Pls. Help - 716A eide drive not recognized in XP

[dlevans]

Greetings!

I was so glad to find this site. I had my Plextor 716A eide drive disappear overnight. Second time this has happened with a 716A. It is seen by my bios at startup and is listed in device manager (see screen shots) but that's it - cannot access in XP. I tried to uninstall / reinstall which had Windows find the hardware, but quit at the driver install telling me there was a "problem" and my hardware might not work properly. (ahem) Thanks Microsoft for that great bit of help.

So, I just finished installing the latest 925 Intel Chipset drivers - figured why not? Re-boot, no change. Then the ridiculous 45minute Plextor diagnostic using TDK disc - ejected after awhile which I gather means there was no problem. Atapi and power cables all good. So, can anyone shed some light here?

I did search the forum for sometime and found a few similar problems, but those drives were sata not eide.

Any help would truly be appreciated!

Thank You!

Danielle

---

Hi Again,

Forgot to add the bios is 1.10 Running XP Pro SP2. Motherboard ASUS P5AD2-E AMI bios 1005.002. 2gb installed.

Thanks...

D

[Cressida]

Welcome Danielle!

This type of problem is usually caused by a software/driver problem in Windows. The best solution is a clean format and install of your OS (including the latest drivers for your hardware), from a “slipstreamed” SP3 XP CD (which I recommend to anyone now that Service Pack 3 is available).

Less drastic (but hit&miss) measures would be:
-uninstalling all CD/DVD related software
-re-installing the IDE Channel with the burner on it (Uninstall in Device Manager and reboot)
-cleaning upper/lower filters in the Registry (do a Search, there’s may links here - I never had to do this myself, but I keep my Windows super-clean)

When you get that yellow exclamation mark next to the drive, there should also be an error code linked to the problem. Googling that error might help too.

Let us know how you get on, please.

[dlevans]

Cressida!!!

Thank You - Thank You! All I did was uninstall my Roxio 7 media center (which in itself was buggy and a pain) and rebooted, my drive was back!

I later tried an install of SP3 from Microsoft window update, but that hung up my pc - had to safe mode boot and restore to previous day. But, then lost my drive again and Roxio wouldn’t uninstall properly (as system restore put it back, but it was buggy)…

So…

I first had to use Microsofts’ Windows Install Clean Up - physically delete the Roxio files from my PC - then delete to registy keys as outlined here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/

Reboot again, success - again! Yea!

The last scenario wouldn’t have been needed had I not got over confidant with SP3 install.

Thank You very much!

While I’m at it - I’ve been trying to find a straight answer to 1 or 2 recommendations for top quality DVD/CD ROM drives - I’m leery Plextor’s new drive, but any ideas would really be appreciated!

Thanks Again!

D

D

[Cressida]

Hiya Danielle!

Thanks for reporting back. I see you did very well, sorry I mentioned SP3 to you (but it’s such a great opportunity to start with a clean slate, if you can integrate it into your XP setup CD first and then do a fresh install - unfortunately that option may no exist with some OEM PC’s recovery discs or partitions, in which case you’re stuck with an update like you tried to do it).

About new drives, Plextor still make the highly desirable “Premium II” CD-burner, but it’s rare and expensive. Their DVD-burners are now rebadged units and not very interesting, as the originals are often available for less. A similarly “top-quality” DVD-drive (as the Premium II CD-drive) doesn’t exist to my knowledge. At current retail prices, concessions have to be made, and manufacturers are probably concentrating most of their efforts on the newer Bluray drives with higher profit margins.

Currently recommended DVD-burners at CDFreaks are the Pioneer DVR-115/215 and Optiarc 7200(03)A/S (PATA/SATA respectively) - if you’d wish to stay with Plextor, the PX-810SA is a Pioneer DVR-212 rebadge, which is the predecessor of and similar to the 215 SATA. Myself, I stayed true to my first love and mostly use LiteOn drives (along with real Plextors of course).