PC doesn't see DVD and CD ROM...HAAALP!

[Dead Winter]

I'm running two computers here, and my old one is a 1.8 Gig Dell. It has worked great for the past six years, and now for some reason it doesn't see my dvd and cd roms. I've gone into the registry and deleted the upper and lower filters, I've tried re-installing drivers and firmware, I've checked the connections, reversed the connections because when one goes the other one will too, and I'm just about out of ideas.

The Device Manager and even the fucking BIOS don't recognize any kind of CD or DVD drive installed or even just connected. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Any advice or tips would be great.

 

[Shpongled]

Office Space that piece of shit!

 

[Lord Foul]

Are the drives powering up on boot? Possibly you have some bad leads coming from your PSU. Also check to see if you've somehow disabled any of the IDE channels in BIOS.

 

[Dead Winter]

Oh yeah the fuckers work like they're supposed to! They're not dead or anything. In fact, when you put something in the drives, they try to read them and spin but nothing happens. All the IDE channels in BIOS are up, but I just get this NOT INSTALLED thing where two weeks ago two drives were. I've checked all the cables and connections to the motherboard, wiggled, taken off and put back in place, etc. and still to no avail.

 

[JBroll]

Yeah, power is the first thing I'd check - power supplies hate you sometimes.

Jeff

 

[Dead Winter]

But would a power supply not work for just two peripherals? I've got two hard drives going into it as well and they work fine.

What should I look for in the power supply, though? I can hear it because the fans and everything are running. But then again, the drives WORK, they just don't interface with the PC for some reason.

 

[Lord Foul]

Another thought - I assume the drives are chained together on a single IDE ribbon master/slave style. Does your mobo have a spare IDE channel you could switch them to in order to rule out the particular connector on your motherboard? If you only have two, try switching with the HDD and see if the machine fails to find a boot device.

 

[Dead Winter]

That's a good idea, and yes, they're chained together on a master/slave setup. I'll probably just end up plugging in my external DVD drive via USB because I need those drives working.

It pisses me off because it's like some fucking little gnomes sneaked into my case at night and started fucking with the peripherals or something. I've tried just about everything I know of and I think I'm just gonna bite the bullet and use my external for now and buy ANOTHER new PC in October or so. It's so ghetto right now...I've got a LAN setup with my new computer and shared drives, so I have to use my new PC's DVD drive for the old PC.

I thought, "Why not install Diablo 2 and the expansion pack since I'm running the old computer with a 19" square monitor?" Did all that, Diablo installed, albeit very slowly, and then it got to Lord of Destruction and it wouldn't install the friggin' game for some reason. It sees what's on the disc from the new PC drive but won't install it. Goddammit.

 

[Lord Foul]

I think I have reached the point of leasing my gaming rigs. I want to replace them every two years anyway, so why purchase hardware that is destined for obsolescence and failure?

 

[Dead Winter]

You can lease them?

 

[Cat5Messiah]

What are the system specs? If the drives (or even one drive) don't appear in the system BIOS, that's really odd. Now, didn't you mention that you flashed your BIOS?

Also, when you speak of the Master/Slave IDE cable, are you meaning the twisted cable used for FDDs? I honestly have never seen a 40-pin IDE cable with the twist let alone heard of it. Have you tried setting the jumper on a drive to Master and then connecting only that drive with a standard 40-pin IDE cable then checking to see if it appears in the system BIOS?

 

[Dead Winter]

No the 40 pin is going to the motherboard as usual, and I've mixed and matched the twisted cable from the PSU with the drives because if one goes out, then so does the other if they're connected in tandem. But again, both of them work electrically and electronically. They're trying to read the disk but it's almost like the motherboard burned up or something only on the dvd/cd-rom drive connection. It's like they aren't connected to the motherboard, yet they are. It may just be that the 40 pin shit the bed or something and I need a new cable, but I've never heard of a 40 pin cable burning up without cause or signs.

 

[Lordlucid]

Office Space that piece of shit!

I'm going to have to agree with this statement.

 

[Shmu]

Paint your pc blue and throw it in the sea