My cd-rom drive and dvd rw arnt working whats wrong?

Question

both cd-rom and dvd rw open so they must have power but they do not show up in "my computer" and when i put a cd in 1 they dont do anything ive checked the connecting wires inside and they all seem fine.if u wish to ask me for further info send me a message.

Answer 1

Do you see them in device manager?  if so...most likely this registry fix should do the trick:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.asp...

I've fixed this a few times for several clients.  Usually related to installing CD/DVD authoring, copier, imaging, programs and such.

If it is not seen in device manager or the bios.  It is possible that the system controller or cable might be bad...One good test is to try to boot up off of a bootable cd.  IE: Windows XP or Windows Vista install CD...If they boot up then it's definitely a windows problem and that registry fix above should do the trick!

Answer 2

hi james-

this identical problem occurred on my laptop last week!  

i went to device manager, and sure enough the drive had a little yellow exclamation mark by it.  

so i clicked on that to open its properties and uninstalled it.

then i put the system disk in with all the drivers, etc. on it and it led me through the reinstallation process when it said "found new hardware."

after a system restart it worked fine and has ever since.  i don't have a clue what made the problem occur in the first place.

if you don't have the original disk i mentioned, you can accomplish this by downloading drivers from the mfr of your pc's website, but this is the fastest and easiest method.   worked like a charm.

also, your pc mfr's site should have a knowledge base that would give you a step-by-step if you don't have the disk.