computer troubles

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

All of a sudden my computer has decided that I don't have a cd drive. I ran troubleshooting (what help) & it says I'm missing a device driver. Well, the device driver is on the cd-rom which I can't get to. I use Windows 2000 pro. My cd is Liteon. I went to their website to download the driver but they say I don't need a special driver; it's windows supported (or something like that, anyway they don't have a driver)

I'm probably going to have to take it in to the shop, but before I do does anyone have any suggestions? I'm pretty computer illiterate so if you could talk down to me it would help. I've tried annoyances.org, also, but their suggestions was to go to liteon & get the driver. So, no good.

best,

[TrogL]

1. your BIOS may be scrambled

and it's forgotten all about the drive.

Reboot and go into the BIOS setup and make sure it's set up to at least do an auto recognize on its place in the order of things.

Sometimes windows gets a bit balky at recognizing things. Try a couple of reboots and it may magically "discover" that you've got a drive, or you can force the issue by going into your control panel and removing it by force. Then on next reboot it should come back.

[TrogL]

2. How's that for response time - two minutes

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

6. I've checked Bios

and both the hard drive & cd are listed. Maybe I'm not looking at the right screen. I've only looked at the first one. Is there another I could check? I've rebooted a dozen times over the last 2 days & unfortunately it hasn't repaired itself once. I'm also getting a message that says my 'ethernet' doohickey isn't enabled. I tried to enable it but it wants some driver which is on the cd which I can't get to.

[zx22778a]

3. Just buy a new one.

CDROM drives are currently $22 Canadian around here - should be about $16 U.S. Just take out the old drive, check to see whether it's jumpered as master, slave or cable select and move jumpers around on the new one to match. Put the new drive back in and your troubles should be over.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

7. It's a brand new computer

I'm sure this is stupid windows fault. But you get the pretty blue screen for free.

[Lostmessage]

4. Have you tried scanning for a bugs on your computer?

My computer located a bug on my hard drive and when I removed it everything started working again.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

8. no bugs. I kinda wishin' it was

[trotsky]

5. Another suggestion

Go into Device Manager (right-click My Computer, Properties, Hardware tab, Device Manager button), and uninstall the CD drive. (I assume it has a yellow exclamation mark on it now?) Then reboot, and see if Windows 2000 can re-detect it.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

9. tried that, windows couldn't find it's tush with both hands.

[trotsky]

11. If reply #10 doesn't do it,

you should probably get a new drive. As a poster above mentioned, they are extremely cheap.

One other test: if you have access to a Windows 98 system, create a system boot disk and see if you can boot to that diskette and access the CD drive. (That way you will know if it's a hardware or software failure.)

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

13. well, I've got my old W98SE boot disk.

Will that work? What exactly do I do?

[trotsky]

15. Just put it in, and turn on your PC.

By default it will attempt to initialize a whole bunch of different DOS-based CD-ROM drivers. I've never had a CD drive that it wasn't able to detect.

Watch for messages like "1 drive found" or whatever.

At the end, it should tell you what drive letter it's on. (Likely D: or E:.)

Put a CD in it, then switch to that drive letter, do a "dir" and see if it can read the CD.

If so, it's a Win2K problem. If not, it's a hardware problem.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

16. Well, I booted with the 98 disc.

Windows ran all kinds of screens. It might as well have been written in greek. I have no idea what to do. I don't understand 'parameters' 'invalid command' blah blah blah. 'Help' was worse than useless. It wouldn't let me switch to either D or E or C; it kept saying "invalid command" or something like that. Sorry, I'm just pretty computer illiterate.

I also tried the unplug, replug. No luck. How do people without nails get in there? I've got talons & just barely could get a grip.

[trotsky]

17. If it's new, can you still call for tech support?

And is it still under warranty? I'd recommend that as your next course of action.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

18. I'm sure it's still under warrenty.

I'll probably have to do that. I was trying to figure it out on my own since the place is 45 minutes away with no traffic. Then he'll have to keep it for a day or two & then I'll have to go back to pick it up. Plus unhooking all the wires & cracking my head on the bottom of the desk.

Oh well.

[Gunit_Sangh]

10. re: computer troubles

I had something similar happen to me last year with an ABIT KT7A motherboard and an AMD processor. Some kind of device driver for the cd drive got messed up and it would not recognize the drive. This is what I did.

Power off the computer and remove the ide cable from the cd drive. Be sure to remember which way the red stripe is pointing. Turn the computer on and let it boot up all the way and then shut it down again. Re-connect the ide cable with the red stripe pointing in the same direction and power on. In my situation, windows xp recognized the cd drive again.

This may not fix your problem, but it's worth a shot.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

12. ok.

I'll be off for awhile. If I'm not back in an hour I've been electrocuted. Seriously, I am going to try this & I will be off line for a while.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

best

[TacticalPeek]

14. (cricket sound)

Is that toast I smell?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

19. would the toast be me or my computer? eom

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

20. shameless

:kick:

[0rganism]

21. "All of a sudden"? Be sure to check the data cable!

Sometimes "things" happen, and internal connections get loose. If the CD drive is lighting up like normal, and opening and shutting in the usual way, but not getting recognized by the OS, it's probably a loose wire somewhere. I have one computer that sometimes loses track of its CD IDE chain, but a sharp wack to the side of the chasis gets it going again.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

24. pushed every connection I could find.

Plus a few more for good measure.

[Mika]

22. Shoulda got a Mac

I couldn't resist :evilgrin:

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

23. well, smarty pants

I work w/companies that all use windoze & I have to use the same-swapping floppies, etc.