I was installing Mandrake Linux 9.2 and it had to reboot my computer, so it rebooted and then my CD-ROM drive stoped working, it would not gain power from the cables any more, so I pluged in my other CD-ROM drive and it worked just fine...the CD-ROM drive that stoped working still doesent work, it sbeen about 3 days, will this happen to all my CD-ROM drives?? And is this a common problem? your CD-ROM drives BREAKING while installing Mandrake Linux? I am not going to try to install Mandrake Linux again until I know what happend, and if this si going to happen to all the CD-ROM drives I use while installing Linux Mandrake 9.2.

Yes this is a common problem, but only to certain models of LG CD-ROM drives. So unless your other CD-ROM drives are LG drives, you should not fear anything. There is a sticky topic about this on the Mandrake forum here.

should fear anything? or shouldent fear anything?

and how do I know if my other cd-rom drive has LG drives or not?

You shouldn't fear anything. Your BIOS should tell you what drive you're using. If not, then open up your computer case and look at the top of the CD-ROM drive. There should be the manufacturer information.

Not only that. Goto the LG site and follow their directions to fix their slack stupidity. According to them, you can probably flash the cdrom's firmware back to life. Actually, I think I posted the site's URL somewhere in one of my previous posts (as well as the Mandrake errata about the issue). Hit the search button below this post. Its back about a month.

I opend my computer case and took out my cd-rom, it says this one is a

XM-630B2
and they dont have any XM models on the list of affected/not affected, so this one should be fine right?

That issue has a workaround, actually, anyways. As soon as Mandrake realized that these cdroms were out of spec and using the flush command for their bios programming (?????), they made a patch for it. Where did you get your cds? They must be months old. Seriously, though. If its an LG cdrom drive and its on the list, its vulnerable. As far as ones not on the list, according to the source itself, you should be fine. As far as I'm concerned, LG just eliminated me as a customer of anything they make that has moving parts. I don't trust them to make quality products any more. Shame. The lower price used to mean a value.

Are you asking me where I got my CDs? if you are, I downloaded the ISO Images and burned them myself to brand new CD-R disks.

I'm jsut curious as to why you're experiencing this problem, as it was supposed to be patched (back in october or november when 9.2 was released)

Do...I have to download the patch? and if I do, I didnt.

Shouldn't be necessary. Go to LGs site and get the fix for your cdrom. Remember this is BIOS flashing of a dead device, so follow their instructions exactly. Perhaps you won't have to get a new one to replace it.

This is my post with the links

BTW. Anyone reading this post. I found my old post by using the search button at the top of the page. I put in my username on the right and the search term cdrom. Found it in a split second. Seems most efficient. Thought I'd pass this neat search feature on to those who haven't stumbled upon it yet.

Its cool, I already riped my CD-ROM drive that went out apart to get a CD that was in there out, it was shit anyway, I have a better one now, that I dont think will be affected becuase this one is a XM-6302B.

That's a Toshiba, right?

edited to add more. hehehe

If you can stand to wait for 10 Community, it'll be worth it (or do what I did and get RC1 and update with cooker sources)

I dont know what it is, I took it out of my friends computer he has here for me to fix, hehe.

I wanna get familiar with Linux as soon as I can, I dont think I can wait for the next version to be realeased

Understandable. You can make 9.2 as spiffy as 10 likely anyways, as you can always upgrade your kernel yourself. That's a good thing to learn. And, the packages are always trucking along as well. I think that you'll like Mandrake. If not, try something with a different philosophy like Slackware or Debian.