CD/DVD Drives not detected.

[Subyland]

For a while I have had a weird problem: The BIOS does not "see" the CD-RW and DVD drives. This happens probably 3 times out 4 boot sequences and I don't know why! It used to work very well but suddenly nil point! Can someone give me a pointer please?

 

[agatward]

Check the cabling - it's worth reseating the ribbon cable just in case. Also check you still have them set to 'auto' in the BIOS - sometimes Windows decides to change this for you.

Also if you're using an 80-pin ribbon cable instead of a 40-pin one, it's better to have the drives set to 'cable select' / 'CS' mode, rather than fixing them to master / slave.

Finally, it is not recommended to mix HDDs and optical drives on the same cable.

 

[columb]

How old is your computer? SATA or IDE drives?
As suggested- check cables - maybe buy new ones?


Cheers

 

[tali]

Had same prob but mine is permanent - checked by PC engineer - cables everything fine.Afaik BIOS okay aswell

 

[Frank O' Phile]

I would go with the cable theory, do they share the same one?

On this assumption, try swapping with the hard drive cable and see what happens. If it works I'd replace both.

 

[Subyland]

CD/DVD drives are on a separate cable to the HDD since these are SCSI. What even more weird is that during the last boot both drives appeared as detected but when I click on "My computer" there's nothing!!

 

[normanr]

It could also be the controllers on the motherboard that have packed up.

 

[stevesey]

Windows drivers shouldn't be dependent on the BIOS seeing them - however if windows can't see them that does suggest a fundamental problem.

Have you tried one drive at a time to see if the problem is related to one of them.

 

[Subyland]

I have just fitted a IDE HDD to make a test and swopped cables. As I have a full tower the HDD cable is not long enough to reach both drives so I have only connected the DVD. Result is that the DVD works, as well as the HDD which is connected via the "normal" CD/DVD cable. Which is a bit bizarre since if it was the cable which was faulty, why would it work with the HDD??

 

[masqueraid]

If the drives are not getting detected by the BIOS it is likely to be a fault with the drive controller/SCSI card. Try the drives separately to see if one is interfering with the other.

If they are detected in the BIOS but not in Windows try removing the filters settings in the Registry (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060)

 

[Subyland]

The BIOS detects them sometimes, but not always. If i go into the BIOS and do a search then it detects both drives. But then, when I reboot they disappear again.

 

[masqueraid]

BIOS Upgrade?

 

[MikeL]

BIOS battery - defaulting to wrong settings after PC switched off for a while?

Mike

 

[oldcro]

I've had the same problem in the past, and for the life of me cannot remember how I fixed it. I do know it was not a cable fault and did not require any BOIS changes. Try Device Manager, right click onCD/DVD drives and scan for hardware changes. Try disabling it then re-enable it. Try uninstalling the driver, shut down computer for a minute then restart. If drive not found shut down and unplug Cd player restart computer, then shutdown again and reconnect CD player and restart computer.

If none of these ideas work I'm sorry to have wasted few hours of your time.

 

[tali]

I've had the same problem in the past, and for the life of me cannot remember how I fixed it. I do know it was not a cable fault and did not require any BOIS changes. Try Device Manager, right click onCD/DVD drives and scan for hardware changes. Try disabling it then re-enable it. Try uninstalling the driver, shut down computer for a minute then restart. If drive not found shut down and unplug Cd player restart computer, then shutdown again and reconnect CD player and restart computer.

If none of these ideas work I'm sorry to have wasted few hours of your time.

I tried that method also - sadly it didn't work