No cd or dvd drive found?

Question

Can anyone help? For some reason my computer is not reading my drivers anymore. They don't show up in my computer info, and when I try to burn anything or run anything from these drives my computer keeps saying no drive found.
It was fine the other day, but now they are gone! What happened, and how can I fix it. I tried restore, but nothing changed.

Thanks everyone for all of the information. I tried eveything that each of you had suggested. Although I appreciate all the support, none of the suggestions resolved my issue. However, I was pretty impressed that when I finally called Dell for tech support, they tech walked me through many of the same things you all had suggested.
After much work I was able to get the drives showing again on my computer, and was able to read the drives, but still having trouble with using the dvd burning. It won't burn for some reason - I guess I will have to put another call into Dell. Thanks again!

Answer 1

Had same issue with a PC once...
If your PC runs Windows XP

Click on Start | Control Panel | System | Hardware tab
Click on Device Manager
Right click and Uninstall the CD or DVD drive
Reboot your PC

WIth any luck.. your computer will automatically detect and re-add your Drive back into Windows and it should work now.
If it still doesn't -- then your drive or IDE controller is probably bad.

The IDE controller is part of the Motherboard and could cost your $100 to replace

The CD or DVD drive can probably be replaced for about $30

Answer 2

Lets see. It's either a software issue or a hardware issue. Lets start with software first. Go to control panel/system/hardware/device manager and locate the entry for your drive. Click the "+" next to CD/DVD drives to show your drive. If it has a yellow exclamation point next to it, you might have a corrupted driver. Right click and uninstall. Reboot the machine and XP should recognize it and reload the driver. I don't think there are many drives that require custom drivers--XP catches most, if not all, of them.

If you don't see your drive listed, its time to consider a hardware issue. Power down the machine and unplug the power cable. Open the computer case and locate the CD/DVD drive. There will be a power cable and data cable for each drive. Some times, these things rattle loose. One at a time, unplug the power cable and plug it back in making sure its firmly seated. Then do the same thing with the wide ribbon cable. Unplug it from the drive and plug it back in--carefully so as not to bend any of the pins. Then follow the cable from the drive to the motherboard. Unplug and plug back in. Plug in your power cable and start it up.

After giving the machine a couple of minutes to boot up and XP to recognize the drive, give it a try.

If its still a no-go, its an unlikely possible that your bios somehow got set incorrectly. Different boards use different bios. Reboot your machine. During the initial self test, there is sometimes an indication on the monitor how to access the bios--usually by pressing the delete key or the F8 several times. If your not fast enough, the machine will continue to load windows and you will have to reboot again. When you access the bios, I caution you not to make any changes unless you know what you are doing. But thats not to say that you can't look around the various settings. Look around for some indication that the drive is "off". It might say "IDE 1" or "IDE 2". Might check your documentation first or the motherboard manufacturer website first.

If this doen't fix it, it might be time to upgrade your drive...especially since they are so cheap these days.

Answer 3

Control panel->system. Usually if anything is wrong that area will be expanded. Click on drives especially the ones with the mark on them. Click on get improved drivers. Let the wizard see if it can find what is wrong. I had to play around with mine to get it working again. To find another copy of a corrupted driver, browse (while the wizard is still up) to cabs, or system. Sometimes you have to get a fresh copy from your installation disk. The nice thing about the wizard browser is that the OK button highlights when there is a possibility of finding the right thing.

Answer 4

The best thing to do is to go to the manufacturers' website (like dell.com if you have a Dell). There, the website will have all the software and drivers that came with your computer and everything to get it back to normal after you download the cd/dvd drivers.

Answer 5

OK, this is worth a shot, I've seen it in a couple situations at work. These are the steps to follow.

Go to Start > Run
Type " regedit " in the box

A window will appear with folders. When you double click on them, they expand and show their contents.

Double Click on " HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE "
Double Click " SYSTEM "
Double Click " CurrentControlSet "
Double Click " Control "
Double Click " Class "
Then Single Click " {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} " This one will say " DVD/CD ROM drives " as the default on the right frame.

This one you single click, you do not need to expand it. When it is clicked, contents will appear on the right frame.

Delete both "UpperFilters" and "LowerFilters" if both show up. Restart your computer and it might just work. Email me if it does.

Answer 6

Get your abode windows disk out - it would want to ask for it . next uninstall the drivers AND the dvd rigidity. Now reboot the computer. it would want to immediately discover the rigidity and installation the drivers. If it doesn't, flow to "upload New Hardware" contained in the administration panel and save on with the guidelines there.

Answer 7

I think that your PC problem is the data cable of the CD or DVD - RW unit , replace it while the PC is unplugged then start it and I hope it's going to be alright .

Answer 8

Try doing a System Restore to a couple of days ago or whenever you remember it working last...

Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->System Restore

Cheers

Answer 9

shut down your system, pull-on the power cord, open your CPU, and replug your drives.

Answer 10

gee......dunno