Since installing a Cendyne (Lite-On 48125W) CD/RW drive, my hard drive light blinks every 2 seconds continuously. I’m wondering if anybody else with this drive is experiencing the same problem. I flashed to version 1.6 firmware, but the flashing still occurs.
Even at idle the drive constantly flashes at the 2 second rate. If this is normal, please explain why this occurs. Thank you.
The IDE light may be blinking when your OS is checking if a disc has been inserted into your burner. Try the following.
If you are running Win 98x or ME, use Device Manager to set Autoinsert Notification off for your burner.
If you are running W2K or XP, to get Autorun off, either use Notepad to create a file called autorun0.reg that contains the following four lines
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom]
“AutoRun”=dword:00000000
and run it by double clicking on autorun0.reg in Explorer, or edit the registry. (If you replace the final 0 by 1, you’ll get Autorun on.)
Please tell us if it helped!
Thanks for your response KCK. My OS is Windows 98se. By going into the device manager I unchecked Autoinsert Notification and the blinking stopped, so that did fix my problem. However, now I have lost my Autorun capibility. Will editing the registry with your suggestion for W2K or XP also work with Windows 98se? If it will, I would appreciate if you would explain the process in more detail. Thanks again.
The registry hack works for W2K and XP only. As far as I know, 98SE needs Autoinsert Notification on for Autorun to work, but you could check by searching with Google for Autorun and AutoPlay.
Note that some burning programs may require that Autoinsert Notification be on (or off), and they might even change its status without telling you.
BTW, I’ve got IDE lights blinking on my various 98SE and XP laptops, and I’ve stopped worrying about them.
The light blinking gets reported a lot, I suspect it occurs with certain MB’s, and is only indicating IDE activity, not HD activity.
In any case, it’s not a problem. If you want to know for sure, open the case and use a tube or stethescope to listen to the HD and see if it’s really being accessed.
Thanks for the replys. The only reason why I’m concerned about the blinking light is that when I’m FS2002, each time the light blinks, the sim stutters slightly. Just trying to find a way around that. I can live with if I have to. Thanks again, and Happy New Year to all!
Are you playing FS from the CDROM?
I’m playing FS2002 from the hard drive. My system is an Asus P4PE, 2.4 ghZ, with 512 Crucial PC2700 DDR. The light always blinks. When I look down now it’s blinking at the 2 second rate. Funny thing, this never happened with just my CD drive. It’s only when I installed the Lite-On drive. Oh well, like I said, I can live with it.
rdgrimes is right: on all the laptops I’ve tested, even without a stethoscope, one can hear that the IDE light may blink without any HD activity.
If you are playing FS from another CD-ROM drive, you could turn Autoinsert Notification off for that reader.
I had the same problem with my computer. The harddrive led blinks after I installed my new Lite-on 48x burner. The problem is solved now (no autorun now but who cares). Thanx for the solution!!!