[dynrat]

My dad's PC won't read the optical drives.

He has verified that the cables are all plugged properly and the lights blink on start-up so we know there is power to both of them. At first it was only one drive and he thought it had to do with dirty head. So he bought a cleaning kit at the local computer shop and ran it on both drives. Now the PC won't use either of them. It still shows the drive designations in Win Explore but won't access any info.

He thought maybe the cheapie ccleaning kit ruined the drives so he went out and bought a new Sony combo CD-RW/ DVD-ROM drive. When he went to put that in now Win Explorer doesn't see either of the optical drives new or old. There is no menu for optical drives in his device manager either so it is like the computer has completely ignored them. He tried to scan for new hardware through device manager and the light cycles on and off several times on the new drive but he gets no results other than that. He also tried running the add hardware function from the control panel and gets the same results nothing.

Any help here would be appreciated.

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If you look under microsofts troubleshooter it will tell you how to sort this out there. You will probably have to delete some registry keys though, which can be risky, so only do what it says. I had to do this on a friends computer when itunes removed any sign of a cd drive from his pc. An easier way would just be to use system restore, but if it doesnt help, microsoft definately has the answer.

[Keith Lemon]

If you look under microsofts troubleshooter it will tell you how to sort this out there. You will probably have to delete some registry keys though, which can be risky, so only do what it says. I had to do this on a friends computer when itunes removed any sign of a cd drive from his pc. An easier way would just be to use system restore, but if it doesnt help, microsoft definately has the answer.

[SRX660]

You might try this.

Almost to the bottom get the "Restore Missing CD drive" zip file. Read directions in the zip file.

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

SRX660

[dynrat]

Keith and SRX660. I tried both of the ideas you guys gave and got no results.

Any more ideas would be appreciated.

[Keith Lemon]

hey, first try this: ttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/320553/
i cudnt find the exact article i previously used so sry
Also if ur drive is being recognised in device manager you might wana uninstall any drivers then restart ur pc. i'l keep tryin to find that article tho

[SRX660]

Can you open the cdrom door? if so put a cd in the drive and go thru explorer and double click on the drivve. Report here what kind of error message you get or even if you get one at all.

SRX660

[dynrat]

hey, first try this: ttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/320553/
i cudnt find the exact article i previously used so sry
Also if ur drive is being recognised in device manager you might wana uninstall any drivers then restart ur pc. i'l keep tryin to find that article tho

Unfortunately they are not showing up in Device Manager.

[dynrat]

Can you open the cdrom door? if so put a cd in the drive and go thru explorer and double click on the drivve. Report here what kind of error message you get or even if you get one at all.

SRX660

The drive tray will open but the cd-rom doesn't do anything. The lights cycle a few times but no real response. The drives don't show up in Windows Explorer either so I can't navigate to them.

I'm getting close to telling him to take it in somewhere. Professional support is just so darn expensive.

[SRX660]

Can you get into device manager and see if there is a problem with the IDE controllers? a yellow or red question mark there says the drivers are lost or gone.

SRX660

[dynrat]

Can you get into device manager and see if there is a problem with the IDE controllers? a yellow or red question mark there says the drivers are lost or gone.

SRX660

It does not show any problems with the IDE controllers. I was able to find one of the drives (the 48X cd-rom) by using the "scan for hardware changes" function in Device Manager. Now I can see that one, but the Sony CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive still does not show. Whenever I use the Device Manager "scan for hardware changes" or Control Panel "Add/Remove Hardware" functions the light on the drive goes on and off several times like the computer is trying to access it. In addition despite the fact that the cd-rom now shows it still won't read a disc.

[Retired Tech]

Can you go to device manager, right click each drive, click uninstall, confirm, reboot

If no change then run this

This free tool can help diagnose and repair autorun problems in XP. It is a tiny download and doesn't require installation. Simply double-click the exe file, click a few buttons (OK, some options are a little cryptic) and you can change or repair your Windows XP autorun options.

http://download.micr...240/AutoFix.exe