Cd drive not detected

Master - Slave jumper set incorrectly, I would think.

Mark Z.

Things to check:

• Ribbon cable the right way round, and pushed firmly home both ends

• Power cable connected to the drive

• Master/slave jumpers set correctly

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If the other posters' suggestions don't work, (ie checking the cable is secure and the right way round, checking the jumpers are correct etc) there's a couple of more things you can check. However, you need to provide more info.

Most importantly is it IDE (ATA), SCSI or USB? What motherboard do you have?

I'll assume it's IDE. Is it on the primary or secondary interface? Is it master or slave? Does it power on, ie does it eject or light up? Does it share the same cable as your hard drive? How many IDE/ATA devices do you have?

Does the BIOS list the CD drive as present during the PC's startup sequence? (the part where it lists the detected drives) Or is it just Windows that has the problem? Which version of Windows are you using? I assume you managed to boot off the CD drive and install Windows from it? If so, it's a driver issue, more than likely you need to install the motherboards chipset drivers. This was a fairly common issue with some pre-XP versions of Windows- the CD drive would work fine until the install was complete then it would disappear from Windows altogether.

Is the problem that the CD drive won't share the same cable as your hard drive? Some hard drives (usually older ones) are known to be awkward in this respect. Try your hard drive on the primary cable and your CD drive on the secondary cable, no other devices attached. Make sure the jumper is fitted on the master/slave link on the back of your CD drive. Also make sure the CD drive is fitted to the last connector on the IDE cable. If that works, then the problem and the solution are obvious.

Check that the cable is fitted correctly before going any further- the older

40 conductor cables didn't matter but the newer 80 conductor ones with the blue connector at one end are supposed to be fitted one way round only- the blue connector should be mated with the connector on the motherboard. If you have an old motherboard, try using a 40 conductor cable for the CD drive instead of an 80 conductor one.

If still no luck, given that you have changed both the CD drive and the cable and checked for power present, then the issue is likely to be with the motherboard. Check in the BIOS that both primary and secondary interfaces are enabled, and that they are set to auto detect both the drives and the parameters like transfer mode etc.

If still no luck, then it's possible there's a fault which can only be remedied by replacing the motherboard, though you could try flashing the BIOS as a last resort.. It is not unheard of for BIOSes to become corrupted and cause weird faults.

Dave

Some motherboards use the "Cable Select" mode, and require the right cable to work. I test the drives and cables in another computer because I have seen a lot of motherboards with one dead IDE port over the last year.

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Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

if its not detected and you know it works, I would look into some other issue. such as have you recently installed any music cd's special software to listen to the CD? such as a SONY/BMG cd? if so your computer was used to hide a rootkit on your system and sony is watching you. its been in the news alot. Sony had software install on systems without the users knowledge, this rootkit basically sent information to sony and it tracked what you were listening to. also trying to remove it improperly, can cause your drive to not be detected, as it screws with the upper and lower filter variables in the registry.

if no hardware issues solve the problem, I would look into this rootkit/virus as a possible cause.

Sony are quite rightly in hot water over this, and are facing lawsuits.

Dave

The driver is missing?

The drive shows up in the booting up thingy but doesn't appear in Windows Explorer.

It can detect a bootable Windows Me installation cd. However, when it reaches 66% of the installation process, a SUWIN error occurs.

Several months ago, this same error occurred and I solved it by changing the cable only.

I do not have an extra cable to spare this time but I am leaning towards it being a motherboard problem as Microsoft's KB on the SUWIN error stated it as one of the cause.