CD/DVD rw not working PLEASE HELP!!! :(

Ok so i have an Acer Aspire 5100 notebook, i can insert a cd/dvd into the drive perfectly. It ejects and the orange light even comes on, so putting in and out is not an issue but, it's as if the cd/dvd drive doesn't exist on the laptop. I have checked in the device manager and CD drive doesn't show up, when i want to play, burn or view any files on a cd nothing actually happens i even tried reinstalling the burning software, i get messages like 'NO supported cd drive detected' I don't understand why this is, do i need to install some sort of drive?

 

First, does the BIOS report that the ODD is present. There should be an info screen which gives the ODD model number. If the BIOS doesn't list it then check if there are any relevant options in the BIOS. Otherwise I would wonder whether there is a problem with the ODD or its connection - remove and replace might clean up a connection problem.

Second, if the ODD it is not listed in Device Manager are there any unrecognised devices? If so, remove them and let Windows re-detect the hardware. You could also uninstall the second IDE channel (to which the ODD is usually connected) and let Windows re-detect that. It will also detect any devices connected to the channel.

John

 

The ODD is not listed in the device manager and i don't really understand what BIOS and ODD are.

 

ODD is the optical drive.....or CD/DVD drive. It's not going to show up as ODD in Device Manager. If you see 'DVD/CD-ROM Drives listed then click on the + to expand and view the device. If it shows something there then I would right click and select uninstall. You can then reinstall by clicking on the 'Action' menu and 'Scan for hardware changes'. Alternatively you can also try going to Acer's site and looking up your model notebook and downloading the CD/DVD driver.

As far as the BIOS question...

BIOS means Basic Input/Output System. This is essentially your notebook's firmware. When you first turn your notebook on the BIOS goes through many steps to test your hardware...once everything checks out it hands control to your operating system which then loads itself and brings you to a login screen (or straight to you desktop depending on you setup). What John Ratsey is talking about is going into the BIOS to see if it registers that your system has a working CD/DVD drive. To do this you'll have to push one of the function keys right when you first turn your notebook on. It is a different key on different machines but commonly F2 or F10....either way you should see a message when you turn your notebook on that says something like "Press XX to enter Setup". If you have Fast Boot or Silent Boot or something similar you may not see this screen....but you should still be able to get to the BIOS by pressing one of these function keys (which BTW your user manual should tell you exactly which key you need to push to get into the BIOS). Once you are in the BIOS you can navigate between the menus using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Pressing 'Enter' takes you into submenus....pressing 'Esc' brings you back out to the previous menu. Make sure you don't just change random things.....or really in this case anything.....just check to see if you see an optical drive listed under System or Hardware or a similarly-named 'tab'.

Good luck,

Andrew

 

Thanks Andrew, unfortunately in my device manager there is no sign of CD/DVD drives. Here is a print screen of my device manager..

 

Right....so it seems like the driver isn't installed.....though not sure why there is power to the drive (light). Either way it might be the 'Unknown device' shown in Device Manager. I would uninstall that and then reboot notebook and see if Vista is able to install a driver for whatever that is, hopefully the DVD/CD drive. I looked on Acer's site for a driver for this and the only downloads I see for this notebook that are related to the optical drive are something NTI related and something Power DVD....both of these look like the software Acer bundles with their notebooks.....not the hardware driver you need. Not sure if I'm just not seeing it but it doesn't look like it's there.

If Vista won't install the driver or you get the same results ('Unknown device') you may want to figure out how the drive comes out so you can see the make and model and then Google that for the driver.

Andrew

 

There's no special driver for the optical drive.

That unknown device may be the optical drive which hasn't been configured properly. Right click on it and select remove.

I would also recommend that you go into the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller, look at each IDE channel and uninstall any channel which has nothing under the advanced settings. Windows will then redetect the channel (on reboot) and reconfigure any connected devices.

John

 

Hi Andrew, the unknown device was actually the Acer Orbi cam on my laptop i have fixed that, you're right about the stuff available on the Acer website i also wanted to check to see if i can get some driver information but i only get the software updates for cd makers. I will try to remove the drive i did open it and check to see but it must be inside.

This is too complicated. ( There's nothing under advanced settings.:|