trying to find cd & dvd drive on my computer

[toc423]

I have  a Sony computer. The dvd & cd drives were working fine now they can not be found. They don't show up in the explorer.   They have power to them both.  Any suggestions?

[dl65]

toc423.....It is highly unlikely that 2 cd drives failed at the same time....so I would be looking for another cause. Possibly the problem is the cable which connects them to the motherboard.....is it a wide flat ribbon type?
Were you making any changes to your pc or did you have the cover off ?
Have you downloaded any driver updates recently?
let us know

dl65  

[toc423]

I have not opened the cover. I don't think any new drivers have been loaded. In my device manager there is a yellow exclamation point

[dl65]

toc423......what happens if you click on the exclamation point...?
You mean the exclamation point is on the cd drives .
What operating system are you using?


dl65  

[toc423]

Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)
Windows XP
I have unistalled / re-installed

[MalikTous]

Sounds like your flat cable on your secondary IDE channel has come loose or fried, or that possibly your ATAPI/IDE secondary channel on the MB has fried.

First make sure the BIOS settings are set to run both IDE adaptor channels on the MB. The setting could have become corrupt. Reboot and see if they recognise.

Then, try just using a different cable. If the drives work right now, discard (or scavenge for hookup wire like I do with damaged ribbon cables) the dead cable.

If they still don't recognise, disconnect each drive (one at a time) and see if the other drive recognises. If this allows one drive to recognise but not the other, you have a dead drive, dump the bad CDROM or DVD.

If neither drive recognises on the second channel and you have only one HD, set both drives to Slave (check your HD, and set it to Master with slave or Cable Select as appropriate, if it is Cable Select set the CDROMs to that also) and try them one at a time as Slave devices. If both work, you can get a PCI IDE card to run them on. Promise Technologies sells a series of PCI IDE cards ranging from basic channel for running CDROMs to enhanced IDE cards that add 4 or 8 EIDE UDMA133 drives and/or SATA drives to existing systems. If the secondary MB IDE channel is toast, disable it in BIOS to free up the IRQ.

If the CDROMs don't recognise in one setting (Slave or Cable Select), try the other.

[toc423]

I am some what of a neophyte with the computer lingo.  I am not sure what you mean by" First make sure the BIOS settings are set to run both IDE adaptor channels on the MB"
I understand the rest

[Raptor]

(or scavenge for hookup wire like I do with damaged ribbon cables)

What is a 'hookup' cable, Maliktous?

[merlin_2]

remove both cd/dvd drive from the device manager and re-boot.... follow on screen instuction for cd-install/recovery  disk is this a self build?

[johnwill]

MS-KB article Q3320553 describes a couple of possible fixes. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553&Product=winxp

[MalikTous]

TOC423, to check your settings in BIOS, hold the DEL, ESC, CTRL, F1, F2, or F10 key down as approperiate when starting/resetting your PC to enter the BIOS setup and make sure that the Chipset, Advanced, or whatever section governs your EIDE adaptor is set to Both EIDE channels.

Raptor, I use busted ribbon cables for a convenient source of sections of wire to use in projects. Rather than just tossing them, I disassemble the connectors and peel off convenient lengths of multi-conductor wire from the cable. I can easily toss damaged sections without wasting bulk wire.

[merlin_2]

if it winxp try this  scroll three-quarters down this webpage>http://aumha.org/regfiles.php  for a patch for your reg called cdgone

[toc423]

merlin_2   you are my hero!  I had taken the computer back to Best Buy where I have a 3 year "protection plan". They told me for nintey dollars they would back up my files and formatt my hard drive (while I waited 10-14 days) and I would be back at square one.  You saved me a lot of time and aggravation

[johnwill]

merlin_2   you are my hero!

And if you look up a couple of messages, there was the same solution from Microsoft's KB.

[Raptor]

Don't worry, Johnwill, the real heroes always go unnoticed.