Can someone please tell me how to fix the problem described in this topic. I've read through and apart from "fixing something in the registry" I am not sure how to proceed with a solution and I have the same problem.
My sister's brand new system, built by a tech guy, keeps losing the DVD drive (DVD-RW) and the tech guy insists it must a CD that is bad that is causing it to be "lost" however I think even if it temporarily gets lost because of a bad cd, it should show up when you restart, but this does not happen....at least not anymore.
Things I have tried:
1) System restore to an earlier time when I knew it was still showing up. This has stopped working as the PC refuses to restore now...not sure what happened there.
2) restarting and entering the bios to look for the drive- it shows up there
3) Looking in the Device Manager: it does NOT show up there, even though it shows up in the BIOS.
Things I have noticed:
1) It sometimes gets restored...but I am not sure how...although lately that has not happened
2) Sometimes plugging in a USB device will cause it to disappear. (This is when it used to show up and then disappear)
System info:
Win XP Home,
DVD-RW Drive is a USB drive, I think, I don't believe it is installed with a regular cable, the way I've seen older drives installed.
1 GBram 160 GB HD (Can't remember what processor he put in...or I would mention it...hope it does not matter!) Processor speed is about 1.5GHz or so...I think.
create a new thread listing the information stated above....and if you have already created a thread then sit tight:)
Quote:1) It sometimes gets restored...but I am not sure how...although lately that has not happened
since it was built and not an OEM there is a possibility that that there could be a physical issue,( not saying that an OEM is better at all, Cb is better in fact.... just not as "tight")
it seems its disappearing and reappearing with no avail? the power connection might be lose, try opening it up to see if the molex 4 pin is still in place...thats the power connection to the drive....if you dont have experience with using the registry i suggest you dont attempt it, even somebody with a lot of registry experience would rather not play around with it!
Thanks for the suggestions! Should I still repost this? I was contemplating opening the tower to check if it was a physical issue but I never did get around to trying that. The tech guy has actually replaced the drive and no problems so far (it's been two days) and he said the other drive was SATA while this one is IDE. He feels there may have been some incompatibility with the HP printer. I am not sure, but I think it had something to do with the nature of the drive, because it used to show up as a USB removable disk (something I forgot to mention-sorry!) when it did show up.
Tripplite, I am very wary of touching the registry but thanks for the warning anyway. I think I have read enough to be very scared of doing anything with it-I certainly am not qualified. In fact, I do recall my first PC "going" after I had run Norton to do a registry check. It never recovered from that. That was in the days before 'win xp' and 'system restore', unfortunately!
Quote:I do recall my first PC "going" after I had run Norton to do a registry check.
registry cleaning tools are well know for there ability to F8dge up a computer.....the only registry cleaner tool i've ever scene that works is ccleaner, it doesn't fix serious issue but it does clean up after bad installers and dead entires:) no tool will"fix" a registry...recover/restore YES but fix...no....
Quote:and he said the other drive was SATA while this one is IDE
well your tech fella just gave you a worse drive: an IDE drive is worse then SATA, nothing serious though...the speed is slower but you might not feel a difference if the drive is modern enough:)
Quote:He feels there may have been some incompatibility with the HP printer. I am not sure, but I think it had something to do with the nature of the drive, because it used to show up as a USB removable disk (something I forgot to mention-sorry!) when it did show up.
now a internal IDE drive coming into clash with a printer?? what!!!
thats cr#p there isn't compatibly issues with printers and optical drives....unless theres something else going on, am i missing something are these drives external aka connected via USB??.....as long as the new IDE drive has the same features as the SATA one then I Wouldn't worry to much as long as its working:)
Quote:but I think it had something to do with the nature of the drive,
i think your right, replacing the drive is just a short cut to the real issue..... i think if its the hubs (USB drive) then one might have fell asleep and the others are reading one off:(....now i once had a similar issue...the computer refused to acknowledge a new drive (IDE), it was internal...i replaced the drive and it worked...later i took the other drive to another computer then updated its firmware... brought it back to the computer that wouldn't pick it up and PRESTO!! the computer installed the drivers and i had launch!!!
It was installed "internally" so it looks like an internal drive at first glance but it used to show up as an external drive*, i.e. a removable disk, which is why I suspected it was somehow connected via usb (although none of the ports available to me were used for it), because it always showed up in the list (when it showed up at all) when you clicked the usb icon to remove other usb media. (And just in case you think to ask, no I never accidentally removed it that way, although if I did, it should just show up again at reboot, right?)
I think he meant the original SATA drive having issues with the printer--that is way over my head so I can't begin to comment. He did admit to not having used many SATA drives before--to me that may be the real problem! He does not know the status of the other system in which he had put one of those drives.
*Similar to the way an external DVD drive (that I have used with my pc) would show up.
