CDR/W acts up & now it and DVD are gone from MyComputer

by si Jul 25, 2004 4:07AM PDT

Hello. I have a COMPAQ 5310US Win XP Home, which came with A: Floppy, 40GIG HD C: (with D: sysbackup on it), E: internal DVD player and F: internal CDR/W. I've since upgraded (over the course of a year or so) the 40GIG to an 80 GIG and added a second 80 GIG for backup, plus a USB expander box. Now, everything's been working fine, until last week. Here's what's happened:

The light on the CDR/W drive began coming "on" for no reason, intermittently, for a couple of days. Then, when I went to make a CD, it wouldn't recognize any blank disk I put in it. So I tried a disk which I knew had certain files on it, and tried to read it, but it wouldn't see any disk in the drive. Later on that day, I tried this all again, with no success. I rebooted several times, and still the same problem. Then, the next day, the light came on again, then the thing ejected all by itself. Shortly after that, the drive letter designations for both my CDR/W & my DVD disappeared. I rebooted several times, but they still were not there.

Now, shut the computer off for the night, came back the next morning, booted up and the drive letters were there. The CDR/W drive still did not work. Shortly after that, the drive designations disappeared again.

I am assuming the CDR/W is bad, and this is what's causing all the trouble with the drive letters, as they are probably on the same cable (I will verify this when I open the box up).

Any suggestions/comments from the experts out there will be greatly appreciated!

Discussion is locked

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Re: CDR/W acts up & now it and DVD are gone from MyComputer

by chuckieu Jul 25, 2004 4:35AM PDT

Try unplugging each drive(one at a time) without even
changing the jumper. I.E.-unplug CDRW, turn computer back on and see if other drive acts properly. Turn off
computer, plug CDRW back in, and unplug other drive. See
if CDRW is there. A bad drive can cancel out the other drive also. Good luck. chuck

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Re: CDR/W acts up & now it and DVD are gone from MyComputer

by Cursorcowboy Jul 25, 2004 10:06PM PDT

Download and see if the Doug Knox fix "XP_CD-DVD-Fix.exe" repairs the anomaly.

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Re: CDR/W acts up & now it and DVD are gone from MyComputer

by Patrick77 Jul 29, 2004 11:39PM PDT

I have experience this with some friends in the past.

Here is the solution:

Start your computer and enter your BIOS Setup Program - You do this by pressing DELETE key on most computers. Others use CTRL key or any of the Function 'F' Keys on Your keyboard.

Look for the Hard Drive Configuration section of the BIOS Program. You might need some help if you are very new to this. Re-Detect your drives again.

Save settings and Reboot.

Here is my thought about the problem:

It appears you inserted a bad CD/DVD on your drive and your Processor or BIOS program or whatever is concerned with recognising your CD/DVD couldn't communicate with your drives. The program then concludes that CD/DVD is no longer present on your computer and it cancelled all references to the drives.

To solve the problem, you need to re-detect the drives the way you detect newly-installed drives using your BIOS Setup program.

I hope this solves the problem as it has done each time I encounter the same problem.

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Re: CDR/W acts up & now it and DVD are gone from MyComputer

by si Aug 9, 2004 10:01PM PDT

Hello all,
Thanks so much for your posts. I have determined the CDR-W has gone bad and was cancelling out the other drive. I bought a new one, installed it, and everything is working fine now.

Thanks again for all your information - I appreciate it!

CDR/W acts up & now it and DVD are gone from MyComputer

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