Why is my computer not recognising that there is a dvd/cd in the drive?? HELP!

[Dillan]

I use XP and all has worked fine.  3 days ago I placed a movie in the drive and it told me there was nothing in there.  I have switched it off then tried again and same deal.
Does anyone know why it's doing this?

[patio]

Try a different CD/DVD...a data disk and or a music disk.
Does it read those ?
How old is the drive they all fail eventually.

One simple thing you can try is Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager...find the drive, right clik it and select remove. You will see a warning...ignore it and re-boot
Windows will automatically re-install it.

If this doesn't work chances are it's failing. The only way to find out for sure is to swap it into a working machine.

[Dillan]

Thanx Patio for taking the time to help me.  I did what you suggested and I was able to get rid of the drives except the one i wanted to.  I got rid of them all on there but that one stayed dvd-ram drive (D).  I can't see which one it is. I hope it doesn't need  replacing, I have already replaced my montor and I am only a single mom and it's only about 2 1/2 years old.

[patio]

Can you open My Computer and take a screenshot and post it here so we can see how your drives are set up ? ?

[Dillan]

Thanx so much for taking the time to help me you are awesome.
Hope this photo comes through okay.

[cleaning up - attachment deleted by admin]

[patio]

Photo came thru fine...

Question: Do you have 2 actual DVD drives in that machine or only one.

RAM drives can be created by some software programs...maybe this is the hangup...

This would be either from a burning software program or a virtual drive program such as Daemon tools...

[Dillan]

It only has one drive and I do have Daemon tools installed but I have never used it
should I get rid on it? 
Thanx again

[patio]

You will probably have to use Daemon tools to un-mount the existing RAM drive...then re-boot and try my above suggestions again and you should be good to go...

p.s. since you have a RAM drive showing...someone has used it on that machine.

[grubbyjeans]

I'm having the same problem on my HP Pavillion.

I've attached a screen print. The problem drive is G. Although it shows up as a 'CD-ROM' it is a DVD drive.  It doesn't recognize when disks are inserted and shows in My Computer as a DVD-RAM drive.

I changed the transfer mode PIO to DMA to prevent read errors with disks.

Any help appreciated

[cleaning up - attachment deleted by admin]

[patio]

grubbyjeans it's always best to start a new topic even though you're symptoms are the same...
This will ensure the problem recieves adequate attention.
It is listed as a Lite-on DVD drive so no problem there.
Sometimes Windows will report the drive according to the media in the drive.

Go to Control Panel /System/Hardware/Device Manager...find the drive right click it and select remove.
On re-boot windows will re-install it. See if this works.

If not let us know.

p.s. That drive dropping into PIO mode suggests your machine has other issues. Post as much info as you can on your dilemna in a new thread.

[grubbyjeans]

grubbyjeans it's always best to start a new topic even though you're symptoms are the same...
This will ensure the problem recieves adequate attention.
It is listed as a Lite-on DVD drive so no problem there.
Sometimes Windows will report the drive according to the media in the drive.

Go to Control Panel /System/Hardware/Device Manager...find the drive right click it and select remove.
On re-boot windows will re-install it. See if this works.

If not let us know.

p.s. That drive dropping into PIO mode suggests your machine has other issues. Post as much info as you can on your dilemna in a new thread.

Thanks for the info. Will do.

[Dillan]

I'm sorry to be so stupid but my Daemon tools isn't opening and by un-mount do you mean extract, delete?
By the way my luck is going I'm not surprised this is happening.
Thanx for your time 

[patio]

Travel Here for a fix...i was unaware Daemon had a support Forum.

If this does not work for you follow the instructions in my first post and remove all CD / DVD drives and re-boot and see if that works...

[Dillan]

unfortunately nothing has worked for me, not sure what to do next.
Patio I want to thank you for all your time and kindness, I really appreciated it.