Windows has lost my CD-RW drive

[grahamtheegg]

Hi all. I've been trying to burn an .iso image file to a CD without much success. Some website I saw told me to update my ASPI drivers, which I've done, but now windows seems to have lost my CD-RW drive. If I look in the device manager I can't see it, and I can't see it in my computer or in a dos prompt, but if I boot into safe mode it's there where it should be in the device manager, so I guess there's some driver problem. Does anyone have any idea how to resolve this - I'm happy to forget the iso stuff for now - I just want my CD-RW drive back! Many thanks for any advice! Graham

[degsy]

Welcome :)

What Writing Program Do you use?
What ASPI Drivers did you install?


If it was recent then you could see if you have a System Restore point to before the install.

[grahamtheegg]

Hi again,

Thanks for the reply degsy. I have tried a system restore but unfortunately it didn't solve anything. I have been investigating further and it seems that the drive isn't recognised even in the bios boot stage, so I now suspect that it is a hardware problem. However, the drive does have power and will allow me to eject the tray and put a CD into it, so its not completely dead. I think I'm going to have to open up the case and have a look - do you have any suggestions as to what sort of thing I should be looking for or any suspected problems? I don't really knwo the first thing about hardware. Many thanks, Graham.

[degsy]

Just make sure that the cables are connected securely.

You could try unplugging it.
Booting the PC.
Shutting down.
unplugging.

Reconnecting it.
then boot up again.

See if it recognises it.

[grahamtheegg]

That's what I was thinking about doing, but (as I remember from the last time I had to open up the case) there are a number of different wires. Could you give me any pointers as to which are the relevant ones (power, data, etc.), and should I unplug it from the mother board or the back of the drive etc., and maybe some idea of what I should look out for (wire colours etc. would be useful). As I said my hardware knowledge is pretty rubbish. Thanks again for your help.

Cheers, Graham

[degsy]

See if this helps
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/installing_cd_recorder.htm

[grahamtheegg]

Thanks for the link. OK - I've taken the case off and unplugged the CD-RW drive, booted windows, shut down, plugged the drive back in and rebooted, still nothing. With my newfound hardware bravery (and following the instructions on the link you suggested) I then shut down again and disconnected my DVD drive (the `master' device) switched my CD-RW drive to be master (via the `jumper'), plugged the IDE cable in appropriately (i.e. with the CD-RW drive as the last device on the wire), without plugging in the DVD drive, rebooted and still nothing. I now suspect that my CD-RW drive is knackered, but it does still respond to the eject button and flashes a few LEDs at boot time, so clearly it's not completely done in.

Does anyone have any further tips on how to check that this is indeed a hardware fault, could it be that my cable is faulty (although since my DVD drive still works this seems unlikely)? Would it be OK to try connecting the CD-RW drive as the slave device on the hard disk IDE cable, or is this not sensible?

I should also have mentioned that once, when I was trying to resolve the original problem, the drive did reappear in the BIOS and in windows, and hence my suspicion of a dodgy connection. Is there a safe way to test the IDE connection, or to clean it?

Thanks again for any suggestions.

Cheers,

Graham

[Tech12]

It sounds to me that the device is OK and powered up, it's just that Windows is not recognising it.

>Check the Device Manager (Right-Click on the desktop>Properties>Hardware>Device Manager) if there is any exclamation signs next to the DVD/CD ROM drives.

>Under the same window in the Device Manager window try to do update driver while online.

>Try to uninstall and reinstall the original drive software that came with the computer.

[grahamtheegg]

Thanks for the reply tech12, but the drive doesn't appear in the device manager at all, nor does it appear when the BIOS starts (whereas it used to before), i.e. before windows even starts loading, so I'm (now) fairly convinced that it's not a windows driver problem. However I don't really know much about how the BIOS works - does it require some form of driver, could this be the problem?

[grahamtheegg]

Hi again folks. As I'm now pretty sure this is a hardware problem, rather then an ME problem, I've posted another thread in the hardware section here:

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43241

If you're interested in follow-ups then you can head here. I'm still subscribed to this thread though so if anyone has any further advice it would still be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Graham