Help- CD and DVD Drives have Disappeared!

[Tosh McCaber]

For no reason, my CD and DVD drives have competely disappeared from my system. Firstly from Windows Explorer, although they still appeared in the BIOS, and when I searched with SiSoft Sandra. The drive drawers also opened and closed. I then deleted the drives in Device Manager (they had yellow exclamation maks against them), and rebooted.

Now I can't find them anywhere! It goes from bad to worse! Thankfully, the rest of my system still works OK.

Any suggestions anybody??

[frostbite]

Could be a registry/virus problem?

Do you have a registry checker you can run?

Another thought - if they're both on the same IDE/ribbon cable, check the plug into the mobo.

[BOAC]

What have you done lately?
Which OS is it?
Do you have 'TweakUI' in the Control Panel?

[maxell]

if you are on xp look at This (http://www.aumha.org/regfiles.htm) page under other registry patches for restore missing cd drive or This (http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.php#problems) page

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks for the prompt replies- I've just re-booted again, and they have re-appeared in Device Manager, unfortunately, complete with yellow exclamation marks.

I don't think that it is a virus problem- I scan with AVG (updated daily), and the computer's got a clean bill of health there! I'm going to check connections.

[BOAC]

I doubt it is a connection unless you have been 'fiddling'!

What does a rt click on the drive /'properties' show?

[Tosh McCaber]

System- Win XP

BOAC- right clicked on the drive in Device Manager- "Windows cannot load the driver for this hardware- the driver for this device may be corrupt or missing".

I would reload my SP2 disk, but can't, due to no CD drive. I've looked on the MS site for a download for SP2- what a nightmare- the simple request for an XP SP2 download takes you- everywher and nowhere within the MS site! Can anyone give the URL of the page with it?

[timmcat]

Suspect a loose or faulty IDE cable.

If you are confident enough, remove the casing from the machine, and locate the ribbon cable which connects the motherboard to both the drives. Ensure it is located correctly (particularly the motherboard end) and check the cable for obvious damage.

Sorry - re-read the above. Now sounding like a corrupted Windows installation to me.

[BOAC]

Yes, but it would be far quicker to go to the drive maker's web sites for updated drivers.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx

[Tosh McCaber]

BOAC That's the easy page!- I tried following the next few pages, without success- SP2 just did not appear!

I've got TeakUI, but I'm not sure what to do with it- I'm going to see if downloading the drivers will do the trick.

Thanks,

Tosh

[BOAC]

TweakUI was only to check the drive letters were 'enabled' in the first place.

[Tosh McCaber]

I've looked at the driver sites- only firmware upgrades are available!

[Mornington Crescent]

Hi TMC

Have you tried restoring to a point before all this agony began? It is a good first port of call.

MC

[BOAC]

Tosh if restore does not work, can you tell me which drivers the 'reinstall' driver boxes are asking for and I will look for them?

[Conan the Librarian]

Might it be an idea to delete both drives in the device manager and reboot to let everything rediscover itself?

Conan

[Tosh McCaber]

The two drives are LG GDR 8161B DVD Player and Plextor CD-R PX121032A 32x Writer.

Thanks

[BOAC]

I have 2 drivers downloaded and on their way to your registered PPRune email address.

DRD-8160b101EDriver04.exe and

1210au110.exe

Hope they help!

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks to all. As usual, I am amazed at the help and Knowledge within this forum.

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks, BOAC, downloaded drivers, unistalled the drives ebooted, and- the yelow exclamation marks returned. I shall try a reinstall of XP2, (Thanks Mike) if that doesn't work , I'll try a system restore.

Thanks again to all.

[Mornington Crescent]

TMC

I would try a system restore before installing SP2

Good luck

MC

[Tosh McCaber]

Well, my local guru came round, tried quite a few things with no success. Finally did a Google query, came up with a Microsoft knowledge base help site, which indicated that the problem appears to have come about due to Easy Cd Creator being uninstalled, whioch corrupted a couple of registry files, which he then fixed-(I don't know how- beyond my knowledge base!)

I would not have been able to sort the problem myself. Thanks again to all- as usual, (my knowledge base has been slightly expanded yet again!)