PC can't see CD drive

WHA

I've a PC that has decided to no longer recognise the internal CD drive.

I've swapped the CD drive and its' cable with another PC, and it works fine, and the CD drive and cable which works in the other PC won't work in this PC. So it seems to be a problem within the PC rather than with the cable/drive.

This has been the case for quite some time, but I got around it by attaching an external CD player via a USB port.

Unfortunately, now, windows is corrupt and I need to reboot from the windows installation cd to repair/reload windows, but I can't do it as it doesn't recognise the internal CD drive (either of them) and as it doesn't boot up properly, it doesn't recognise the external cd drive either.

HELP!!!

Figment

Check in the BIOS that the secondary IDE is enabled and set to Auto.

Whilst you're in the BIOS, have a look at boot devices to see if USB is listed, and if so, move it to the top of the list.

-TangleFoot-

Does this help?

Mrs_Arcanum

Used to get this problem from time to time. Go to control panel > hardware > Device manager. Find your CD in the list and right mouse click & uninstall (yes I know this seems mad but it works). Then re-start the computer & the CD will be discovered by Windows and should work again.

closed

how is windows corrupt, is there a factory restore partition?

have you changed the boot order in the bios, does the bios see the drive

WHA

closed wrote: »

how is windows corrupt, is there a factory restore partition?

have you changed the boot order in the bios, does the bios see the drive

Windows just freezes upon loading, whether in normal mode, safe mode or command prompt model. The Bios doesn't see the drive so I can't change the boot order. Don't know if there's a factory restore partition - how would I check for that and make it work if there is one?

Figment wrote: »

Check in the BIOS that the secondary IDE is enabled and set to Auto.

Whilst you're in the BIOS, have a look at boot devices to see if USB is listed, and if so, move it to the top of the list.

Yes, secondary IDE is enabled in BIOS and is set to auto. No the USB isn't listed either.

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Used to get this problem from time to time. Go to control panel > hardware > Device manager. Find your CD in the list and right mouse click & uninstall (yes I know this seems mad but it works). Then re-start the computer & the CD will be discovered by Windows and should work again.

Can't go into control panel as windows won't load up.

CoolHotCold

I see this all the time, as the poster above said go to Device Manager, but don't uninstall it, it should be a yellow question mark or exclamation point saying code 29.

Either run the Microsoft self help utility someones linked to
or go to start, then run (or just type in the search box) regedit

then on the left hand side go to the following location

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

and delete UpperFilers and LowerFilters and restart the system.


You've probably had Norton and uninstalled / installed it, or maybe iTunes or Nero, they change the registry DVD/CD drive and it causes a wobblie.

WHA

CoolHotCold wrote: »

I see this all the time, as the poster above said go to Device Manager, but don't uninstall it, it should be a yellow question mark or exclamation point saying code 29.

Either run the Microsoft self help utility someones linked to
or go to start, then run (or just type in the search box) regedit

then on the left hand side go to the following location



and delete UpperFilers and LowerFilters and restart the system.


You've probably had Norton and uninstalled / installed it, or maybe iTunes or Nero, they change the registry DVD/CD drive and it causes a wobblie.

As I say, it won't load Windows, not even in safe mode, and I can't even get a command prompt, so I can't do any of this.

-TangleFoot-

WHA wrote: »

The Bios doesn't see the drive so I can't change the boot order.

Probably a hardware issue then.

Mondez

What sort of cable is the CD drive connected to the system by? IDE (big ribbon cable, 40 ping connector) or SATA (small cable, small L shaped connector)? Are there any free ports on the motherboard that look the same as the one it is connected to that you could swap it to? It could be a fault with your board since you say you tried swap testing with another system. The fault may also be related to your windows problems although that isn't certain.