CD ROM drive missing in action
 

The CD ROM drive on this computer is missing. It doesn't appear when I look in the control panel and it isn't listed in device manager. I've tried rebooting but no luck. Any ideas?

Check to see if the bios is seeing the CDROM device in bios setup!
If not check the cable on the drive and if you havnt messed with the cables and power then maybe the CDROM went south on you, they do break and go bad!

Try this:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_d...cd_dvd_fix.htm __________________

I'll give these ideas a try and let you know. From what I've read on this site, sounds like CD drives break fairly often. This one is about four years old.

They do...and the good news, is they are a $20 replacement!

Well, I checked the BIOS and the CD ROM isn't listed/detected, so I got a new drive. Just need to install it. Thanks for the advice.

Gald to be a help!

Unfortunately, a new CD drive hasn't helped. I even changed out the interface cable. No change. When I check the bios, the system information lists "*CD ROM" and the name of the CD device. Is the asterisk significant?

The CD ROM is not listed in the device list. Under boot order, it shows CD ROM as first, but unlike the floppy drive and hard drive, it doesn't list the drive letter (E:) next to CD ROM.

Any other ideas? This is frustrating. Thanks for your help so far.

Be careful as you need to jumper it opposite what else is on the cable. Look at the drive you took out to see how it was jumpered and do the same. Jumpers are pins between the power cable and flat wide ide cable.

I checked this and it is the same as the old CD drive. All this started with a virus after which I had to reload AOL. Could some other setting or program have been corrupted?