Knowledge Base

Disk Access Light Blinks When CD Player Plays Audio CD

Article ID: 146417

Article Last Modified on 11/15/2006

Microsoft Windows 95

This article was previously published under Q146417

SYMPTOMS

Your computer's hard disk access light may blink as you play an audio CD with Microsoft CD Player.

CAUSE

When CD Player plays an audio CD, it polls the CD-ROM drive for the current track and location so that it can display the information in its status window. Some computers turn on the hard disk access light whenever any SCSI device is accessed, regardless of whether or not the device being accessed is the hard disk. As a result, accessing the CD-ROM drive causes the hard disk access light to blink.

RESOLUTION

You do not need to take any action. However, if you want to play audio CDs without CD Player running, follow these steps:

In CD Player, click Preferences on the Options menu.
Click the Stop Playing CD On Exit check box to clear it.
Click OK.

When the audio CD starts playing, quit CD Player. The audio CD will continue to be played, but CD Player will not poll the CD-ROM drive for status information.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

138598 Disk Drive or CD-ROM Access Light Blinks Every Few Seconds

Additional query words: flashes flashing

Keywords: KB146417