Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"i didn't mean to start down this path of conscious self-actualization. it just kinda happened to me." -- much_ado, 2005-06-23

I've run into a Sun external CD-ROM drive that won't accept a CD, and am hoping one of my friends (or anyone else reading my journal) will have some helpful clue ...

The Sun does see the drive when it does a SCSI probe, but can't mount it. Any CD inserted is ejected a few seconds later, regardless of what the computer is trying to do or whether the SCSI cable is disconnected; as far as I can tell the problem is with the drive itself. The owner has tried several CDs, three different caddies, and has even swapped the drive ... but he says he thinks the drive he swapped in might have been previously swapped out for having the same problem some time ago. So I'm wondering whether this is a known problem with a particular family of drives, ideally with some cheap and easy solution. The computer does seem to know that the drive is empty if I type a 'mount' command without a CD inserted, but just retries and times out if it starts with a CD in place which is then spit out by the drive while 'mount' is attempting to do its thing.

And yes, the next time I'm there, I'm going to repeat my suggestion that he get an UPS.