Can't See My CD Drives

[Pounder]

My CD drives do not show up on My Computer.
Two Drives gone missing: CD-RW and DVD drives

If I look on the device manager, they do not show there either. The secondary IDE doesn't show either.

When I go into the system setup at power up to check the drives, it shows the CD drives are not installed.

I have downloaded the BIOS but haven't loaded it yet in fear that I will complicate the issue.

Does this sound like something that would be fixed by reloading the BIOS or does this sound like the controller is fried on the motherboard.

Is it the same controller that runs both the primary and seconardy IDE interfaces or are there two controllers, because the hard drive is still working fine.

 

[Padma]

Moderator Action: Moved to Computer Talk.

 

[Rik Meleet]

Have you got question mark "?" or exclamation marks "!" in device manager ?
Does your PC boot from CD -or- can you read a CD in DOS ? (not a DOS-box in windows, the real DOS-environment)

 

[Pounder]

Have you got question mark "?" or exclamation marks "!" in device manager ?
Does your PC boot from CD -or- can you read a CD in DOS ? (not a DOS-box in windows, the real DOS-environment)

No nothing shows any where.

I found why they weren't showing. In system setup (bios) the the secondary ide had both the master and slave off, don't know how that happened, virus checker runs clean.

Now the CD-RW and DVD drives both show up on My Computer, so I see both the D: and E: drives, but only the CD-RW reads a disk.

The DVD (d doesn't read any kind of disk, but the drivers are all there and the device manager says that everything is fine. The DVD drive light flashes like normal when the computer is booting, but does nothing when you try to read the disk. I uninstalled the drivers for the drive and booted, all the driver were reinstalled on power up, but the drive still doesn't read.

At least I am operational now with only the DVD drive being out of commission.

 

[Speedo]

It's time to break open the case.

Be sure that the the two connectors are firmly seated in the back of the drives, and that the ribbon cable is in the motherboard.

If they still don't show up (all you need to bother checking is the BIOS, if they aren't there they won't be anywhere else).

Replace the cable connecting them to the motherboard and see if it works.

If not, unplug their cable and swap it with where your HDD is plugged in. If they work, then it looks like that PATA header has died on your mobo. Unfortunately, you're probably SOL unless you get an new mobo.

If they still don't work, try different power connectors. The connectors currently in the drives are probably on the same "string" coming for the power supply. Swap them (you really only need to try one) with a connector that's on a seperate "string." If that works, then you're fine as long as you have enough connectors... if you don't, then it's time for a new power supply.

 

[Pounder]

It's time to break open the case.

Be sure that the the two connectors are firmly seated in the back of the drives, and that the ribbon cable is in the motherboard.

If they still don't show up (all you need to bother checking is the BIOS, if they aren't there they won't be anywhere else).

Replace the cable connecting them to the motherboard and see if it works.

If not, unplug their cable and swap it with where your HDD is plugged in. If they work, then it looks like that PATA header has died on your mobo. Unfortunately, you're probably SOL unless you get an new mobo.

If they still don't work, try different power connectors. The connectors currently in the drives are probably on the same "string" coming for the power supply. Swap them (you really only need to try one) with a connector that's on a seperate "string." If that works, then you're fine as long as you have enough connectors... if you don't, then it's time for a new power supply.

It is starting to look like it is a bad DVD drive, I swapped the cable with another computer (no change).

I ran diagnostics and the only thing that passed was the drive self test and the eject. Anything that had to do with read/write/seek failed, I cracked open the DVD Drive and the lense looks clean, put it all back together, the computer knows there is a drive there, it just doesn't believe there is a disk in the drive.