Audio CDs won't play - Windows cannot access the specified device

Alan W

New Member
I recently plugged in an audio CD to listen to a lecture which I have done many times before. however, this time I got the message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file."

The odd thing is that I can rip the track using Easy Media Creator. This puts the tracks on my computer and then they play just fine.

The DVD player seems to work fine. It does play movies and it does read data files on DVDs or CDs.

I don't know when this problem appeared.

I have rebooted and it still does the same thing.

The only thing that I can think of that has changed recently is that I tried to install an old Adobe Photoshop Home version and then had to uninstall it. There were apparently a lot of "shared files" that it suggested that I remove and I did. Did I inadvertantly delete something I needed?

Would appreciate some suggestions.
Alan
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite A215-S5837
    CPU
    AMD Turion 64X2 Dual Core Mobile
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    2048 MB PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon
Most likely you did delete it. You take a chance of it deleting important files when it asks to delete shared files unless you look into exactly what files it's going to delete. The safer way would be to just leave those extra files, you'll just end up with extra junk but usually won't run the risk of deleting something important. Try a system restore, that might work. If not you can use a file recovery program to get the specific file back. Recuva is a free one many use, there are others.

Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File Recovery - Home

good luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Airbot 2.0
    CPU
    Core i7 920 (D0) @ 4Ghz, 26c idle- 65c full load on air
    Motherboard
    Asus P6X58D Premium -Sata 6Gb/s - USB 3.0
    Memory
    12GB Corsair Dominator -CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA Nvidia GTX 480 -Fermi
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xonar D2X
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 24" Flatron W2453V-PF Full HD 1080p 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080@60hz
    Hard Drives
    1 OCZ Vertex2 180GB SSD
    1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200RPM 32MB cache
    2 500GB WD Caviar Blacks 7200RPM 32MB cache (WD5001AALS)

    Pioneer DVD Burner DVR-S18M
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    Corsair HX1000W
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    Cooler Master HAF 932
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    Case Fans -3 230mm, 1 140mm/CPU - Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme
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    Logitech Wireless MK700
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless MK700
    Internet Speed
    100 MBPS DL 30.17Mbps UL 0.98Mbps
    Other Info
    Windows 7
    Processor-7.7 RAM- 7.9 Graphics-7.9 Gaming Graphics- 7.9 HDD- 7.8

    W.E.I final score= 7.7

    Windows Vista=5.9
Thanks Aaron. Would you have any idea what the file is that I might have eliminated? I looked in the recycle bin and didn't see anything there that would have been erased that day.

I haven't tried a system restore yet. I need to back up everything first. I'm assuming a system restore can be undone if need be, right? I was surprised to see that Vista hadn't put in some automatic restore points like XP used to do. Kind of bummed about that.

I wonder if reinstalling adobe photoshop would put the file back if it was a shared one in the first place. What do you think?

Alan
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite A215-S5837
    CPU
    AMD Turion 64X2 Dual Core Mobile
    Memory
    2048 MB PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon
I recently plugged in an audio CD to listen to a lecture which I have done many times before. however, this time I got the message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file."

The odd thing is that I can rip the track using Easy Media Creator. This puts the tracks on my computer and then they play just fine.

Well, I assumed you meant some tracks that had been erased... if that's the case you can just try to find the specific tracks that had been deleted with Recuva. If it deleted some system files then you'd probably have a hard time trying to find exactly what the system files were out of all the files Recuva finds. I guess you could just restore all the files that were deleted in those last fews days. I would just try a system restore and hope that does it. You should have system restore points already made for the last few days at least unless you've changed any settings for SR.System Restore is set to make a point at every boot up and daily at some time I believe in the Task Scheduler by default. You can change this of course. Also, you may want to run system file checker as this might restore some critical file.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76905-system-restore-how.html
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/1...-change-automatic-restore-point-schedule.html
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html?ltr=S
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Airbot 2.0
    CPU
    Core i7 920 (D0) @ 4Ghz, 26c idle- 65c full load on air
    Motherboard
    Asus P6X58D Premium -Sata 6Gb/s - USB 3.0
    Memory
    12GB Corsair Dominator -CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA Nvidia GTX 480 -Fermi
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xonar D2X
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 24" Flatron W2453V-PF Full HD 1080p 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080@60hz
    Hard Drives
    1 OCZ Vertex2 180GB SSD
    1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200RPM 32MB cache
    2 500GB WD Caviar Blacks 7200RPM 32MB cache (WD5001AALS)

    Pioneer DVD Burner DVR-S18M
    PSU
    Corsair HX1000W
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932
    Cooling
    Case Fans -3 230mm, 1 140mm/CPU - Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless MK700
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless MK700
    Internet Speed
    100 MBPS DL 30.17Mbps UL 0.98Mbps
    Other Info
    Windows 7
    Processor-7.7 RAM- 7.9 Graphics-7.9 Gaming Graphics- 7.9 HDD- 7.8

    W.E.I final score= 7.7

    Windows Vista=5.9
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