Disable software that controls your CD-ROM -

Its a real drain on your system

To CD or Not CD, that is the question. My apologies to William Shakespeare, but the question of CD or Not CD is an important one.

Your CD ROM is a wonderful thing. It can play music, it can install programs, it can play games, and it can also contain the entire works of Shakespeare on one Compact Disc. If you have an older system that was upgraded to Windows 95 or Windows 98, you may have older software that could be causing your system to work less efficiently. An inefficient system will have a  serious impact  on your overall performance. In short, this CD software is a real drain on your system performance.

This older software was needed to activate your CD ROM. Fortunately, if everything is working properly, Windows 95 and 98 do not need this software to activate the CD-ROM.  Even some newer computers enable this CD-ROM software and forget to disable it after shipping you the complete system.

There are two tricks to remember for optimum CD-ROM usage. The first trick is to keep the older CD ROM software around just in case Windows acts up. The second trick is to disable the older software so that is does not take away valuable memory from a properly functioning system. These two tricks are not black magic and you will not have to sit through a Shakespeare soliloquy to get it done.

There are two files involved in CD-ROM activation. These are the config.sys and autoexec.bat files.

• Click Start
• Run
• Type in wordpad c:\config.sys
• Click OK

Congratulations, you've now opened the config.sys file using windows built in text editor program.

Look for any lines that start with

Device=

or

Devicehigh=

followed by words similar to ??????.sys /D:MSCD000 /I:0. 

The question marks usually represents the model of CD ROM that is installed on your system.  It could be atapi, teac, toshiba or something similar.  Most CD ROM software also adds the information: /D:MSCD000 /I:0 or similar format.  This information identifies a drive letter for your CD ROM.

• Insert a semicolon ";" in front of the device or devicehigh statement.
• DO NOT DELETE THE LINE
• DO NOT MAKE CHANGES TO ANY OTHER INFORMATION
• Click File and Exit
• When asked to save changes to config.sys click Yes

• Click Start
• Run
• Type in wordpad c:\autoexec.bat
• Click OK

Look for any lines that contain a reference to MSCDEX.EXE

• Type the word rem (for remark) at the beginning of the line.

• DO NOT DELETE THE LINE

• DO NOT MAKE CHANGES TO ANY OTHER INFORMATION

• This will remove the CD ROM instruction. The rem or remark is there to remove but not delete the reference to the CD ROM

• Click File and Exit

• When asked to save changes to autoexec.bat  click Yes

Both the semicolon ";" and the "rem" terms disable  these lines in each file. If your CD ROM fails to operate after rebooting, you should reactivate these instructions using the procedures above, only removing either the semicolon ";" or "rem" from the appropriate files.

The semicolon ";" is used in config.sys while the "rem" is used in autoexec.bat.

Restart your computer

• Exit all programs
• Click Start
• Shutdown
• Restart to restart your computer
• Insert a CD into your CD ROM and make sure it is functional

Check your computer’s performance percentage at start up:

• Click on Start

• Settings

• Control Panel

• System

• Performance

Notice that you've substantially increased the available system resources without losing the function of your CD ROM.