CD Drives not working????

I am running Windows XP home edition. I have a cd with Dvd, then I also have a RW-Drive. The CD-DVD drive is showing up in divice manager, but the other is not. Neither one of them will work for me. Can anyone tell me how I can fix this problem? I really need some detaiiled info, as I'm lately kind of illerate when it comes to computer, as I've been on so much meds for health issues. So if you can explain in detail, would be extra grateful. Thanks! Oh, the CD-DVD drive is showing up with letter E, and then I also have a removable disk, which is plugged in to USB port that is my SanDisk for picture cards. It is showing up as (H)

 

what do you mean by the cd/dvd drive is not working, you stated it shows up in device manager and is assigned a letter? Does the rw drive show up in the boot up screen? Is there power to the rw drive can you open and close the door, if so check the ide cable make sure it is properly seated, if so try a new ide cable, see if that works.

 

One Cd drive should be set to Slave the other Cd drive should be set to Master if they are on the same IDE cable.

Check also that you have put the IDE cables in correctly on the cd drive sockets as the IDE cable connection can be put in both ways if you are not careful, this then can also damage the drive occasionally if the pins in the cd or hard drive IDE socket have been forced back into the drive instead of sticking out.

The red strip on the IDE cable to both drives should be by the side towards the power lead. This points to PIN one.

If the above is all correct then maybe your bios is not set up to recognise one or more of the cd drives e.g. it may be set to NONE on either of the IDE channels, if it is set up ass NONE then reset it to AUTO, in fact set them all to AUTO to be sure all drives are detected on bootup.

Let us know the results please.

Regards
tel33