with only 2 buttons, do you know you can also skip, play previous track and play the next track as well with a proper combination? Check properly on your instruction manual for additional functions. You just might be surprised what it can do.

Clean Thoroughly

It is important to clean the CR-ROM at least once every month. Get a CD lens cleaner. If possible, choose one with an alcohol solution drop. This should ensure that your CD-ROM will always be able to read properly.

Clean You CDs

It is just as important to clean your CDs often. Why? Because if you have a speck of dust on the surface of one of your CDs, once spinning at high-speed in the drive, the speck of dust is enough to produce scratches on your precious CD.

Running In DOS

One of the common problems with CD-ROMs is unable to access it under DOS. This might be because the protected-mode CD-ROM driver isn't available. You'll need to add the real-mode device driver, usually included with your CD-ROM drive, in CONFIG.SYS and load MSCDEX.EXE, which is available in the Windows\Command folder. You should also make sure both files are on your startup disk.

Run List

Like those cool expensive hi-fi systems, you can customize the run list of your Audio CD, only not with the CD-ROM itself. Use Windows' CD player to customize the run list and you can have your CD running in any track order you like.

Read Ahead

The read ahead buffer is useful to speed up things. Go to Control Panel, System. Click on the Performance tab. Click on the File System... button. On the File System Properties, click on CD-ROM. Make sure you have the fullest cache. Even if you have a CD-ROM with less than Quad speed, just move ahead. You'll be surprised to find your CD-ROM running faster.

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