no CD drive

suiko

Thanks a million - will let you know how it goes!

suiko

I disabled the CD + DVD drives (not sure which is which), and tried re-enabling them, but got two different error messages:
1. Windows successfully loaded the device driver but cannot find hardware device (Code 41)
2. Windows cannot start hardware device because configuration info is incomplete or damaged (Code 19)

I clicked on Troubleshooter, but it told me the "Help and Support are not available".

I got a report from Belarc with lots of supposedly critical and important issues, most of which seemed to be related to issues with Outlook, Powerpoint etc. Not sure they are relevant? In any case, I couldn't find a way of saving the list in order to post it.

I also looked at the Microsoft site but it's hard to know what to do with so much on there. Do I need XP Service Pack 3? Or to run chkdsk?

macman

Did you try 'roll back driver' as another option?
The DVD drive will have 'DVD' stamped on the front of it. Estabish which error message applies to which drive. If it's the code 41 one, then sounds like the data cable is maybe loose or damaged (so Windows can't 'see' the drive, though it has power to it).
Suggest you whip the case off and inspect the data cable to the drive in question.
XP SP3 is the current service pack, has been for a long time, if you are still on SP2 then you should update, but doubt this is the cause of the CD problem.

suiko

I didn't see the "roll back" option. Will check the cable connection too.

Donnie

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

This should have been moved to the Tech section.

suiko

Thanks, yes, I found that link already. It didn't fix it per se, but what has seemed to work is doing a full chkdsk - I tried this before but it always froze on me. Definitely recognises at least one of the drives now, which is fine for me as I can use the CD in the DVD drive and don't have any DVDs anyway.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will have sorted my other long-term freezing issue too...