semaphore timeout error re external DVDRAM drive

catalina66

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Hi ,not been hiding but expensive drinking sessions for family reasons. ok If its a dell try F12 as soon as you get the Dell splash screen to select what you want to boot from (I am probably wrong of course and can't check at the moment OH is working on my Dell and I want to live til tomorrow , I also think that the option to get into BIOS for Dells is F2 so look there if necessary if F12 doesn't work, and then look for Boot at the top). If it is a desktop, you could of course open the case and unplug the DVD cable(and / or check it's OK) . If you do that and the PC still boots try again and uninstall from device manager (Control Panel system/Device manager the DVD/Cdroms ) and then try Add Hardware from control panel and allow XP to look for drivers on the internet(windows update) Remove any CDs/DVDs before rebooting .

Hiya debitcardmayhem, so sorry for delay ... had a pocket of chaos to deal with ... no probs and good on you, glad the boosy sesh was good! And good you lived til the next day!

Many thanks for your advice. I ended up risking the format with the older drive ... was just okay, a brief hiccup when reading from the graphics drivers disk, but it went through.

I've gone into a technical brainfreeze right now, but will note what you've advised, as it definitely sounds great, lol.

Have accepted that life will be minus backups for 2-3 months or more ... will just have to wait until all money issues sort before can get a really cheap drive that'll write, and in the meantime have got 2 dvdrams that both read, lol. There's worse things in life.

Happy boosing, Cat :beer: