# Does Not recognize cdrom drives



## RBtinytaz (Sep 3, 2004)

OK I'm trying to help out a friend here and her computer does not show any cdrom drives at all.She has windows xphome,..256 mem..They did work fine some time ago however I'm not exactly sure when that was. Now I unhooked all the cables and rehooked them up. They were all fine. The top one opens the door and a green light comes on but the bottom one the door got stuck so theres a yellow light on. But I can't install or uninstall anything for them cuz windows does not see them at all anywhere. Not even in the bios.Even if they were not working they should at least show up.I cannot figure this out. I did a system restore and went back six months but that didn;t help.It just shows her harddrive and floppy drive in my computer. Does anybody have any ideas??Any would be greatly appreciated..Thanks a bunch...Rita


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If they appear in Device Manager with an error code, try the fix below. If they don't appear in Device Manager at all, it's probably a hardware issue. In that case, check the cable connections on both ends. Also, see if they're recognized during the POST by the BIOS detection.

Fix for missing DVD/CD drives.

Create a text file with the following stuff in it exactly as below and name it FIXCD.REG

Double click on the file and say yes to the merge into registry question.

----------------------- cut after this line, contents of FIXCD.REG -----------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]
"UpperFilters"=-
"LowerFilters"=-

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdr4_2K]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdralw2k]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdudf]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UdfReadr]
------------------------------ cut before this line --------------------------------

It's possible you'll have to re-install cd burning applications after the fix, because this fix removes the filters that are causing the error from the registry.


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## RBtinytaz (Sep 3, 2004)

Thanks so much for thr reply, however I'm a little confused. Is that a fix if they show up w/errors? These two drives donot show up anywhere. Not in device manager, not bios duing any reboot or anytime, not in listed hardware. I did check the connectors on it but maybe I can do that again. So please let me know if I should try this text file since they do not show up anywhere at all...Thanks.soooooo much for your time..Rita Bartlett


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

OK, if they don't show up in Device Manager, this fix will probably not be the cure. If they don't show up during the POST or when you go into BIOS setup and look at the IDE devices, you have a hardware issue of some sort. Did anything change in the configuration? Have you tried booting from a CD to see if that works?


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## RBtinytaz (Sep 3, 2004)

Yes I did try booting w/ a cd but it wouldn't read it. I have no idea if any configuration was changed but I do know that at one time they both worked and was recognized. One of the doors got stuck and so when I went over to help with that I found out neither drive shows up..So is it possible since the one drive has a yellow light on it that it could cause the other drive to not be there? sorta a? I'm ata total loss with this one. I checked the connectors and should have disconnected the one drive but didn't. I thought the connectors was fine and connected right. I know she hasn't messed with any connections inside..Or could this just be a sign of future problems on the motherboard? Again thanks so much for your time and Ido appreciate it..I'll let you know if I figure it out..Rita


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

OK, now we're getting someplace. If one drive died, it could indeed make both disappear. Disconnect the failing drive and see if that allows the other one to be recognized. If so, the drive probably failed.


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## bearone2 (Jun 4, 2004)

"Now I unhooked all the cables and rehooked them up. They were all fine".

excuse me, but if the machine worked before and after unhooking/rehooking it doesn't work the connections aren't fine.
do you see whee i'm gong with this?

recheck where they connect to the mb and into the ide cables.

i keep the hd on the primary ide and the cd and burner on the secondary, one as master, the other slave.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

bearone2, apparently she unhooked and reconnected them and it made no change. It could still be a bad cable, but the fact that one shows up with an error indicates to me that perhaps one drive has failed and is killing the other one.


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## RBtinytaz (Sep 3, 2004)

OK maybe I'm confusing some of you. When my friend went to use her cdrom the door stuck and so therefore after that the light blinked yellow. The top one has always blinked green and the door still opens. But neither drive shows up. I'm on my way over now to unhook the one drive that the door stuck on. But at one time both her drives worked how long ago I do not know.I checked to see if maybe a cable has become loose to the mb but they were all fine. I also checked the cdrom jumpers..However we'll see if maybe one died and made the other a ghost. So I'll report back s soon as I'm home again. Thanks you guys. Didn't mean to confuse you guys......


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

The first thing is to try them one at a time, obviously starting with the one that appears to be alive.


