Dell Dimension 5100C

[bil_drk]

hi, i have a problem with my dell. i cannot get my cd drive to work. i ordered one off of the internet, and i plugged it in and it didn't work. it did the same thing as the one i thought to be dead. i was thinking it could be the cable that connects it to the motherboard, but at this point i'm at a loss..... i'm 90% sure its only the cable, and not the motherboard......any help would be greatly appreciated......OS is Windows 7 Ultimate, CD Drives are a Toshiba and a Dell......thanks for your help.

[patio]

How is it connected cable wise and how is it jumpered ? ?
Was it from eBay ? ?

[bil_drk]

it doesn't have any jumper settings, it wasn't from ebay it was from Txess, an independent computer parts dealership. its the slim-style drives, that has one cable connecting the motherboard to the drive. heres a link to the description of the drive: [/url]http://www.txcesssurplus.com/servlet/the-6609/Dell-Dimension-5100c-OptiPlex/Detail[/url]
The cable looks just like the one here:
[urlhttp://www.txcesssurplus.com/servlet/the-6915/Dell-Dimension-OptiPlex-SFF/Detail][/url]
I beleive the drive is a parallel ata, at least thats what the BIOS is saying.....
thanks for your help.

[bil_drk]

the thing is, everything else works. Windows boots and shuts down properly, all my other devices (sound, USB adapters, Network cards, Video Cards, etc.) work to, everything but the CD drive. the articles i've read indicate that its working fine. this is the frustration! i have no clue what to do!

[jason2074]

Do you have one or two connected optical drives in your computer? What happens to your previous optical drive that was replaced? Was it working, recognized without conflict and what was the specific model of your replaced cd-drive?

[bil_drk]

i only have my one cd drive connected, the BIOS was not recognizing either one of the drives.....the newest one was professionally tested before it was shipped out. the newest one is a Dell X7082. my plans was to buy a plane jane cd drive, and then if that fixed it i would buy a dvd ram drive for it. also, the BIOS detected my HDD, and everything else on the computer works...... unsure what to do next

[jason2074]

Check device manager under hardware other than the BIOS detection to determine the status of optical drive. If found detected, try manually unistall and install CD-drive and click scan for hardware changes. What trouble do you mean when it does not work? Does light sensor for optical drive flashes when booting? While Computer is running, does it able to open/close CD-drive tray when pressing the buttton?

[bil_drk]

i've tried that. Windows doesn't detect it. if the BIOS doesn't detect it, that means Windows will not find it. here is what the bios is saying:
Drive 0 is not found; PATA..... something along that line of thought.
the BIOS does not recognize the drives, and they both do exactly the same thing.... they light up and open until Windows boots. this is why i thought it to be the cable, because both dries are doing the exact same thing.

[jason2074]

Ok. How many optical drive connector does your computer have? If everything else is a no-go for detection regarding your new CD-drive, you may want to resort to testing your toshiba and dell CD-drive to another computer with maybe same or different  win xp OS version.

[Computer_Commando]

IDE drives require proper jumper settings.
http://freepctech.com/pc/001/installing_ide_devices.shtml

[bil_drk]

its not an ide, its parallel ATA. i only have ONE optical drive connected to the computer. i possiby thought about reinstalling the BIOS, and maybe then it would catch it. i cannot test the drives on another computer, as all my other computers are IDE. and, they are not the slim-laptop style cd drives. there are also no jumper settings on the drive, nor the HDD either. i understand your thinking its a jumper problem, because 90% of the time it is, but in this case, it doesn't have any that are settable.

[jason2074]

How about your Toshiba Cd- drive? Do they have the same connector with your Dell CD-drive?

[bil_drk]

yes, and when i plug it into my computer, it acts exactly the same as the Toshiba.

[Computer_Commando]

its not an ide, its parallel ATA....

IDE & Parallel ATA are different names for the same thing.
http://en.kioskea.net/contents/pc/ide-ata.php3

[jason2074]

So you have a slim-type desktop with a slim type optical drive? You have a current Win 7 OS... Upgraded. What was your first OS when your bought your PC and also your first optical drive(slim) which was working? DVD/R-W, DVD ROM, CD-ROM/CD/R-W.