Cdrom and CD burner gone!

I run W95 on a 267mhz, 124mb ram, 8gb computer (blush). Some time ago I noticed that my cd rom and my cd-r were not functioning at all. I checked My Computer and, indeed, the icons were gone. I went to Control Panel and tried to search for new hardware (in the hope that my cdrom and cd-r would be found so that I could reinstall them) but none was found. In Device Manager I went to CD rom Controllers and clicked Properties. It said: Device not present, not working properly or all drivers not installed. Has anyone any ideas as to how I can get my drives back again? Many thanks.

 

Try this:
Go to Device Mangler, highlight and click "Remove" on the drives. Shutdown. Disconnect the drives (power and data cables). Restart and do a full boot to Windows. Shutdown. Connect one drive and boot. Shutdown. Connect other drive and boot.

What is your configuration in terms of Primary/Secondary/Master/ Slave?

Matt

 

Hi Lugwalker- I will assume that both the drives are on the same controller and ribbon cable. Go into Device Manager (Control Panel/System/Device Manager. Expand the Disk Controller section and see if you have an error message for the secondary controller. If that is ok, check the cabling from both drives to the motherboard and post back with your findings, if you get a minute. Clydeo22

 

When I go to CD Rom Controllers in Device Manager and expand it I find that there are exclamation marks in yellow circles beside 'Existing Ndis2 driver' and the two drivers I chose from windows (thinking that perhaps if I chose them I might be able to get things working). So, not working, not present. The thing is that I didn't physically do anything to the computer so I'm wondering how any connectors could become detached. Is this possible? As for my configuration, Mattman, well, I'm just not that familiar with such details. Should I have a look inside the machine to see if there are disconnections? Thanks for your time, folks.

 

Hi Lugwalker- before you crack the case, remove the devices that have an exclamation point and reboot. Let Windows install whatever driver it wants and see if anything good happens. Cables can work loose or go bad over time from heating up and cooling down or from someone else that had worked in the case not inserting them all the way, but let's give this a whirl first.Clydeo22

 

I've given that a whirl, clydeo2, but with no result. I think I'll have to have a look inside. Scalpel, nurse.....

 

Sorry, forget that some people haven't opened the case before.

At the back of each of the drives you should see two cables, one with four coloured wires (power) the other long and flat (data). These are the cables/connections I mean. Pull out these cables/connectors to disconnect the drive. They can be quite hard to dislodge. To reconnect, they should be moulded to fit one way only. Make sure they are seated all the way.

Just be careful not to dislodge other cables while you are working in there. Try not to touch the electronics.

Matt

PS Check the power is disconnected. Warnings here if you need them:
http://www.pcguide.com/site/warn.htm

More info here:
http://www.pcguide.com/proc/config/cd.htm

 

One last thought that should not have been left until now, but double check the CMOS settings (BIOS) and make sure that the CD drives are being seen in there. Sorry about not asking this earlier, but I'm down with the flu and not hitting on all cylinders. Clydeo22

 

Thanks mattman and clydeo22. I'll get under that casing and report back on the results. Much obliged.