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## RBtinytaz (Sep 3, 2004)

OK I went over there and unhooked the one cdrom and still nothing shows up. I couldn't stay long so I'm going back on Monday. I am going to first try to see if her cable is long enough to put the one cdrom w/the harddrive..And see if it shows up. But incase it doesn't I'm going to try to borrow another cdrom and see if by a million to one odds that they both died...But I'm still stumped as to why its not showing up. And so to get away from errors when she restarts we turned off Secondary IDE in bios. So thats all until monday..I'll keep you posted w/anything new..Thanks again for all your help and ideas..I really do appreciate it. Rita


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## bearone2 (Jun 4, 2004)

JohnWill said:


> bearone2, apparently she unhooked and reconnected them and it made no change. It could still be a bad cable, but the fact that one shows up with an error indicates to me that perhaps one drive has failed and is killing the other one.


very well could be a cable, cd or mb.

i've never seen an error regarding a cd in dm but have had them show as working properly but not work. 
i haven't experienced one cd killing the other one but have had many cd/burner failures.


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## RBtinytaz (Sep 3, 2004)

OK Unless we are talking about the yellow light that is on the cdrom itself I do not have any errors or messages about the cdrom. They just plain aren't there. But I was hoping to add the one cd to the HD and see if it will work because basically I don't think the IDE1 is showing up either. But if I go to bios and turn it on it just gives an error of IDE1 no devices press f1 to continue or f2 to enter set-up when its rebooted.So finally I turned it off in bios just to get around that error message when booting. So I guess I'll take over a cable tomorrow.Thanks again............Rita


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

When you go back, I'd suggest having a cable, a spare drive to test with, and any specifications for the drive that are installed, in case the jumpering is not clear on them.


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## wolfworx (Oct 2, 2001)

I am assuming that the two CD drives were connected to the SECONDARY IDE on the MoBo.

I have had the problem of a complete failure of the secondary IDE on the MoBom so neither drive connected to it would be recognized in the BIOS. It is a good procedure to test each drive by slaving it to the HD on the primary IDE. Make sure that the jumpers for Master/Slave are properly set. If rhe drive works on the Primary IDE as a slave, then try it aloe as a Master on the secondary. Use a new IDE cable if possible.


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## russzero (Aug 2, 2005)

hi .. sorry to poke my nose in .. just at the moment im having a media breakdown! but just noseing around.
Last week after trying to conect up a mp3 player to my winXP drive i had simular problem .. XP message>" *No cd drive installed on this machine!*"  .. i was positively bewildered .. as only a few days before i downloaded my Phone pics. I spent 2hrs pulling my hair out until i gave in & uninstalled XP back to 98Se ... reinstalled XP & apart from a few programs needed sorting .. the drive showed up !!!! while i was investigating wot the hell was going on .. i very nearly flashed the bios to upgrade the Burner software .. but because i had WIN 98 on my other drive i swapped them back & the cd drive was there & fine !!! so i doubted the XP ,s explanation of a faulty drive. Its a lot of messing to re-install the whole shooting thing .. but .. well i hope u find it something easier than i did.
Oh .. i did find a ? questionable hardware in the *device manager *as JohnWill has mentioned .. but to be honest i couldnt work out what i needed to do. 
Its very frustrating. If uve got a spare drive (as i have) its handy for testing certain bits of hardware ... just a idea .... good luck. if your friends not too far away it may be worth taking the drive & trying it on your machine. russ


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## RBtinytaz (Sep 3, 2004)

I was going to try to put it with the hard drive on the master but where her HD is and cdrom the cable was not long enough..BUT..I took over another cdrom and connected it and BAM there it was in my computer, So I then added her good one to the cable as a slave drive and BAM there they both were. Then I took my cdrom off and put her two together and BAm neither was there. So I guess one of her drives is killing them both., But I was wondering if it would have been a bad IDE is there anything you can do about that?A new MB maybe? OK I guess I have gotten to the bottom of this and Thank you all so much for all your help..........Rita


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If you end up some day with a bad IDE channel, you can buy a PCI IDE card to connect disks. Of course, you can also buy a new MB!


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## the1percent (Jul 8, 2007)

Thanks to all. I found this thread while looking for help with my CDrom disappearance. I too had two cdrom drives. I was thinking bad drive, but twice I was able to see both of them in My Computer, but they would disappear on next reboot. I removed the suspected bad drive and this did the trick. Thanks again as I never knew a bad drive would effect the good one. I am pretty good with PCs, but you learn something everyday especially when it happens to you.
thanks again and glad I joined..
1%


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