[lineinasong]

Alright, so I have an HP ZV5000 laptop with a CD-RW/DVD drive. I've had the computer since June and haven't had any problems. I've been able to rip/burn CDs, watch DVDs, install programs, etc.

Today I went to watch a DVD and suddenly, the computer won't detect the drive. I restarted once, and it detected it but when I went to play it, it didn't work. Restarted again, and now it won't even pick up the drive. I'm thinking it might be a side effect of the fact that my laptop gets toted about a bit (in a padded Targus backpack), but usually its only to and from my house to my dorm room every other weekend. The last time I used the drive was about a week ago and it was fine then. Any ideas of what could be the problem? I opened up Everest to try and see the statistics on an optical drive, but none was even listed. I also went into Device Manager and all that was listed was the hard drive, and it used to list the CD-RW/DVD drive there as well. The drive sounds like its beeping (one beep) whenever I put a CD in and close it. Any suggestions?

Could a virus cause this kind of thing to happen?

Edited by lineinasong, 21 November 2005 - 12:21 AM.

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Anybody have any suggestions? Could it be a loose connection or something?

[lineinasong]

Anybody have any suggestions? Could it be a loose connection or something?

[Neil Jones]

Most likely a loose connection OR the drive has died internally.

[lineinasong]

I'm beginning to think its definitely a loose connection...I brought my laptop back to my dorm today and I guess I had left the cd-r in it from when I was trying to get it to work at home. When I opened up my computer, it popped up as a drive with removable storage and let me access the CD. When i tried to put a DVD in, it no longer picked up the drive, and I went to put the CD-R back in, it wasn't picking it up either. Whenever I put a disk in though, the drive definitely beeps once, and i can hear it spinning the CD, but then it stops after a few seconds when I can't access it.

Does anyone know how I could fix this myself? I don't feel like paying to get it fixed but I've never opened up a laptop, only PCs.

Edited by lineinasong, 21 November 2005 - 11:36 AM.

[Thebinaryman]

Try the add new hardware wizard. For some reason hardware appears here somtimes when not in device manager. If the optical drive is listed there, try reinstalling the driver (just the windows default one), let windows search for a driver, and see what happens. Can you go into your bios? At the startup of your computer, usualy when it says the manufacturer logo, press del or f2 to get in. See if the bios can detect the drive, if it can, then its probably a driver issue, or a problem with the drive "reading media" not just a problem with the drive not "working". Hope this helps.

[lineinasong]

Alright, I tried the new hardware thing and it said it was already installed...I didn't have a disk in it and I went to check my computer and now it shows up under devices with removable storage. I put in several different discs and it read them all without a problem, I haven't tried to burn a CD yet though. Yesterday though it wasn't even showing up in device manager or on my computer at all which is why I don't understand why it started working when I didn't even do anything to fix it!

One other note - I heard the noise windows makes (i'm on XP now) when something that's connected is disconnected, and I noticed that had been happening a lot lately when i didn't connect anything or disconnect it. The CD-Drive was gone from My Computer, Add Hardware, and Device Manager....a few minutes later I heard the noise again and I checked and it was back in all three places. I don't know whats going on.

Edited by lineinasong, 21 November 2005 - 04:12 PM.

[Thebinaryman]

ahh, ive got it!, did you say your computer was a laptop? you must have made a power setting that saves battery life by shutting off the optical drive!, so when its not in use, it shuts it off to save power! try under the power options in control panel to find a setting that will get rid of this if you dont like it.

[lineinasong]

I checked the settings, and there's only a thing for hard disks, and I've never had this problem before and I haven't altered the power settings.

I just tried to use it again because I was switching CDs and my computer froze for about a minute, and now its not showing up in the Add Hardware as already installed. I also checked it with Everest while it was working and it showed up, and I just checked it again and now its not. I wish I could fix this.

[lineinasong]

Any other suggestions?

Last weekend, it let me watch a movie and burn a few CDs, and its been working pretty good this week. Today, I went to play the Sims 2, and it won't let me play it, nor will it detect any other CD i put in the drive, and its gone from Device Manager and the Add New Hardware wizard. Ugh.