My two CD/DVD drives are no longer recognized by the computer!

vbimport
#1

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello. I opened up my tower to change a Sata cable on the second hard drive and while I was in there, for some reason :rolleyes: I unplugged the IDE ribbon cable from the motherboard and replugged it. There are two CD/DVD drives connected to that cable and a media card reader. Both of the CD drives have power; they still open but they have disappeared from My Computer and they were not in the boot sequence.

Any idea of what I’ve done and more importantly, how do I fix it??? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

cs.

#2

Are you sure you have the cable pushed all the way into the motherboard connector?

And though it may seem like a stupid question on my part, did you have the power off while working in the computer?

You say you have two cd drives and a media card reader on one IDE cable???

#3

Kerry,
There are no such things as stupid questions . . . yes, the computer was unplugged while I was working on it. Now my turn for a “stupid question” LOL - the IDE plug on the motherboard fits either way. How do I know if it is upside down (although I’ve tried it both ways!) The media card reader must be seperate. I really am not excited about going back in there again - uggggh!
Thanks!
cs.

#4

The media card reader is probably on the floppy connector and so shouldn’t be a part of this.

The IDE cable connector that goes to the motherboard usually has a small raised section on the side of the plug. The connector on the motherboard should have a small slot where the raised section fits in. You might also notice that the IDE cable has one red wire on the edge of the cable (not all have this). That is the number one pin. The pin numbers will be silkscreened onto the motherboard…though that is a hard thing to see.

#5

Hi Kerry,

I’ll pull it apart first thing in the morning and take a look. If it’s not that, hopefully you could come up with more ideas :iagree: ??? LOL

Thanks for your help.

cs.

#6

[QUOTE=Kerry56;2186961]The media card reader is probably on the floppy connector and so shouldn’t be a part of this.

The IDE cable connector that goes to the motherboard usually has a small raised section on the side of the plug. The connector on the motherboard should have a small slot where the raised section fits in. You might also notice that the IDE cable has one red wire on the edge of the cable (not all have this). That is the number one pin. The pin numbers will be silkscreened onto the motherboard…though that is a hard thing to see.[/QUOTE]
Hi Kerry,
I pulled it apart again and I aligned the ribbon cable with the red stripe with the proper end (I could see a #2 and a #40) and made sure it was seated properly. I do not think this is a hardware issue. All I did was unplug it and replug it.
Is there somewhere to go in the OS to make it recognize the drives? This is driving me nuts.
Thanks for your assistance.

Thank you for the specific instructions in your message; it was clear to follow!!!
cs.

#7

Ok, go into Device Manager and see if you find anything there. You might try uninstalling the IDE controller in there, reboot and let the operating system find the “new” hardware. Your operating system in on a SATA hard drive yes?

If that doesn’t work, go into the bios and see if the cd drives show up there. This is usually done by hitting Del while booting up the machine. If they don’t show up in the bios, we’ve got serious trouble right here in River City.

#8

Hello again, Kerry, and thanks for sticking with me! I am upset about this; all I did was unplug the ribbon cable to the motherboard and replug it.

Did you want me to delete all of these? I thought you should look at it first!

Please let me know! :eek:

Thanks.
cs.


#9

Since I don’t know your setup, I’ll play it safe and tell you to delete the Secondary IDE Channel. But it might be the Primary.

I just don’t want you deleting your operating system controller. If it is on a SATA drive, neither of the IDE controllers should affect it. If it is on an IDE hard drive it should be on the Primary IDE Channel.

#10

As always, Kerry’s advice is right on.
If you’re still unable to fix this, you may want to try this little registry patch
[B]CDGone[/B].
I’ve used this patch in XP Pro and I have read where Vista users have used this patch, but I can’t swear to its behavior in Vista.

Scroll down to[B] Restore Missing CD Drive[/B].
Here’s the link:

http://www.aumha.org/regfiles.php

Good luck

#11

Hello Kerry,
The hard drive is a SATA so I should be able to delete the primary and the secondary. One stupid question: how do I do that? :rolleyes:

cs.

#12

Right click on the Secondary IDE Channel. It will give you the option to uninstall.

#13

If all you did was unplug and then reinsert the cable it’s probably just not being seen in the bios so just go there [diff setups for diff machines could be hold delete or f8 on boot up - check your manual for details] then force the machine to look for the drives [do this even if they show as listed] - my bet is that will do it!

#14

:bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow:

Hello Kerry and everyone else!!! I tried everything suggested above and nothing seemed to work - or one or two of the procedures worked enough to make it possible to go into the BIOS and see that the CD drives were OFF. Before you scream :eek: I checked that at least a dozen times over the last 24 hours and they were ON. I AM SURE OF THIS. That is why I think one of the other fixes did something to make this repair possible.

I am tempted to super glue the tower shut :a so I don’t mess with it, however, the reason I opened it in the first place was a problem with the second internal hard drive; two of the seven pins broke off and the hard drive is less than 3 mo old. Customer service is open tomorrow.

Kerry, THANK YOU! I am one step from the edge; I appreciate your sticking with me. To Maineman and RedSkywalker: THANK YOU for jumping in. Different suggestions at different times seemed to do the trick. I AM IN YOUR DEBT. :bow::bow::bow::clap::clap::clap::bigsmile:

Now, when I recover from this, can we go onto the original computer problem I mentioned in my first message? Don’t shoot!!!:slight_smile: It’s my nephew’s computer and it SHOULD HAVE BEEN EASY ENOUGH. I’ll never believe that again.

Thank you all and Happy New Year.

cs.

#15

Glad you got it working Citsme. Even if we never do figure out why. :slight_smile:

Let us know when you want to tackle the other problem. Don’t know that we can help with broken pins though.

#16

Again, Kerry, thank you for your help. I was going insane with this problem. I just don’t get it but as long as it never happens again . . .

I am calling Seagate’s Customer Service tomorrow morning to discuss the drive situation.

I started working on my nephew’s computer and it was looking good (thought I deserved a break by then) and now it’s back to square one.

I am going to post a new topic and then take a break from this madness.

Thank you so much.

cs.