Windows Seems to Have Lost the DVD Drive...

OK, so here's an oddity... Does anybody know what would cause Windows to stop recognizing the DVD drive? It recognized it all through installing the OS, installing WoW, ripping a couple of CDs, but the last couple of times booting, it doesn't seem to realize that the drive is there. The drive shows up in the BIOS, but not in Windows (normal or safe mode). Anybody have any idea what might cause Windows to suddenly lose track of a drive like that? It's not showing up in Device Manager at all (that was the obvious first place to look for a problem). There's no piece of unrecognized software, and if I use the "Scan for hardware changes" function, nothing new is detected.

Brian at Flawless offered to get everything up and working if I ship it back, but to save him the effort and obviously avoid the time w/o the computer, especially with the prime holiday time of using it upon us, I'm hoping that somebody out there might be able to point me in the right direction.

Other notes:

• I have not opened up the machine to check connections on the drive because 1) it was working and 2) BIOS still picks it up
• I have not installed anything on the computer besides an IM program (Miranda ftw!), AVG Anti-Virus, WoW, and iTunes. The drive worked fine after all of those.
• The computer hasn't suffered any damage or even really been moved much (and not at all between the time that it worked and the time it didn't)
• I first noticed the problem yesterday when I was going to install Nero. The problem wasn't caused by it, since it couldn't find the drive to install the program. :-\

Anybody have any ideas? (Hopefully other than reinstalling the OS... I've actually already done that a couple of times to fix a pesky other issue with a blue screen of death upon boot-up -- it still occasionally comes up, but it goes away if I boot into safe mode and then reboot.)

Thanks in advance...

 

Hmm... It didn't add my sig to that last msg for some reason... it contains the computer details.

 

What laptop do you have? If you have the Clevo M570U, that notebook has a modular bay. On the bottom of the notebook, there are two switches - one to lock the drive, and on to push it out. Unlock it, push it out, and push it back in. See if that helps.

Edit: You must have been posting what laptop you had as I was typing my message.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot next time I shut down. I figured that wouldn't be the issue since it's seen in BIOS, but certainly worth a shot.

 

jcq,

1.) Download: XP_CD-DVD-Fix.exe - Restore CD/DVD Drives to Explorer
-You may need to reboot for the change to take effect.

-OR-

2.) try to go to (Microsoft's site) this: CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive appears to be missing after you install Windows XP

-OR-

3.) if that doesn't work, then:
Sounds like your IDE channels might have dropped to PIO mode, instead of DMA. (This is a "feature" in WinXP.)

Go into device manager and look at the Primary and Secondary IDE channels. Under the advanced tab, see what mode you're in. If it says PIO you'll need to uninstall the drives and let Windows find them again (resetting it to DMA if available won't do it).

If WinXP has trouble reading a disc more than a couple times it permanently lowers the mode to PIO. Uninstalling and reinstalling the drives is the only way to get a fresh start. Once the drives have been re-detected, you may have to go back and manually set the "DMA if available" option.



Hope this helps,

-Gophn

 

Thank you both for the suggestions... I tried all three (removing and reseating the drive, using that XP_CD-DVD-Fix program, and the registry entry), and the results are the same. The drive shows up in BIOS, but not in Windows (including Safe Mode). Hrm... this is pretty frustrating. I've checked in Device Manager again of course, and they don't appear. The PIO/DMA thing was something that I thought of, but both IDE channels are set to DMA. I've tried disabling and enabling the IDE channel, rescanning for hardware changes, but all for naught.

Anything else to try? Is this certainly a software problem? It can't really be a driver issue, given that it can't even seem to find the drive... some other Windows issue? Is it impossible that it's a hardware issue if the thing is seen in BIOS?

 

the best way is to go Device Manager,
- uninstall the optical drive
- then restart to force WinXP to redetect it again.

 

Ah, but alas I can't see it in the Device Manager, just in the BIOS.

 

now that is strange, since you can see it in your BIOS... maybe the device (IDE Controller) is disabled (either in the BIOS or in Device manager).

try to see if you IDE controllers are enabled.

 

Yup, both are enabled. I've tried disabling and re-enabling the IDE controllers, just to see if that would cause the drive to show up, but alas, nothing.

It seems very strange (and quite frustrating) to me indeed.

Edit: Just for kicks I tried booting from the WinMCE disc, and that worked just fine. (It loaded all the drivers as it should, and then I just quit out of it.) So clearly the drive works and it's seated correctly... the problem lies somewhere in Windows (as usual). Hrm...

 

OK... I got a suggestion for you to test.

Disable the DVD drive in the BIOS... either by disabling the IDE controller (dont worry your harddrive should be using SATA) or the drive itself. Then startup Windows to let it not find it again... restart to BIOS, enable it again and then startup Windows again. Hopefully that would jump start Windows' Plug and Play thing.

 

OK, here's a potentially silly question... How exactly do I disable the thing in BIOS? That (and many other functions) seem to be locked out some how. Does the BIOS on the m570u prevent modifying those options for some reason? What do you need to do to change that?

Thanks again...

 

try a reformat of windows.....or...just get linux

 

Hah. Actually, that's what I've done... The reason I reinstalled Windows in the first place (right after getting the computer) was to repartition for linux.

I haven't yet tried reinstalling since I've had this weirdness w/ the drive, but I was kinda hoping to avoid that. Hmm....

 

hrmm....does the drive work in linux? i really think its just windows crap....like always...

 

Well, the most frustrating thing is the drive works in Windows installer if I boot from the WinMCE disc. Silly Windows.

 

hrm, i would try reinstalling windows...just really quick. if that doesnt work, then i would try to install linux (if it isnt installed already). assuming the drive works in linux i would install wondows from linux as a last resort....just to try it.... sorry this happened man.

 

you can try a repair-install of Windows, it will just re-do the software portion of the OS, its much simpler than re-installing from scratch.

 

Yeah, that's certainly worth a shot. Gophn, going back to disabling the drive/IDE controller in BIOS, how does one do that? Does yours lock that stuff too? There must be a way to unlock it... it says to contact system supervisor if you want to alter it, so there must be some mechanism built in, I would assume.

Thanks!

 

Yeah, the Clevo BIOS is actually locked. I was thinking about what to do on a desktop BIOS.

Although, you can physically pull out the optical drive (when the system is off). then turn on the notebook to let it know that the optical drive is not present, then turn if off, and put it back in. I have done that on some notebooks before.